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<html>
<head>
<title>"XXX" - guide entry</title>
<link rev="made" href="mailto:koreth@midwinter.com">
<link rel="parent" href="index.html" title="Comic index page">
<link rel="contents" href="index.html" title="Comic index page">
<link rel="previous" href="XXX.html">
<link rel="next" href="XXX.html">
</head>
<body>
<h1>"XXX"</h1>
<h2>XXX</h2>
<b>Contents:</b>
<a href="#SY">[Synopsis]</a> -
<a href="#BP">[Backplot]</a> -
<a href="#UQ">[Questions]</a> -
<a href="#AN">[Analysis]</a> -
<a href="#NO">[Notes]</a> -
<a href="#JS">[JMS]</a>
<br>
<b>See Also:</b>
<a href="index.html">[Index]</a> -
<a href="XXX.html">[Previous]</a> -
<a href="XXX.html">[Next]</a>
<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
XXX
</cite></blockquote>
<p>
Issue XXX (XXX, released XXX)
<pre> Writer: XXX
Premise: XXX
Penciller: XXX
Inker: XXX</pre>
<p>
<hr>
<p>
<h2><a name="SY">Synopsis</a></h2>
<H2><A NAME="BP">Backplot</A></H2>
<H2><A NAME="UQ">Unanswered Questions</A></H2>
<H2><A NAME="AN">Analysis</A></H2>
<H2><A NAME="NO">Notes</A></H2>
<H2><A NAME="JMS">jms speaks</A></H2>
<p>
<a href="index.html">[Index]</a> -
<a href="XXX.html">[Previous]</a> -
<a href="XXX.html">[Next]</a>
<h5>
Last update:
XXX
<br>
Maintained by
<a href="http://www.midwinter.com/~koreth/">Steven Grimm</a>
&lt;koreth@midwinter.com&gt;.<br>
<a href="/cgi-bin/feedback">Send mail</a>
if you have comments or suggestions.</h5>
</body>
</html>

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<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
When the Narn attack a Centauri colony, Londo and G'Kar nearly come to
blows. Meanwhile, raiders are attacking transport ships near the station.
</cite>
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Hampton,+paul">Paul Hampton</a> as The Senator.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Trencher,+Peter">Peter Trencher</a> as Carn Mollari.
</blockquote>
<pre>
Sub-genre: Action/intrigue
<a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/001">6.99</a>
Production number: 103
Original air date: January 26, 1994
Written by: J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by: Richard Compton
</pre>
<h3><a name="WF">Watch For</a></h3>
<ul>
<li> <a name="WF:1">The campaign issues</a> in the presidential election,
especially the pledges of the winner of the election.
</ul>
<p>
<hr size=3>
<p>
<H2><A NAME="BP">Backplot</A></H2>
<ul>
<li> <A NAME="BP:1">Earth's first contact with an alien race was with</A>
the Centauri. At the time, the Centauri claimed to be the dominant
species in the galaxy, a "huge empire" - but (according to
Garibaldi) this hasn't been true for almost a <EM>hundred</EM> years.
Furthermore, they tried to convince the Terrans that they were a
actually Centauri lost colony, which genetic analysis proved also
false.
<li> <A NAME="BP:7">All Centauri foresee the circumstances of their</A>
deaths in a dream. In Londo's dream, it is 20 years in the future
and he and a Narn have one another by the throat. When Londo
first saw G'Kar, he recognized him as the one from his dream.
<li> <A NAME="BP:2">According to G'Kar, the Centauri occupation of his</A>
homeworld was a "<EM>hundred</EM> year reign of terror."
<li> <A NAME="BP:3">The Sinclairs have been fighter pilots since the</A>
Battle of Britain. Jeffrey Sinclair's father taught him
everything he knows about flying and combat.
<li> <A NAME="BP:4">The Narn sold weapons to Earth during the</A>
Earth/Minbari war.
<li> <A NAME="BP:5">The first Mars colony was destroyed by an enemy </A>
sneak attack.
<li> <A NAME="BP:6">Ivanova's mother was a long-undiscovered telepath,</A>
never able to use her powers very well. When the Psi Corps finally
caught up to her, they put her on very potent psi-retardant drugs.
"Every day we just watched her drift further and further away from
us. The light in her eyes went out bit by bit. And when we
thought she could go no further, she took her own life." (cf.
<a href="016.html">"Eyes"</a>
and
<a href="017.html">"Legacies"</a>.)
<li> Londo has enough clout to get a member of his family assigned to an
agricultural colony rather than admitted to the military.
</ul>
<H2><A NAME="UQ">Unanswered Questions</A></H2>
<ul>
<li> <A NAME="UQ:0">There are</A> <A HREF="#BP">two references</A> in
this episode to a major event in the Centauri empire about a
hundred years ago. What happened back then?
(cf: <A HREF="013.html">"Signs and Portents"</A>, perhaps)
<li> <A NAME="UQ:1">How did Kosh get into his encounter suit so quickly?</A>
When Sinclair visits to ask about his position on the Ragesh 3
situation, Kosh's suit is in plain view but un-animated, the
"shoulders" at rest about two feet below the "head" (which they
normally encircle). Sinclair can see a large light moving
behind a translucent screen; Kosh's voice also appears to come
from behind the screen. When Sinclair turns his back to go, the
light flashes across him for a moment, and when he spins around
the encounter suit is just reaching its full height, with Kosh
as in it as he ever is.
<li> <A NAME="UQ:2">When Londo tells Garibaldi he couldn't possibly</A>
understand his situation, Garibaldi replies, "I understand
better than you'll ever know. I know it burns, I know the
things it makes you want to do." What was he referring to?
(cf: <A HREF="011.html">"Survivors"</A>, perhaps)
<li> <A NAME="UQ:3">How did G'Kar know about the Centauri decision to</A>
make no response to the Ragesh 3 attack?
<li> <A NAME="UQ:4">Why did Kosh attend the council session?</A>
<li> <A NAME="UQ:5">Is it part of a larger Narn plan to supply the</A>
raiders with weapons?
<li> <A NAME="UQ:6">What <EM>is</EM> Garibaldi's most favorite thing</A>
in the universe?
</ul>
<H2><A NAME="AN">Analysis</A></H2>
<ul>
<li> <A NAME="AN:1">From the things they say about each others'</A>
races at various times during this episode, neither Londo nor G'Kar
seem likely to strive for lasting peace:
<dl>
<dt> <B>Londo:</B>
<dd> "We should have wiped out your kind when we had the chance!"<br>
"On the issue of galactic peace I am long past innocence
and fast approaching apathy. It's all a game, a paper
fantasy of names and borders. Only one thing matters:
blood calls out for blood."
<dt> <B>G'Kar:</B>
<dd> "Your time has come and gone! It's our turn now. One night
you'll wake up and find our teeth at your throat."<br>
"I will confess that I look forward to the day when we have
cleansed the universe of the Centauri and carved their bones
into flutes for Narn children. 'Tis a dream I have."
</dl>
<li> <A NAME="AN:7">Londo was absolutely consumed by anger and hatred.</A>
He would have sacrificed peace and justice for personal vengeance.
(cf: <A HREF="012.html">"By Any Means Necessary"</A>)
<li> <A NAME="AN:2">The Narn attack a distant easy target with</A>
little military value. This must have been to test the Centauri
reaction - see how many ships they send in response, how hard
they're willing to fight to defend any part of their territory.
The Narn are forced to withdraw for non-military reasons, but they
learn a great deal about their enemies with that move.
<li> <A NAME="AN:3">Ivanova is surprised to hear Sinclair defend</A>
the honor of the Minbari.
(cf: <A HREF="000.html#AN:5">"The Gathering"</A>)
<li> <A NAME="AN:4">The EA is not in a strong enough position at home</A>
to take an ethical stance toward its neighbors. "The Earth
Alliance can't go around being the galaxy's policemen," says the
senator, "They want to fight it out, let'em. Just keep us out
of it - at least until after the election."
<li> <A NAME="AN:5">One of the most alien moments was watching Delenn</A>
try to understand Garibaldi's cartoons and popcorn. She is at
times a sage, and sometimes an innocent.
<li> <A NAME="AN:6">Sinclair claims he confiscated data crystals</A>
detailing Narn communications that confirm Londo's claims about the
situation at Ragesh 3. However, Sinclair has bluffed before (cf:
<A HREF="../synops/000.html#nanobluff">"The Gathering"</A>).
There is no proof that the crystals actually contained data.
</ul>
<H2><A NAME="NO">Notes</A></H2>
<ul>
<li> <A NAME="NO:1">Centauri have no major arteries in their wrists.</A>
<li> <A NAME="NO:2">Garibaldi knows about the habitual movements</A>
of the senior staff (Sinclair turning off his link during down
time at C&amp;C, Ivanova going to the bar after work).
<li> <A NAME="NO:3">Garibaldi has had prior experience with the</A>
raiders. ("I knew they'd be back sooner or later.")
<li> <A NAME="NO:4">Ships move to and from the "secondary jump point"</A>
through hyperspace via the primary.
<li> <A NAME="NO:15">Starfuries can take multiple hits from Narn heavy</A>
weapons without losing function.
<li> <A NAME="NO:5">Earth is ruled by a Senate and a popularly elected</A>
President, though it remains to be seen how much these positions
resemble those of today's USA. America, Russia, and China are
among the "states" in this democracy.
<li> <A NAME="NO:6">A Senate subcommittee can dictate Sinclair's vote</A>
on the council.
<li> <A NAME="NO:7">G'Kar's</a> <a href="#JS:spoo">spoo</a> was quite fresh
that week.
<li> <A NAME="NO:8">Sinclair attributes two aphorisms to his father:</A><br>
"The best way to understand someone is to fight him, make him
angry. That's when you see the real person."<br>
"Ignore the propaganda. Focus on what you see."
<li> <A NAME="NO.KS"><B>Kosh speaks:</B></A><br>
K: They are alone. They are a dying people.
We should let them pass.<br>
S: Who, the Narn or the Centauri?<br>
K: Yes.<br>
<li> <A NAME="NO:10">Shipping companies buy access to the jumpgates</A>
in bulk, then sell it on the open market. However, the
schedules are kept secret to protect against piracy.
<li> <A NAME="NO:11">All incoming ships log their routes through</A>
Ivanova's console.
<li> <A NAME="NO:12">A Narn weapons deal always includes an advisor</A>
who instructs the buyer in the weapons' use and insures they aren't
sold to a third party.
<li> <A NAME="NO:13">All Earth Telepaths are given three options:</A>
join the Psi Corps, go to jail, or <A HREF="#BP:6">take drugs</A>.
Unlicensed telepaths are heavily controlled in the name of
protecting public privacy.
<li> <A NAME="NO:14">Luis Santiago wins the presidential election</A>
over challenger Marie Crane. His platform included promises to cut
the budget and keep Earth out of war. His agenda for his coming
term includes cultivating a closer relationship with the Mars
colony and "preserving Earth cultures in the face of growing
non-Terran influences" (cf: <A HREF="007.html">"The War
Prayer"</A>, <A HREF="011.html">"Survivors"</A>)
</ul>
<H2><A NAME="JS">jms speaks</A></H2>
<ul>
<li> The first one-hour episode of the series, "Midnight on the Firing
Line," does a fair amount of re-introduction, for those who've seen
the pilot and need to be up to speed, and some introducing for those
who haven't. It is, however, largely an action-oriented story, into
which we weave the characterization. It manages to convey some of
the same info as the pilot, but in a *much* more dramatic fashion.
<p>
<li> No, the show isn't a year and a half late. As it is, it's less than
one year since the pilot aired. It was our initial hope, and my
initial belief, that we'd go straight into the series as soon as we
finished the pilot. But the studio, in its infinite wisdom, decided
that since they HAD a pilot, it kinda behooved them to air it and get
the ratings before committing to a series. So we then waited until
February for the airing, got the go-ahead to production around
April/May, began shooting in July, got a whole bunch of episodes in
the can, and now we're hitting the air. That is the sum and substance
of it.
<p>
<li> We'd always figured on going right to series, but once we had done
the pilot, the studio said, in essence, "Well, we've got a pilot,
we don't know if the market will sustain more than one space SF
series, no other SF series has done well lately...maybe we ought
to air the pilot first, and get the ratings, before committing to
a series." And that's what happened...much to our consternation at
first, but in the long run it was a blessing in disguise, because
that interim period allowed us to really do a lot to make the show
better.
<p>
<li> Approximately nine months have passed since the time of the pilot and
the birth of the series.
<p>
<li> I *love*
<a href="245.html">"Duck Dodgers."</a>
I have virtually all of the WB cartoons on
tape or disk, and from where I sit, that's wonderful stuff that'll
be around for a long, long time. No omens, just something I
thought would be fun. (Again, connecting past/present/future, sort
of our B5 theme.)
<p>
<li> "Midnight on the Firing Line" as a title was more my feelings about
the episode and the series. I knew we'd come under considerable
fire, figured it was cool.
<p>
<li> <EM>"...and if our future lies on the firing line, are we brave enough
to see the signals and the signs...."</EM> <br>
-- Harry Chapin<br>
Just a thought.
<p>
<li> Ah, but you're assuming that the Londo-strangling-scene is as it
seems to be; maybe it is, but maybe it isn't. You don't know the
context yet.
<p>
<li> Down the road, we will be seeing more of Londo, and his people, and realize
that they aren't as human looking as they first appear.
<p>
<li> The Raghesh 3 claim is only about 20 years old; the Centauri came to
Narn over a hundred years ago.
<p>
<li> You're correct in your appraisal of the "coincidences" in the first
episode. Upon finding that Londo's nephew was there, they would of
course trot him out to try and undermine Londo's credibiltiy (you'll
note that G'Kar made special mention of this, as if to say, "Is the
Centauri ambassador calling his own nephew a liar?"). It'd be the same
thing if the son of an American ambassador was on-hand when hostages
were taken. As for the choice of the attack's location...Londo wanted
his nephew "far away from all this." Someplace safe. A fairly safe,
mundane place is not going to have a major military presence...and
hence is a perfect target for attack.
<p>
<li> RE: the spotlights, we'd figured that since the transport had been freshly
attacked, there'd be debris all over the place, and lots of particulate
matter which would show up in the light.
<p>
<li> Quick replies to your questions: Spoo is. What else can one say
about spoo?
<p>
The Centauri station actually was rotating, as I recall, it's the
camera angle that I believe doesn't showcase it as well as it might.
<p>
The scanners on the Starfuries detected no movement, no atmosphere,
no signals, no warmth of bodies.
<p>
The lights on the fighters during the examination of the rubble were
visible due to particulate matter spewed out during and after the
attack.
<p>
<li> What is spoo? Spoo....is.
<p>
(Spoo is also Oops spelled backward.)
<p>
<li> <a name="JS:spoo">Spoo</a>
is/are (the plural of spoo is spoo) small, white, pasty,
mealy critters, rather worm-like, and generally regarded as the
ugliest animals in the known galaxy by just about every sentient
species capable of starflight, with the possible exception of the
pak'ma'ra, who would simply recommend a more rigorous program of
exercise. They are also generally considered the most delicious food
in all of known space, regardless of the individual's biology, almost
regardless of species, except for the pak'ma'ra, who like the flavor
but generally won't say so simply to be contrary.
<p>
Spoo are raised on ranches on worlds with a damp, moist, somewhat
chilly climate so that their skin can acquire just the right shade of
paleness. Spoo travel in herds, if moving a total of six inches in
any given direction in the course of a given year can actually be
considered moving. They stay in herds ostensibly for mutual
protection, but the reality is that if they weren't propped up against
one another, most of them would simply fall down. They do not howl,
bark, moo, purr, yap, squeak or speak. Mainly, they sigh. Herds of
sighing spoo can reportedly induce unparalleled bouts of depression,
which is why most spoo ranchers wear earmuffs even when it's only
mildly cold, damp, wet and dreary outside. If there is any
life-or-death struggle for dominance within the spoo herd, it has not
yet been detected by modern science.
<p>
Spoo ranching is one of the least regarded professions known.
Little or no skill is required, once you've got a planet with the
right climate. You bring in two hundred spoo, plop them down in the
middle of your ranch, and go back to the nearby house. Soon you've
got more. When it comes time to cull out the ones ready for market
(the softest, mealiest, palest, most forlorn-looking spoo of the
pack), little physical effort is required since they're incapable of
rapid movement without falling over (see above). They do not resist,
fight, or whine; they only sigh more loudly. When spoo harvest time
comes, the air is full of the sound of whacking and sighing, whacking
and sighing. Even an experienced spoo rancher can only harvest for
brief periods of a time, due to the increased volume of sighing, which
even the sound of whacking cannot altogether erase. (also see above)
Some have simply gone mad.
<p>
Spoo are the only creatures of which the Interstellar Animal
Rights Protection League says, simply, "Kill 'em."
<p>
Fresh spoo (served at an optimum temperature of 62-degrees) is
served in cubed sections, so that they bear as little resemblence as
possible to the animal from which they have just been sliced. Spoo is
usually served alongside a chablis, or a white zinfandel.
<p>
Further information on the care, feeding, eating and whacking of
spoo can be found in the second edition of the Interstellar Guide to
Fine Dining.
<p>
<li> Re: your desire to make and eat spoo at home...depends on whether or
not you ever want to have children later....
<p>
<li> At the point in which we join the tale of the last of the Babylon
stations, *everything* is in a state of flux...one government is on
the rise, another is declining, Earth is taking some new and disturbing
directions...so yes, they all feel there is a change coming. It's a
little thing, but we keep it alive to keep a sense of something moving
on a web, and each movement makes the whole thing shake just a little.
<p>
<li> Re: the "last" of the Babylon Stations...y'all might want to bear
in mind the syntax of the narration. It speaks of B5 in the *past
tense*. "Bablyon 5 WAS the last of the Babylon stations...it WAS
the dawn of the third age of mankind." The narration is the voice
of future history, the storyteller, long after the fact, spinning
for us the tale of the last of the Babylon stations.
<p>
<li> I never said it was an isolationist president. The reporter doing
the commentary at the election talked about preserving earth culture
in the face of growing alien influences, which isn't quite the same
thing as cutting off trade agreements.
<p>
<li> You'll get a pretty good glimpse into why Sinclair jumps into a
fighter any chance he can get in "Infection." Part of it is to
escape from stuff...the other goes much deeper, and much darker....
<p>
<li> Here's what I find curious (not necessarily in direct response to
anything you said, but in general on this topic)...is that when
Ivanova makes her remark to Garibaldi about snapping his hands off at
the wrists, many people have assumed that she was insulting him,
berating him, being bitchy, truly disliking and threatening him.
<p>
But the same words, put in the mouth of another male, wouldn't have
drawn that reaction, and would've been classified under, "kidding
around" or affable sarcasm.
<p>
Which is exactly what it is in this case. In this place and this
time, they're comfortable enough to mess with each other without it
being taken seriously (among these characters, that is). There are
times they kinda like to phuque with each other a bit, justfor the
hell of it, as comrades will sometimes do. ("Babylon Squared" has a
great example of Sinclair and Garibaldi messing with Ivanova.)
<p>
<li> Sinclair's line, "Cut acceleration," was in regards to forward
momentum, so he could more easily spin the fighter around.
<p>
<li> RE: the Raider ships...they turned by a less effective system of
thrusters put in here and there, not nearly as powerful as the
systems used by the Starfuries. The reason -- verifiable by the
shape of the Raider ships -- is that Raider ships are handicapped by
the fact that they're made to function both in space *and* within an
atmosphere (hence the aerodynamic wing shapes), which gives it
something of a problem when dealing with the Starfuries, which are
made ONLY for fighting in space, and are most ideally suited to it.
The Raider ships make compromises for greater utility, which is
generally okay unless they run into superior forces of ships designed
for spaceborne combat.
<p>
<li> The symbol Talia wears isn't a Link or any other kind of
communications system; it is *strictly* a form of identification,
tagging her as a telepath and a member of the Psi Corps. It serves
no other function.
<p>
<li> Correct, Christopher Franke designed Kosh's voice.
<p>
<li> That the Centauri *claimed* that we were a lost colony is not the
same as indicating that we *believed* them.
<p>
<li> I like it when people lie in television, and we find out about it
over time. The "lost colony" routine was one such. At one point,
Garibaldi confronts Londo with this as reason for why he doesn't
trust the Centauri. Londo shrugs it off as a "clerical error."
There will be a few points in the series when we'll get information,
and we'll buy into it...and discover after a while that that
character bald-facedly lied to the other character (and, by proxy,
to us). And naturally there will be consequences to this....
<p>
<li> In "Midnight," Sinclair is really not given a chance to show his
character, since it's basically a reintroduction to the series, and
there is a lot to cover. He functions throughout the episode only in
his official capacity. In other episodes, you'll get to see some very
different sides to his character, particular in "Parliament of
Dreams."
<p>
<li> Re: Sinclair getting into a fighter...there were a number of reasons
for this, one of which being he wanted a good reason to avoid being in
on the counsel vote, given his marching orders. But more than that
...I would point out that this isn't Star Trek, and Sinclair isn't
Picard; he is first and foremost a pilot. He loves to get into a
fighter and take it out He's a fighter. That's when he is most at
ease. That's what his character *is*.
<p>
At the same time, however, there are consequences for that kind of
behavior, as you point out. And there are deeper reasons for what he
is doing than even he want to admit. Tell you what...table that
aspect until after you've seen the last part of "Infection," which
deals *with this exact issue*.
<p>
<li> My thought, at the time, was that if we play the reality of this for
a moment, probably *all* of the ambassadors have some kind of weapon,
smuggled in via diplomatic pouches. Garibaldi and Sinclair know
they're there...question is, is it worth starting a diplomatic incident
over, as long as they're not being used? Garibaldi is saying, in
essence, "Okay, you know it's there, and I know it's there, but now
you've made a point about it. Lose it or hide it, or I'm going to
have to charge you, and we're BOTH going to be up to our ears in it."
If Garibaldi confiscated it, there'd be a whole diplomatic hassle...
and Londo would just have another one sent to him via diplomatic
pouch.
<p>
<li> It's interesting what we can read into faces...in Delenn's reaction,
I saw concern, angst, but not that she believed the story. That
certainly wasn't the intent of the scene, or the script...faces are
interesting things. As for the rest, you're right; not everyone wants
to do the Right Thing For The Right Reasons. Some would prefer not to
get involved. So some might want deniability, want a reason not to go
up against the Narns, or have sold out their votes. A human looking
at that screen could tell that the person was being coerced...but what
about the other alien races, to whom a downcast face could be a sign
of joy? In any event, suspicion is one thing, but *proof* is another,
and the legal system works on *proof*. Nothing could be done until
they had the proof that Sinclair got at the end, and chose to use
behind closed doors to the same effect.
<p>
<li> You may think it was obvious that the nephew was reading at gunpoint,
and in fact, he was...but thinking something or suspecting something
isn't the same as proving it. Londo could say, "He was reading at
gunpoint!" And G'Kar could say, "No, he wasn't." Where do you go
from there? (And, in fact, that's *exactly* what Londo said...only
to have G'Kar deflect it.)
<p>
Re: why Londo didn't show the clips...at this point, there's not any
quesion in anyone's mind about the attack taking place. The Narns
say they were invited in to help quell internal strife. That the
events took place isn't at issue; it's *why* and whether or not they
were invited in. (As with Germany in WWII indicating that some
places "invited" them in.)
<p>
Had Sinclair shown the evidence, it probably would've just hardened
G'Kar. Also, most politics is back-room dealing. You do this in
public, and you make a terrible enemy who'll strike back as soon as he
has a chance. Let him have his dignity, save face, BUT get what you
want, and there's room to maneuver in future. It's the difference
between being a punch'em-out hero, and someone who has to be
diplomatic, within limits.
<p>
<li> Sinclair did not -- repeat, did NOT -- "tell Ivanova to defy Earth's
orders and deceive the council." He set up a situation in which he
would say that he was unable to catch up with her and pass along the
Senator's instructions before he had to leave. Her line would be
that "The Commander never told me," and he would back this up. (And
that he would hedge the truth this way is hardly "perfect.")
<p>
Defying the Senator's orders would be telling them that the vote will
NOT be made as ordered. That never happened.
<p>
<li> In "Midnight," Sinclair had to be pretty much in command mode all
during the episode as a character, so that influences the result. But
in later episodes, we get him out of those situations, out of uniform,
and into other settings where he can be more relaxed. So that's
coming, and you'll see it *very* early on in the first season.
<p>
<li> Yeah, the Sea Witch is the one that rotates and fires at one of the
Raiders. It's a woman's face in a green and blue background.
<p>
<li> As a matter of fact, in a couple of episodes you'll see a photo of
the Earth Alliance president. The photo itself is of Doug Netter, my
associate on the show and fellow executive producer. (The woman
running against the incumbent president in the election featured on
"Midnight" is played, in photo, by our wardrobe designer, Ann Bruice.)
<p>
<li> Yes, Vir is very obsequious in "Midnight." That's done in order to
give his character somewhere to go, as gradually he begins to stand
up to Londo and talk back.
<p>
<li> Re: Vir...that was the first episode filmed with his character, and
he wasn't directed as well as he might have been. We pulled him back
a lot in later episodes.
<p>
<li> Vir calms down. Trust me.
<p>
He even manages to nail Londo from time to time...as he does when
Londo suffers a rather nasty hangover in "Born to the Purple."
<p>
<li> If there's anything about "Midnight" that I would change...ehh...
that's a tough question to ask any producer or writer. I can't think
of anything I've done that I wouldn't want to go back and tweak. The
only real drawback we had was that we were still building sets as we
filmed our first few episodes, so we didn't have access to all of the
full range of sets. Not that we really needed them, the story works
fine in the sets we had, but we could've moved one or two shots around
into different sets just for variety.
<p>
But aside from general tweaking, I don't think there's really
anything I'd change in it. My problem is that I'm too close to it,
and there are a number of episodes we shot afterward that blow it
right out of the water in terms of quality, production values and the
rest; I'd have to say that my favorite shows to date, in order, would
be The Parliament of Dreams, Mind War, And the Sky Full of Stars, Soul
Hunter, Born to the Purple, Midnight, Believers, Infection, The War
Prayer, Survivors and Grail. Chrysalis, which we're shooting now, will
probably take over the Favorite #2 spot from Mind War. We're fighting
to make every episode better than the one before it.
<p>
We're going to have a brass plaque put up here in the offices one of
these days, before we finish, saying, "If you're not here to kick ass,
get out."
<p>
<li> What you and the others seem to be pointing out is what I've been
trying -- imperfectly, as best I can -- to communicate for some time.
In the case of "Midnight," can you follow that show and enjoy it
absolutely on its own terms? I believe that is the case. There's
another level there, the "little clues and hints" you mention, which
will just skate past most casual viewers and not in any way interfere
with their viewing of the episode...but if you're paying attention,
and you catch them, it adds a new level. The more you see, the more
you begin to perceive that second level. It's a cumulative effect
that doesn't diminish the single episodes as stand-alones.
<p>
<li> (Lost the last paragraph of my message.) In any event, what I'm
striving for is the idea that you can watch the episodes for the
character stories, OR the story arc, OR the individual stories, OR
all three at the same time, all in the same exact episodes. You can
get out as much as you're willing to find.
<p>
It's a very weird kind of writing...but at least on this end, it's
kinda fun, actually.
<p>
<li> I agree, most of the plot lines are tied up pretty well (except for
the telepath issue introduced at the end, which comes back at us
again...as does, incidentally, the Raghesh 3 incident and other
stuff). In responding to some of the criticism of the pilot, I tried
to make this one far more self-contained. Which is why I much prefer
"Parliament," "Mind War" and "Soul Hunter" over "Midnight."
<p>
<li> Did we save anything for the rest of the season? Lemme put it to you
this way...you ain't seen *nothin* yet. "Midnight" makes just about
everything done before for TV look lame...but there's stuff coming
down the pike that'll make "Midnight" look pale by comparison. With
each show we get better, we learn more, and we can *do* more.
<p>
<li> In the teaser scene you refer to in "Midnight," you've got a couple
dozen fighters coming in alongside about 3-4 motherships (or capital
ships, either term will suffice). We've always said that big ships
can punch through and form their own jump points. That's how the
jump gates get there in the first place: a big ship comes through, on
its own, and leaves behind a jump gate. There's no contradiction.
One (or more) of the big ships was creating the point of entry as it
went.
<p>
<li> During the con appearance, Jerry told a story that *I* hadn't heard
before. There's a scene in the script "Midnight on the Firing Line"
in which Talia (Andrea) goes into a transport tube, finds Garibaldi,
and asks some questions about Ivanova. They rehearsed it several
times, this being Andrea's first time on the set, and filmed one
take. She comes down the hall, comes to the pen...and Garibaldi's
pants are down around his ankles. Needless to say, that shot did
NOT end up in dailies....
<p>
There are days I think -- between Jerry, Harlan, me and some others
involved on the show -- we ought to name this Loose Cannon
Productions....
<p>
<li> Behind-the-scenes humor: because it had been so long since the pilot,
it took a few of our actors a bit of time to get back into their
characters, to find the characters' "fingerprints" for lack of a
better term. This is quite understandable given the long waiting
period. When he needed to find his character for a scene, Peter
Jurasik mentioned that he would just stand up straight and yell,
"MISter GariBALdi!" and he'd be right back in character. Sort of
the B5 version of "Shazam!"
<p>
Minus the lightning bolt, of course.
</ul>
<HR>
Originally compiled by Matthew Ryan <i>mbr2@kimbark.uchicago.edu</i>

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<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
Delenn is in danger when a soul hunter, an alien who captures the souls of
the dying, arrives at the station.
</cite>
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Sheppard,+Morgan">W. Morgan Sheppard</a> as Soul Hunter #1.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Snyder,+John">John Snyder</a> as Soul Hunter #2.
</blockquote>
<pre>
Sub-genre: Suspense
<a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/002">7.05</a>
Production number: 102
Original air date: February 2, 1994
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Jim Johnston
</pre>
<h3><a name="WF">Watch For</a></h3>
<ul>
<li> <a name="WF:1">The Soul Hunter</a> mentions the death of someone
to Sinclair. That name will come up again.
</ul>
<p>
<hr size=3>
<p>
<H2><A NAME="BP">Backplot</A></H2>
<ul>
<li> <A NAME="BP:1">The soul hunter of this episode has visited</A>
Earth before.
<li> <A NAME="BP:2">Minbari are trained from childhood to protect their</A>
souls from soul hunters.
<li> <A NAME="BP:3">The soul hunter had a unique perspective on a</A>
significant event in Minbari history:
<BLOCKQUOTE>
[to Sinclair] "Minbari: jealous, selfish, private. We have
saved only a few - very rare. The rarest of all, their leader
Dukat, dying; your fault, your war; the pinnacle of Minbari
evolution. We came, I, others. They made a wall of bodies to
stop us! He died. And his dreams, his ideas - all that he was,
all that he could ever be - gone... wasted... jealous..."
</BLOCKQUOTE>
Later he recognizes Delenn from the Grey Council, which was
responsible for stopping him.
</ul>
<H2><A NAME="UQ">Unanswered Questions</A></H2>
<ul>
<li> <A NAME="UQ:1">Why do all races but humans know about soul
hunters?</A>
Since they all share the Minbari's fear of them, do most of them
share the <A HREF="#AN:2:2">Minbari belief in reincarnation</A>?
<li> <A NAME="UQ:2">Why are so many non-humans</A> <A HREF="#NO:2">moving
to
Earth</A>? They must face a fair amount of prejudice there.
(cf: <A HREF="007.html">"The War Prayer"</A>)
<li> <A NAME="UQ:3">What are the "certain classes" of Minbari in which</A>
Delenn says soul hunters have always taken a particular interest?
<li> <A NAME="UQ:4">"Your fault, your war," says the soul hunter to</A>
Sinclair, recounting <A HREF="#BP:3">Dukat's death</A>. Was he
referring to humans in general, Sinclair in particular, or Dukat?
<li> <A NAME="UQ:5">"If only you could see," says the soul hunter to</A>
Franklin. Apparently he can actually observe the soul's
departure from a dying body. Later we see, possibly through
Delenn's eyes, a blue wispy something escape as she breaks a
soul vessel. Does this mean that Minbari too can see souls?
<li> <A NAME="UQ:6">With a glimpse into Delenn's soul, the soul hunter</A>
exclaims, "You would plan such a thing? You would <EM>do</EM>
such a thing? Incredible." He's had a long history with the
Minbari - what would so surprise him? (Revealed in
<a href="022.html">"Chrysalis"</a> and
<a href="024.html">"Revelations"</a>)
<li> <A NAME="UQ:7">Recovering in Medlab, Delenn says to Sinclair,</A>
"I knew you would come. We were right about you." Clearly, the
Minbari have made predictions about him. However, Sinclair
didn't really prove anything about his character by rescuing
Delenn - someone else could easily have been the one to find her.
Perhaps he's just fulfilled part of a prophecy, thereby
confirming his role in it.
(cf: <A HREF="005.html">"Parliament of Dreams"</A>)
<li> <A NAME="UQ:8">Combining the above questions, does Delenn's</A>
incredible plan involve the Minbari predictions about Sinclair?
<li> <A NAME="UQ:9">As the soul hunter himself challenged, why is one</A>
of the great Minbari leaders acting as their ambassador on
Babylon 5? Sinclair is now wondering the same thing.
</ul>
<H2><A NAME="AN">Analysis</A></H2>
<ul>
<li> <A NAME="AN:1">Delenn meets Sinclair just as he's going to check</A>
out the injured pilot, and offers to help him ID the fellow. She
has a knack for being at the right place at the right time.
(cf: <A HREF="../synops/000.html#delenn-timing">"The Gathering"</A>).
<li> <A NAME="AN:3">Sinclair did not call for backup when he</A>
encountered the soul hunter, even though there were four others
nearby searching for Delenn. He has a tendency to put himself into
dangerous situations. (cf: <A HREF="004.html">"Infection"</A>)
<li> <A NAME="AN:2">During this episode there are three different</A>
stories told about the soul. Sinclair heard all three, and doesn't
know which to believe. All he knows is what he saw.
<dl>
<dt> <A NAME="AN:2:1"><B>Franklin:</B></A>
<dd> There is no soul that survives the body. With advanced
technology, he allows, one could preserve a record of
someone's personality, but death is death.
<dt> <A NAME="AN:2:2"><B>Delenn:</B></A>
<dd> All sentients have immortal souls. When a Minbari dies its
soul merges with the souls of other dead Minbari. These
are
recycled into future generations, so as individuals advance
their own souls, the Minbari as a whole advance.
<dt> <A NAME="AN:2:3"><B>soul hunter:</B></A>
<dd> All sentients have <em>ephemeral</em> souls. When a person
dies, the soul expires into oblivion. However, soul
hunters
have a prescient attraction to death - if they so choose
they
can capture and preserve a soul "for the greater good" at
the
moment it leaves the body. They carry with them a bag full
of
the souls they have "saved", each in its own glass vessel.
</dl>
For a Minbari, the soul hunter's method of preservation is true
death, for it cuts a soul off from the rest and diminishes the next
generation; for a soul hunter, the true loss is
<em>uncollected</em>
souls.<br>
These are completely irreconcilable belief systems.
</ul>
<H2><A NAME="NO">Notes</A></H2>
<ul>
<li> <A NAME="NO:1">Dr. Franklin arrives on the starliner Asimov, which</A>
we see again later.
<li> <A NAME="NO:2">Dr. Kyle is on his way to a new assignment working</A>
with the president. He's much needed there what with "so many
aliens migrating to Earth," as Franklin puts it.
<li> <A NAME="NO:3">The average human lifespan is almost 100 years.</A>
<li> <A NAME="NO:4">Ivanova conducts a simple funeral with these words:</A>
"From the stars we came, and to the stars we return, from now
until the end of time. We therefore commit this body to the deep."
<li> <A NAME="NO:5">The soul hunter tells Sinclair his opinion of the</A>
Minbari: "pale, bloodless, look in their eyes and see nothing
but mirrors, infinities of reflection..."
</ul>
<H2><A NAME="JS">jms speaks</A></H2>
<ul>
<p>
<li> Well, I just saw a cut of the episode that's going to air second, the
one guest-starring Morgan Shepherd. Oh, man...on the question of
Did you learn anything from the pilot...this thing *moves* like a
sumbitch. It's a very unusual, very *creepy* episode in many ways.
And filled with character stuff...and a good bit of background about
some of our characters rendered in active ways. I'm really dying to
see what people think of this one when it airs. It manages to take
what would normally be considered a science *fantasy* issue, and deal
with it from a science fiction perspective, without compromising on
the latter at all. It's a very, *very* strong episode.
<p>
<li> <EM>Who's right, the soul hunter or the minbari?</EM><br>
Yes.
<p>
<li> We leave the question open: Is he actually taking souls, or simply
encoding the personality matrix and, in essence, creating an artificial
version of the individual's personality?
<p>
<li> The various characters take their own stands, which vary. Franklin
only considers the possibility of cloning someone's personality
matrix, for instance. And again, it depends on how you *define* soul.
The Soul Hunter defines it not as something supernatural, but as the
collection of thoughts, personality, feelings and the very essence of
the person that dies with the body. That definition is broad enough
to encompass just about anything. Then you get into the more
specific ideas of what a soul is.
<p>
One person at a post production house we've used has indicated that
he has "theological problems" with working on that episode; not
because it's *against* what he believes -- he's worked on horror
movies and stuff with devils and the like -- but because it takes a
point of view he doesn't much like...in that he has to sit and defend
the whole *context* of his ideas...meaning, it's making him think.
He can just poo-poo the stuff against what he believes, support what
he does believe in...but he isn't quite sure where this show comes
down, or where it makes *him* come down. I've had any number of
problems with people on a show before, but this is the first time
I've run into a theological problem.
<p>
<li> What the soul was, who's right, and even whether this is SF or
Science Fantasy, was it explained enough to merit one over the other
... how can I put this...? I don't want to spoon-feed stuff to
people. What I want is not to hit someone with a MORAL, or a message,
or "This is what a soul is," or "This is what makes it an SF series,"
I want to start discussions. Arguments. Preferably a bar fight or
two.
<p>
We present an issue. Here are the sides. Now...what do YOU think
about it? I want this show to ask, "Who are you? Where are you
going?" That's half the fun. Some of my favorites pastimes in
college were sitting in the commons, or the library, arguing this
stuff from every possible angle. You think I'm gonna tell you what
to think? What it means? No. The goal is to provoke discussion.
Preferably passionate discussion.
<p>
Otherwise I might as well just start renting billboards and putting
up signs.
<p>
<li> Re: why soul hunter #1's ship was out of control...the second soul
hunter comments that they've been tracking him, and caught up with
him a few days ago. They attacked, "and he escaped, his ship
damaged." That is what brought him here...and led his pursuers to
this place as well.
<p>
<li> <em>Will we see more soul hunters?</em><br>
Eventually.
<p>
<li> And yes, humans would probably have *heard* of Soul Hunters,
distantly, as a legend. I see no reason why they would believe they
existed, particularly with a title like that, unless and until
actually encountering one.
<p>
<li> Re: Sinclair's actions toward the Soul Hunter...the device he uses was
trained on Delenn. It was spiraling up to full power throughout the
scene. Just as Sinclair's thrown, you see it starting to come to
critical mass...it's shooting at Delenn. There isn't/wasn't time to
sit there and figure out how it works, and shut off the right button.
He turned it so that it faced away from her...and the Hunter was caught
in his own machine.
<p>
There was nowhere else to go with the machine.
<p>
<li> In "Soul Hunter," Franklin notes that the average human life span is
now about a hundred years. It's quite a bit longer for the other races;
G'Kar is about 70 or more, but is considered mid-range, equal to a human
in early 40s, among Narns. Delenn is in about the same position, equal
to 30s-40s in her terms, but in years a bit older. They are a pretty
long lived people. Centauri aren't quite as long-lived, but they do a
bit better than the Narns. The Vorlons......are.
<p>
<li> To the question about a Soul Hunter's strength...yes, it is *very*
considerable. Even with one arm he was able to slam the hell out of
the commander, pick him up and again slam him against a wall before
throwing him about 10 feet across the room. Had he not been stopped,
and stopped good, yes, he would've torn Sinclair to ribbons.
<p>
<li> Delenn was shattering the soul globes in order to let the souls
escape, rather than playing with them. Look on the floor around her,
and you'll see shattered globes. There should also be a sound of
them breaking in her hands, the light goes out, and something
escapes....
<p>
<li> You're most definitely welcome; it was something we did to honor
Asimov, who determined the shape of this genre for many writers.
<p>
<li> Why is part of me tempted to decide that around the year 2223 the
most revered figure in Earthforce Command was General Ira Asimov, a
brilliant strategist for whom the liner was named....?
<p>
There are certain benefits to a design-your-own-future universe....
<p>
<li> I deeply admired Asimov. Harlan Ellison, this series consultant, was
as dear a friend to Asimov as anyone could be. I named the starliner
after Asimov shortly after his death, because I will personally miss
him, and for Harlan, as his friend.
<p>
<li> In your complaints regarding the commander flying off on occasional
missions (and he only does it about 3 times out of 22 episodes, so I
hardly see this as a problem), you are forgetting several other
*realities* of military life. If you're a pilot, even as a commander,
you have to log in X-number of hours flying time per month in order to
continue to qualify for flight pay. This is a *requirement*. And it
doesn't just mean flying around the station a few times.
<p>
Second, many commanders -- as recently as Vietnam and afterward --
did and continue to go out on missions and sorties because it is
rather expected of them, and because it maintains the respect of the
rest of the squadron(s).
<p>
Third, and possibly most important, Earthforce is the same as the
contermporary Air Force in one important respect: promotion up the
ranks is tied *directly* to combat experience and, in this case,
combat flying. That's why women fighter pilots and helicopter pilots
have been fighting so *vigorously* to be allowed to fly combat
missions; they know that they can't be promoted fully up the line
without that. Sinclair has no desire to be a commander all his life,
he'd like to move on. Hence it behooves him to get in combat time
whenever possible.
<p>
Your statement that it "doesn't wash" has nothing to do with how the
military *actually* works, and everything to do with the skewed and
inaccurate portrayal of the military that you get from Trek. This is
absolutely legitimate, and the B5 mailbox these days is partly
crammed with letters from vets thanking us for getting this part
right.
<p>
I suppose I could mention this in passing in dialogue, but then it
becomes a matter of sticking in dialogue not because it's important
to an episode, but because some folks would like things explained to
them. I don't think that's my responsibility.
<p>
<li> I answered you elsewhere here on this topic earlier this evening.
To just nit for a moment, to say that Sinclair picks up "every
derelict ship" seems a little unfair...he's picked up *one*, and only
one, and only picks up one this entire season. Why him? A) Because
he's good at it, B) he could use the flight pay, C) it'll look good
on his record, and D) because as he says as he leaves, it's a
potential first-contact situation. (NOt to mention E, that he has a
death-wish.)
<p>
I would submit to you that this is NOT the same as having one
character do a zillion different jobs on the station. I think that
you're reacting to something you've seen on Trek, and are assuming
based on an example of one that we're doing it in B5 as well. We're
not. Also, in "Purple," Garibaldi sends a different team out to
handle the gunfire, so there are others who do things. Question
becomes, how many new and recurring characters do you want to
introduce? There are currently *14* regular and recurring characters
on B5, and there are many folks who are saying that's too many. As it
is, we do introduce an aide to Garibaldi who takes care of some stuff
for him. Just as Sinclair delegates to Ivanova, and Ivanova delegates
to the observation dome techs.
<p>
I just feel that you're leaping to a conclusion based on a paucity of
evidence, built upon your experiences with another show. We're simply
not doing this.
<p>
<li> Normally, I don't tend to respond to negatives, because I don't
generally want to get in the way or be perceived to be getting in the
way of criticism. I don't. But I feel I have to respond to some of
this. If the show is open to criticism, then it seems to me that
some of the critiques should be open as well. And some of these I
think are quite unfair.
<p>
1) When did they move the jump gate (re: the time required to get from
the gate by Kosh's ship, as opposed to the Hunter ship). They/we
didn't. Once again, and I wish people could remember this, Kosh's
ship BEGAN TO DECELERATE the instant it emerged from the gate, in
order to dock with B5 without smashing into it. The Soul Hunter ship
was out of control, careening in at full speed. (This was a widely
discussed reason why the Vorlon fleet got to B5 so quickly as vs.
Kosh's ship. They were moving fast to get into striking position.)
<p>
2) The Hunter's ship was on autopilot, set to come out of the first
gate it came to.
<p>
3) There was still time for the station's defense grid to blow the
ship. Yes, pieces would have continued onward, but a hell of a lot
of its inertia would've been taken out by the incoming fire, and any
remaining pieces would've either been taken out as well, or would
have been so small as to not damage the hull (which is *very* thick
at that point) given its blast-enforced deceleration.
<p>
4) Yes, Sinclair would've gone up with it. You pays your money, you
takes your chances.
<p>
5) There was no "the Earth is going to explode" story here; you have
a ship colliding with the station, that has to be stopped. It has
to be stopped within the period between when it emerges from the gate,
and the time it would collide. You want to know how much time you
have to work in. Maybe it's a dramatic device, but it's also exactly
what you would do. What would you prefer? "Lieutenant Commander,
how much longer until impact?" "Uh...I dunno...can you hang on a
second?"
<p>
6) Re: the "funny forehead" comment...it was not what I've understood
the FF syndrome to mean...a regular head with a little treatment on
the front. This was a whole-head prosthetic, covering the entire back
of the head. So wrong on that one. And re: n'grath having 6 legs
rather than 4...who're you to say that? Ever seen a praying mantis?
Do all insects all over the galaxy have to have six legs to qualify?
You don't like minimal makeup, you don't like full-body prosthetics
...you understand that this comes out as "nothing will please me
except a real alien." You tell me where to find one in Central
Casting, and I'll hire him.
<p>
7) Okay, here's my biggest gripe: the note that the soul aspect was
Trek and "katra." Let me be clear on this: I don't give a damn what
Trek has or has not done now, long ago, or will do in the future.
We can't be constantly looking over our shoulder, limiting our
universe because of another show. If your only frame of reference
when it comes to discussing the soul is Star Trek, then that's
profoundly disappointing, but it's got nothing to do with me. The
basic concept goes back to the beginnings of civilization (that your
soul can be captured somehow). Further, there were no soul hunters
in ST, it was placement of one's spirit in another body. I'm getting
real tired of the notion that if Trek did something, nobody else ever
can do it. Like the person who said that Trek invented nanotechnology,
and thus when we used it in the pilot episode in the nanotech machine
G'Kar swallows, we were just copying Trek's nanites.
<p>
I refuse to surrender creative control of this series to the ghost of
Star Trek's used notions. From time to time, we'll cross into areas
they have also touched. We'll touch it differently. Deal with it.
But please don't put a Star Trek (tm) tag on the soul, and the history
of the soul.
<p>
8) You say a guard's gun was taken *twice* in this episode. Where is
#2 (if #1 is the medlab guard)? I see a guard being attacked from
behind, but not his gun being taken.
<p>
9) Re: the second soul hunter's makeup being "inferior" to the first:
they were essentially exactly the same...same material, same design,
minus the stone, which varied...I'm sorry, but they were made, applied
and used in exactly the same way.
<p>
10) Why drain her of blood? Why the hell not? In some countries,
that was used as a means of execution. Bleeding was also used (in
theory) to heal. Okay, let's say he used poison. "Why use poison?"
you probably would've asked. "Oh, it was the old poison gag, and
they find a convenient antidote." There's no difference.
<p>
11) How did the hunter relate his sense of death to a wall map? I
ask again...why not? If you can buy it happens at all, why not? How
is that any different than walking through a hall, or being drawn to
a planet? This is strictly a straw-man example, as is much of what
you cite.
<p>
This, frankly, is what I find so offensive in your note. You take
things that as a matter of opinion you might have done differently,
and then try to hold it up as a fault. You set up straw man
arguments that could be just as easily turned around on anything,
mischaracterizing something in order to take a cheap shot.
<p>
12) Why didn't Sinclair link in when he found the hunter? Because he
only "found" the hunter when he was being SHOT AT. And at that point
you don't want to raise your voice because you'll be shot at again.
<p>
13) You complain that the soul globes seemed to wait until the moment
Sinclair freed them to act (as though it were the bag that had been
holding them in). Sure, they could've emerged...and floated. A lot
of good that would've done them. What they needed was someone who
could stop him, and that was Sinclair's task. They were able to
distract the hunter long enough for that to happen. Minus Sinclair,
what were they supposed to do, bedazzle him to death?
<p>
14) Re: shining things into the camera = NBC Mystery Movie. See point
11a above. I'm not responsible for your cultural reference points.
<p>
I don't mean to yell, but thing is, I don't mind genuine criticism, if
we specifically do something that is objectively *wrong*. If you
don't like something, that's also fine. But I'm tired of people who
confuse opinion with fact, and that if it isn't done their way, then
it isn't somehow *right*...and the notion that Star Trek has invented,
patented and qualified for sole claim on whole aspects of our history,
literature, culture, theology and language, and that anybody who
touches on these areas is just doing Trek stuff.
<p>
As far as I'm concerned, the Trek-soul-katra thing treated the soul as
little more than a misplaced pair of sunglasses. Here we tried to get
into the issues *behind* the soul...where does it come from, where
does it go, does it survive the death of the body, or does it go on
...to give some mystery and beauty to the notion. To have it
dismissed as just another riff on katra is offensive and insulting
and narrow. And all of those issues just seemed to flit by without
comment.
<p>
I don't mean to get angry, but this is one I'm very proud of, and to
see it sideswiped and mischaracterized and straw-man'd to death in
this fashion is just something that I had to respond to.
<p>
<li> Re: your statement that the headwear of the S.H. is "stolen" from
the Ferengi...may I be so bold as to respond to your rather loud note
with some volume of my own? To wit: watch something other than Star
Trek, and maybe spend a little time learning stuff about your own
world. The headware is based upon the kind used in various african
and aboriginal tribes. Trek didn't invent it; we have photos of its
use through history, as well as sketches going back further. As it
happens, the costume designer has never seen "DS9," doesn't watch TNG,
has no idea what a Ferengi is. Neither do I intend to not do
something, based in real history, just because some other show has
done drawn on that same background.
<p>
You clearly think that if something appeared in ST, then ST must have
invented it, and that if it appears anywhere else, it must've been
influenced by ST. Wrong on both counts. I would suggest that you
have been watching too much ST, and not nearly enough of the Discovery
Channel.
<p>
<li> Re: the medical tools...we brought in a medical science consultant,
who helped us design our instruments. His sense was that we're moving
more and more toward light as a system of treatment, non-invasive
procedures, that sort of thing. No, there aren't anything like those
devices in today's operating rooms...but this is 250 years from now.
In any event, it *is* based on the latest info we're getting on new
science from our medical advisor.
<p>
<li> I would not describe n'grath as a "Mafia boss," since that's a very
specific term. Nor is it really any kind of organization. He's a
fixer, somebody you go to when you need something...a bodyguard,
forged identicards, what-have-you.
<p>
<li> Garibaldi is quite aware of n'grath...and knowing that if he just
vanished, somebody'd take his place in five minutes, prefers the
trouble he knows to the trouble he'd have to track down.
</ul>
<HR>
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<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
Londo's career is in jeopardy when a beautiful slave seduces him and steals
a sensitive computer file. Garibaldi investigates an unauthorized use of
a restricted communications channel.
</cite>
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Udenio,+Fabiana">Fabiana Udenio</a> as Adira Tyree.
Clive Reville as Trakis.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Phalen,+Robert">Robert Phalen</a> as Andrei Ivanov.
</blockquote>
<pre>
Sub-genre: Intrigue
<a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/003">6.79</a>
Production number: 104
Original air date: February 9, 1994
Written by: Larry DiTillio
Directed by: Bruce Seth Green
</pre>
<p>
<hr size=3>
<p>
<H2><A NAME="BP">Backplot</A></H2>
<ul>
<li> <A NAME="BP:1">Trakis: "Do you know why a drunken fool like
Mollari</A>
has the power he does? Because his family has been collecting
dirt on other families for years, like all the 'noble' houses of
the Centauri republic."
<li> <A NAME="BP:2">Londo: "We Centauri live our lives for appearances:</A>
position, status, title. These are the things by which we
define ourselves. But when I look beneath the mask I am forced
to wear, I see only emptiness."
<li> <A NAME="BP:3">Centauri law permits individuals to own Centauri</A>
slaves. Owners are legally responsible for the actions of their
slaves. This appears to be a slave system of economics rather
than of caste. According to Trakis, powerlessness and slavery
is the fate of all Centauri who don't play the game of blackmail
and backstabbing.
</ul>
<H2><A NAME="UQ">Unanswered Questions</A></H2>
<ul>
<li> What was the Euphrates treaty compromise that Sinclair forced Londo
to accept?
</ul>
<H2><A NAME="AN">Analysis</A></H2>
<ul>
<li> <A NAME="AN:1">Londo and G'Kar agree over a drink that females are</A>
the finest of all things in life. They are much more friendly
with each other now than when last we saw them (cf:
<A HREF="001.html#AN:1">"Midnight on the Firing Line"</A>). The
Narn must have been very pacifying in the meantime.
<li> <A NAME="AN:2">Intense anger from a couple nearby people is enough</A>
to send Talia away for a breather.
<li> <A NAME="AN:3">Londo agrees to Sinclair's compromise on the
Euphrates</A>
treaty in exchange for his personal help recovering the purple
files. However, this should not be taken as another example of
Londo putting personal concerns above state concerns. In a
profoundly blackmailable culture like the Centauri, power lost
by one individual or family would always be gained by another.
But if an outsider were to get hold of a treasure trove like
Londo's purple files, all of Centauri would be diminished.
There is an interesting parallel here to the Minbari concern for
souls (cf: <A HREF="002.html#AN:2:2">"Soul Hunter"</A>).
<li> <A NAME="AN:4">Ivanova's brother was killed in the Earth/Minbari
war,</A>
her mother committed suicide
(cf: <A HREF="001.html#BP:6">"Midnight on the Firing Line"</A>),
and she's been estranged from her father for years. Thus it's
unsurprising she's so hard-edged.
<li> <A NAME="AN:5">Talia is willing to skirt Psi Corps regulations
when</A>
a life is at stake (though she has no concern for Londo's
career). The Psi Corps' hold on remote psis appears to be
pretty weak.
<li> <A NAME="AN:6">Ivanova is willing to skirt EA regulations for</A>
personal perks. (cf: <A HREF="007.html">"War Prayer"</A>)
<li> <A NAME="AN:7">When G'Kar meets with Trakis to exchange the</A>
information, Trakis says to him, "You said nothing about a
telepath." From this it is clear that G'Kar was the one who
contacted Trakis. However, Trakis knew through the bug he
planted on Londo that Sinclair was onto him. So, Sinclair must
have set up G'Kar's call to Trakis in such a way that it
wouldn't arouse his suspicions.
<li> <A NAME="AN:8">Telepath-aided negotiation must make future
diplomacy</A>
much different than it is now. No posturing, tailored versions
of the situation back home, empty threats, or hidden agendas.
Parties have the same freedom to make choices for their
governments, but there are vanishingly few tactics left to gain
more advantage over one's adversary than one already has.
</ul>
<H2><A NAME="NO">Notes</A></H2>
<ul>
<li> <a name="NO:purple">The episode's title</a> is a term dating back
to Roman times, still in use in Britain. Roman senators in the days
of the Republic wore purple edged togas as a symbol of royalty,
since purple dye was very expensive. Today,
members of the House of Lords wear purple robes for state occasions.
When someone is made a peer in the UK they are said to have been
"raised to the purple."
Hereditary peers are "born to the purple". Perhaps
this implies that the purple files are so named because
they are what keeps Londo's family in its preeminent position.
<li> <A NAME="NO:1">G'Kar glances no less than four times at the human</A>
dancer behind him when he and Sinclair first confront Londo
about the treaty.
<li> <A NAME="NO:2">Babylon 5 communications has a priority "Gold
Channel"</A>
reserved for emergency communications. Sinclair's express
permission is required to use it, and its existence is known
only to the ambassadors and senior officers.
<li> <A NAME="NO:3">Londo's family heirloom, from the earliest days of
the</A>
Empire, is a stylized eye-and-teardrop.
<li> <A NAME="NO:4">Universe Today main headline:</A> Homeguard Leader
Convicted
<li> <A NAME="NO:5">"Fresh Air" is the finest restaurant on Babylon 5.</A>
<li> <A NAME="NO:6">Talia used to work for the "Political Bureau".</A>
<li> <A NAME="NO:7">"I like to know all there is about Babylon 5,"</A>
Sinclair says, "and Garibaldi's files are very thorough."
<li> <A NAME="NO:8">Ivanova appears to wear only one earring, though
it's</A>
hard to tell since throughout the episode we get no more than a
glimpse of the right side of her head.
</ul>
<H2><A NAME="JS">jms speaks</A></H2>
<ul>
<li> We're currently finishing up production on "Born to the Purple,"
with Clive Revell and Fabiana Udeno. It's a very offbeat and funny
story (by Larry DiTillio, natch) which adds a new side to Londo's
character. It puts our characters into different situations than we're
used to, and it's fun seeing how they react to these new conditions.
<p>
<li> Trakis, Adira's owner, was not a Centauri, but (and this is something we
may bring up at some point down the road), was at one point a Centauri slave.
<p>
<li> Re: Londo as a romantic character...bless your heart. You are the
first to have nailed it absolutely on the head. If I had to write a
description of the character, I doubt I could have done any better
than what you just wrote. There are a *lot* of episodes that bring
this out in him, including the next one up, "Born to the Purple,"
which I suspect will end virtually all of the hair jokes once and
for all.
<p>
Anyway...yes, and thank you, that's it *precisely*.
<p>
<li> Let's just say for now that you'll learn something very unusual about
Centauri "intimacy" in "The Quality of Mercy."
<p>
<li> Fabiana didn't shave her head to play Adira; that's a prosthetic head
piece. Ditto with all our Centauri women. (Funnily enough, the one
time we DID have a bald woman as a background extra, those not in the
know on stage kept commenting on how fake the bald-cap looked....)
<p>
<li> The point you raise is exactly correct; which is why we've set up
the Psi Corps in such a way as to *prevent* them from becoming a deus
ex machina all the time. This is what's always bothered me about the
way "empaths" are treated on ST; it's a terrible invasion of privacy.
The Psi Corps has strict rules about who can and can't be scanned,
and under what conditions. In "Purple," she couldn't just go scan
Trakis; she had to be hired, had to be already engaged in a business
capacity, and had to find it *only* in surface thoughts, no deliberate
poking. And this is the ONLY -- repeat, the ONLY -- time this is
done in the entire season, aside from the accidental run-in with Londo
in the pilot episode.
<p>
We'll get deeper into the rules and regs of the Psi Corps as we go,
further establishing that there's a lot they're expressly forbidden
from doing by law.
<p>
<li> I confess I don't see the problem. In real life, some women are
scientists, and doctors, and atheletes...and some women dance in
bars, some women hook part- or full-time. Some men are scholars and
diplomats and teachers...and some men are gigolos and thieves and
*also* dance in bars. Where exactly is the problem in portraying
both sides of this? Have we become so concerned with being
politically correct that we can not show a legitimate part of human
existence?
<p>
B5 has all kinds, and both sides of all kinds. Male and female,
equally. I "chose" exotic dancers for a kind of sleazy, not-entirely
legitimate operation, a backroom club. What would one *expect* to
find there? Opera singers? You look at the situation, and you choose
what is *appropriate to the situation*.
<p>
I would also point out that the dancers didn't "eagerly rush forward
to betray their friend." Londo was trying to find Adira in hopes of
helping her. He didn't say he was going to do anything bad to her,
and he was probably known to more than a few of them. He was simply
trying to find her. The coin was an added incentive. Back when I
was an investigative reporter, I did some research on strip joints
while I was living in SAn Diego. Spent a LOT of time talking to nude
dancers (when they had their clothes on, I hasten to add). And 99.9%
of them had a rule: you want to ask questions, you pay. That simple.
That's how this stuff *works*. My job is to keep the B5 reality as
close as possible to our reality in that respect.
<p>
Some of them probably wanted to help, knowing Londo was okay. Some
probably didn't care. And some probably would've betrayed her at the
tip of a coin. Life's like that. So again, where in this is the
problem?
<p>
<li> Re: the club owner recognizing Sinclair (or not)...this is something
we discussed. Can Sinclair go places in the station and not be
recognized? In some cases, no. In a place like the Dark Star, maybe
so; this isn't the kind of place he generally hangs out in. It's a
question of how much day-to-day interaction somebody would have with
him. Yes, he's an important figure; but I'm not sure if I'd
immediately recognize L.A. Mayor Richard Riordan at first glance,
particularly in different style of dress, in an unusual location.
We're *not* going to do it a lot -- just once this season -- but we
thought it was a reasonable approach.
<p>
<li> This was a bit cut from the script for time; Gold Channels are ONLY
for official use, they're high-priority channels that can go anywhere
back on Earth. Commercial communications are less reliable and only
have a few channels available; you've got to wait for a call to go
through. To use a Gold Channel for personal communications is a
No-No.
<p>
<li> Regarding Ivanova...it's not really an attempt to pull at heart
strings, as it is to establish that this is someone who's had, and is
still having, a pretty rough life. It's a real roller-coaster for
her, and the way she survives it is to absolutely bottle it up
inside. She has had angst throughout her life, and she's in for more.
<p>
We start to track that in little ways that probably no one will
notice, as well as making it the occasional story point. A little
way nobody'll notice: after this episode, she starts messing with her
hair, which we'd deliberately set as extremely tight until now.
Suddenly she doesn't have someone for whom she has to be a certain
way, and she has to start finding her *own* identity, and it ain't
easy.
<p>
<li> Larry DiTillio's episodes this season are "Born to the Purple," and
"Deathwalker." He's currently working on a third, tentatively
entitled "TKO." And yes, he uses blood instead of ink...unfortunately,
it's mine.
<p>
<li> There will be both sex and romance on B5 (sometimes together,
sometimes not). It's perversely appropriate that in the B5 series,
it's not the Commander who gets laid first, or Garibaldi, or G'Kar...
it's Londo. And it's a very funny, but very touching and moving
episode.
<p>
<li> It's a standard bed, works fine. Though we *did* have a thing in
mind where Londo sits up in bed, having just had wonderful sex, and
his hair is now hanging limp...but in a sudden burst of sanity we
decided against it.
</ul>
<HR>
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<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
An archaeologist smuggles ancient artifacts onto the station, unleashing
a living weapon.
</cite>
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+McCallum,+David">David McCallum</a> as Dr. Vance Hendricks.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Teague,+Marshall">Marshall Teague</a> as Nelson Drake.
</blockquote>
<pre>
Sub-genre: Action
<a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/004">6.33</a>
Production number: 101
Original air date: February 18, 1994
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Richard Compton
</pre>
<p>
<hr size=3>
<p>
<H2><A NAME="BP">Backplot</A></H2>
<ul>
<li> <A NAME="BP:1">Ikara 7,</A> now a dead world, was a thousand years
ago home to a highly advanced space-faring society. Their
technology was organic: tools and artifacts made of living tissue yet
immune to decay. Invaded over a hundred times, they finally built 12
devastating organic warriors to protect them. Programmed to
destroy any but "pure Ikarans", those warriors repelled the last
invasion and went on to kill any Ikaran who deviated from the ideal
(ie all of them). A
<a href="004.weapons.html">transcript</a>
of the scene in which this is discussed is available.
<li> <A NAME="BP:2">Organic technology</A> is, according to archaeologist
Vance Hendricks, "The one trick Earth hasn't been able to crack.
The ability to create living ships that thrive in the vacuum of
space, to create weapons that produce their own power through
internal generation, like a firefly lights up at night."
<li> <A NAME="BP:3">The Vorlons</A> have organic technology, and it's
suspected that the Minbari do as well.
<li> <A NAME="BP:4"><B>Sinclair:</B></A> "The last time I gave an
interview they told me just to relax and say what I really felt -
ten minutes after the broadcast I got transferred to an outpost so
far off the star maps you couldn't find it with a hunting dog and a
Ouija board." It's not clear whether or not this was a joke.
<li> <A NAME="BP:5"><B>Garibaldi:</B></A> (to the reporter) "...and
after walking 50 miles, we finally made it out of the desert.
Later when he was put in charge of Babylon 5, Commander Sinclair
asked if I'd come work security. I said yes - it's been a great
time..."
<li> <A NAME="BP:6">Garibaldi</A> has been fired from 5 different jobs
for "unspecified personal problems". His assignment on Babylon 5
is probably his last shot in Earth Force.
<li> <A NAME="BP:7">Garibaldi</A> was in Earth Force during the E/M war,
but not on the Line.
</ul>
<H2><A NAME="UQ">Unanswered Questions</A></H2>
<ul>
<li> <A NAME="UQ:1">Who</A> invaded Ikara so many times? What was so
valuable about it?
<li> <A NAME="UQ:2">Why</A> is Sinclair so prone to heroism (read:
suicidal bravery)? He's deliberately put his life on the line
three times now in the past year (cf <A HREF="000.html#AN:10">"The
Gathering"</A>, <A HREF="002.html#AN:3">"Soul Hunter"</A>).
Garibaldi suggests an answer: when the war ended it took away the
direction it gave his life, as happened to many veterans. So now
he's "looking for something worth dying for because it's easier
than finding something worth living for." Sinclair's not entirely
satisfied with that answer, and resolves to give it more thought.
</ul>
<H2><A NAME="AN">Analysis</A></H2>
<ul>
<li> <A NAME="AN:1">A "Bio-weapons" supplier</A> backed Hendricks'
original expedition to Ikara - they must have had advance
information about what was to be found there.
<li> <A NAME="AN:2">Ivanova</A> has little faith in the ethics of big
government organizations (cf <A HREF="006.html">"Mind War"</A>,
<A HREF="009.html">"Deathwalker"</A>).
<li> <A NAME="AN:3">Franklin</A> appeared to seriously ponder the image
of great wealth Hendricks offered, before the guards took him away.
<li> <A NAME="AN:4">A team</A> from Earth Force Defense, Bio-weapons
Division confiscated the Ikaran artifacts just as the dust from the
weapon-chase was settling. Earth now has bio-tech of its own to study.
</ul>
<H2><A NAME="NO">Notes</A></H2>
<ul>
<li> <A NAME="NO:1"><B>Garibaldi:</B></A> "The commander's a hands-on
kind of guy, he'll grab any chance he can get to take out a ship -
he's like that."
<p>
<li> <A NAME="NO:2">This episode</A> occurs right around the 2nd
anniversary of Babylon 5 going on-line.
<p>
<li> <A NAME="NO:3">In a poll,</A> %75 of "Interstellar Network News"
said B5 wouldn't last 5 minutes. Lloyd's of London put the odds at
500 to 1 against it lasting one year.
<p>
<li> <A NAME="NO:4">The "Narn-Centauri negotiations"</A> are to occur in
the near future.
<p>
<li> <A NAME="NO:5"><B>Sinclair:</B></A> "How sharper than a serpent's
tooth." (His reply to Garibaldi's joking guess that Sinclair's
interview would get him shipped off the station and himself
promoted into Sinclair's position.) This is a quote from
Shakespeare (King Lear.)
<p>
<li> <A NAME="NO:6"><B>Sinclair:</B></A> "When you become obsessed with
the enemy, you become the enemy."
<p>
<li> <A NAME="NO:7">At the last,</A> the Ikaran begs forgiveness from
the "Great Maker".
<p>
<li> <A NAME="NO:8"><B>Franklin:</B></A> "I'm starting to wonder if what
we just saw is a preview of things to come" (re: Pro-earth groups).
<p>
<li> <A NAME="NO:9"><B>The Interview</B></A><br>
<B>Reporter:</B> "After all that you've just gone through, I have
to ask you the same question a lot of people back home are asking
about space these days. Is it worth it? Should we just pull back,
forget the whole thing as a bad idea, and take care of our own
problems, at home?"<br> <B>Sinclair:</B>No. We have to stay here,
and there's a simple reason why. Ask ten different scientists
about the environment, population control, genetics - and you'll
get ten different answers. But there's one thing every scientist
on the planet agrees on: whether it happens in a hundred years, or
a thousand years, or a million years, eventually our sun will grow
cold, and go out. When that happens, it won't just take us, it'll
take Marilyn Monroe, and Lao-tsu, Einstein, Maruputo, Buddy Holly,
Aristophanes - all of this. All of this was for nothing, unless we
go to the stars.
<p>
<li> Ikara may be an Australian Aboriginal word.
<p>
The Australian DSTO (Defence Sciences and Technology Organisation)
developed the anti-submarine weapon "Ikara" in the 1950's. It is no
longer in use in the Australian Navy, having been fired for the last time
in 1990. The Brazilian Navy may still use a variation of it.
<p>
Since the DSTO has a tradition of naming its products after warlike
Aboriginal animals, it's plausible that the word refers to an animal.
<p>
<li> A slight visual gaffe: When the bioweapon self-destructs and falls to
the ground, its head is facing to the left (away from the camera.) But
when Sinclair watches him turn human again, Nelson's head is facing to
the right (toward the camera.)
</ul>
<H2><A NAME="JS">jms speaks</A></H2>
<ul>
<li> We'll definitely be dealing with the aspects of how fighting in a war
can affect you. And this isn't just a vague promise: watch the end of
the third (currently) scheduled episode, "Infection," for a scene
between Sinclair and Garibaldi that really deals very straightforwardly
with this issue. It's a conversation you wouldn't expect to see in a
show like this.
<p>
<li> [Infection] has a lot of action, which you'd expect, and a big
conclusion, which you'd expect. What you *won't* expect, I think,
is what happens afterward, in a conversation no one generally has
in TV after big action stuff has gone down. And it's something to
chew on, I think....
<p>
<li> Thanks. Sinclair's final speech there is the simplest truth about
space exploration that I can think of...and the most
compelling..and the most overlooked. As Henry Kissinger once said,
"It has the added benefit of being true."
<p>
<li> Sorry; there's no one more critical of my work than me, and when it
comes to "Infection," I'd just kinda prefer it if it kinda vanished
in the night. I feel that way about only two episodes out of 22,
so that's not too bad, I suppose.
<p>
<li> "Infection" is definitely not indicative of the season overall; that
is, in my view, one of our weaker, possibly weakest episodes.
<p>
<li> And like I said...I have problems with "Infection" as well, so there
is no flame from me. I guess part of it is knowing what was in the
script that should've been carried off better, but wasn't. And part
of it is my fault; I tried to use the Nelson/machine as a metaphor;
it wasn't supposed to be about the Nelson/machine, but about the kind
of people who would create it, the kind of people who would sell it,
and the kind of people who would confiscate it even KNOWING what it
was (and of course the kind of people who would *use* it).
Unfortunatly, when you put somebody in that kind of suit, that
*becomes* the story, and from that point on you're pretty much doomed.
It was also in places too much an obvious metaphor, and the "hand of
the author" is showing too much. It was the first script written for
this season, after the long break after the pilot, and I think I was
trying to find the characters' "fingerprints" and getting into the
flow of the series, which took a script or two.
<p>
<li> The problem with "Infection" from a writing POV is that it was the
FIRST one written for this season, and I was having a hard time
finding the "fingerprints" of the characters again after so much time
had passed after the pilot (it was nearly a year between the revising/
shooting of the pilot, and the writing of the first series script).
As on *any* show, it takes a while to get up to speed once you hit
series. That was the real problem, and there wasn't any real way to
get past it except to write it, re-acquaint myself with the characters,
and move on. I probably would have opted out of doing it had we had
more scripts on hand, but we didn't. And oddly, many on the
production team *liked* the script quite a lot, and kept saying it had
to be done.
<p>
<li> I'd slice this a little finer and suggest that it wasn't so much the
*stupidity* of racism and the whole genetic purity aspect, but the
IMPRACTICALITY of such ideas. If you follow the idea to its logical
conclusion, *nobody* is pure. Which was kind of the point.
<p>
And oddly enough, there's a pro-genocide discussion in "Deathwalker."
<p>
<li> I allow a small smile...in the course of any given script, I put in
little things that I figure nobody will ever notice, but which for me
help just a bit to keep on track with the character, and which may
resonate to anyone paying attention. You cite Sinclair's line about
joining Garibaldi "on the LINE," and Garibaldi noting that Sinclair
keeps putting his life "on the LINE," and the similarity to the
phrase "the Battle of the Line."
<p>
It was a throwaway...but a conscious one.
<p>
He's still fighting the same battle. He's never stopped. In one way
or another, he keeps putting himself out there, caught in a loop....
<p>
<li> Actually, the reporter's question was *not* (from a 2258 point of
view) stupid. Earth is far enough from the other major races not to
have to worry about iminent invasion. At the time of the story, there
is a VERY strong isolationist movement growing back home, which you'll
hear more about as we go in. Space travel is *expensive*, even in
2258, and there are still a lot of problems to be resolved back home.
While the Earth administration in Earthdome keeps pressing to go
further and further, various nation/states in the Earth senate are
taxed further to finance explorations which they don't always share in
equally, the Mars Colony is threatening secession...things are falling
apart by degrees. So in light of all that, the question is
*absolutely* valid.
<p>
<li> The ONLY reason that they were able to pick up the blasts in
"Infection" was because they were SO powerful that they registered on
the station's sensors. Ordinary PPG blasts don't show up.
<p>
<li> I have nothing to do with the description applied to the show by
others. In that episode, the affected person isn't "turned into" a
machine. It is sort of a living armor-like compound that grows over
the person's body, and begins to influence the person in question.
That is the sum and substance of it; he isn't transmuted, his biology
isn't changed, his brain isn't replaced, and so on.
<p>
My suggestion: judge the episode based on the episode, not on what
choice of words someone else used in trying to synopsize the episode.
Because Moby Dick can be summed up as, "A nut chasing a big fish."
But there's obviously more to the story than that, and it's not
entirely accurate.
</ul>
<HR>
Originally compiled by Matthew Ryan <i>mbr2@kimbark.uchicago.edu</i>

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<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
Sinclair's old flame, Catherine Sakai, arrives during a weeklong festival
when humans and aliens demonstrate their religious beliefs. An old enemy
sends an assassin to kill G'Kar.
</cite>
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Kopache,+Thomas">Thomas Kopache</a> as Tu'Pari.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Nickson-Soul,+Julia">Julia Nickson</a> as Catherine Sakai.
</blockquote>
Originally titled "Carnival!"
<pre>
Sub-genre: Intrigue
<a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/005">7.88</a>
Production number: 108
Original air date: February 23, 1994
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Jim Johnston
</pre>
<p>
<em>Emmy Award</em> for Makeup Design
<h3><a name="WF">Watch For</a></h3>
<ul>
<li> <a name="WF:1">Look closely at the statue of Li,</a> the Centauri
goddess of passion. Something about it will be the subject of a
humorous revelation about the Centauri in a later episode.
</ul>
<p>
<hr size=3>
<p>
<H2><A NAME="BP">Backplot</A></H2>
<ul>
<li> <A NAME="BP:1">"Never fails," says Garibaldi when Catherine</A>
comes aboard. Apparently he's known she and Sinclair for a very
long time. They seem to run into one another every three years,
though this is the first time in a while that they've both been
available.
<li> <A NAME="BP:2">Sinclair and Carolyn have drifted apart - he</A>
wasn't willing to quit and go into business with her as a trader.
(cf: <A HREF="../synops/000.html#carolyn-leave">"The Gathering"</A>)
<li> <A NAME="BP:3">After he delivers G'Kar's death pronouncement,</A>
councillor Du'Rog says, "This should come as no surprise to you
G'Kar. You've ruined my family's name and humiliated me before the
council. Retribution was inevitable."
<li> <A NAME="BP:4">Later G'Kar explains to Na'Toth why he can't ask for</A>
help: "...this would lead to some unfortunate revelations about my
years on the council, revelations that could affect my position.
Personally, I don't <em>care</em> if the information comes out. My
only concern is that it might compromise our standing in the
negotiations."
<li> <A NAME="BP:5">The best assassins among the Narn are the</A>
"Thenta Makur". They are well-organized and respectable in their
own way. They leave a "death blossom" to give their mark time to
get their affairs in order, and offer a solid guarantee: they will
personally kill any assassin who betrays a commission.
<li> <A NAME="BP:6">G'Kar has survived <em>two</em> prior assassination</A>
attempts, but did not appear to have experience with the Thenta Makur.
<li> <A NAME="BP:7">Vir explains the vivacious Centauri festival:</A>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
It's a celebration of life. It comes from a time in our
world's history when two dominant species were fighting
for supremacy: our people, and a species we called "Xon".
At years end, we count how many of our people survived,
and celebrate our good fortune!
</BLOCKQUOTE>
</ul>
<H2><A NAME="UQ">Unanswered Questions</A></H2>
<ul>
<li> <A NAME="UQ:1">Why is G'Kar, after serving 5 years on the Narn</A>
council, now serving as the Narn diplomat to Babylon 5? Is this a
move up, or down?
<li> <A NAME="UQ:2">What "revelations" about his years on the council</A>
does G'Kar want hidden?
<li> <A NAME="UQ:3">Did Sinclair play a greater role in the Minbari</A>
ceremony than was apparent? (<A HREF="#AN:10">see Analysis</A>)
<li> <A NAME="UQ:4">When Catherine first enters Sinclair's quarters,</A>
he's listening to <A HREF="/lurk/making/ulysses.html#become.name">
part of Tennyson's "Ulysses"</A>. "Which are you," she asks,
quoting from elsewhere in the poem, "<A HREF="/lurk/making/ulysses.html">
an idle king</A>, doling unequal laws unto a savage race, that
hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not you, or
<A HREF="/lurk/making/ulysses.html#spirit">a gray spirit</A>,
yearning in desire, to follow knowledge like a sinking star?"
He leaves the question unanswered.
</ul>
<H2><A NAME="AN">Analysis</A></H2>
<ul>
<li> <A NAME="AN:1">The cross-species religious festival was Earth</A>
Central's idea, and is consistent with Babylon 5's <I>raison
d'etre.</I> The Minbari and Centauri participated willingly, but
nothing was seen of Narn religion (cf: <A HREF="012.html">"By Any
Means Necessary"</A>). No-one made note of this omission - perhaps
it's taken for granted that Narn religion is not for outsiders.
<li> <A NAME="AN:2">The Narn employ couriers on a weekly basis. They</A>
also have FTL communications. Hence, they must not consider FTL
secure.
<li> <A NAME="AN:4">Na'Toth is cool-headed, with a sarcastic sense of</A>
humor - for G'Kar a great improvement over the literal and
over-enthusiastic Ko'Dath.
<li> <A NAME="AN:5">When Lennier greets Delenn as "Satai", she rebukes</A>
him: "No-one here knows of my connection. No-one must find out
[...] it would lead to certain questions I don't want to answer
just now." Apparently, it is well-known among the Minbari who are
the members of the grey council. They are also greatly revered,
judging by Lennier's reluctance to raise his eyes in her presence.
<li> <A NAME="AN:6">Vir's</A> <A HREF="#BP:7">speech</A> is quite remarkable.
What endured after the Centauri conflict with the Xon was a
celebration of survival, rather than a mourning for those lost. This
is notable both for what they chose to focus on (the joyous rather
than the sad), and for its suggestion that the Centauri may have
been nearly destroyed by the Xon (everyone was lucky to have
survived each year).
<li> <A NAME="AN:7">A theme of real Babylonian history: a stronger</A>
race oppresses a weaker one, and generations of the weaker one grow
up fighting for their lives. Eventually the once-weaker race
becomes so hardened and energized in their own self-protection that
they rise up and conquer their oppressors
(cf: <A href="/lurk/ftp/History.Babylonia"> History.Babylonia</A>).
<li> <A NAME="AN:8">This theme may be the very story of the Xon and</A>
the Centauri, for the Centauri eventually destroyed them and didn't
lose momentum until they were an empire spanning an entire quadrant
of the galaxy (cf: <A HREF="000.html#BP:7">"The Gathering" </A>).
This may also <em>become</em> the story of the Centauri the Narn: the
Centauri invaded their homeworld and held sway for a hundred years,
but now the Narn are free and bent on destruction, while the
Centauri are on the decline.
<li> <A NAME="AN:9">Among the many Centauri household gods</A> on the
banquet table are Ben-Zan, god of food, Mo-Goth, god of the
underworld and protector of front doors, and Li, goddess of
passion. The golden statue of Li portrays her with both arms and
one leg raised. Visible on her body are breasts, a very large
<em>male</em> hair-crest, and three tentacles emerging from her
hips on both sides. (cf. <a href="021.html">"The Quality of Mercy"</a>)
<li> <A NAME="AN:10">A</a>
<a href="005.ceremony.html">transcript</a> of
Delenn's recital during the Minbari ceremony is available.
<li> <A NAME="AN:11">This recital is very important, especially if</A>
Sinclair is the incarnation of a figure in Minbari prophecy, for
which there are indications:
<ul>
<li> <B>Minbari assassin:</B> "There is a hole in your mind."
(<A HREF="000.html#AN:4">"The Gathering"</A>)
<li> The coincidence of the Minbari surrender with their initial
discovery of Sinclair. (<A HREF="000.html#UQ:7">"The Gathering"</A>)
<li> <B>Delenn:</B> "I knew you would come - we were right about you."
(<A HREF="002.html#UQ:7">"Soul Hunter"</A>)
<li> Delenn's <A HREF="#AN:14">possible covert marriage</A> to him in
this episode.
<li> (see also: <A HREF="008.html">"And the Sky Full of Stars"</A>,
<A HREF="009.html">"Deathwalker"</A>,
<A HREF="013.html">"Signs and Portents"</A>)
</ul>
<li> <A NAME="AN:12">The giving of fruit to each of the main characters</A>
coincided with particular parts of Delenn's recital. This could be
literary foreshadowing, but it's unlikely that Delenn herself
intended the juxtaposition.
<BLOCKQUOTE>
"From birth <I>{Londo}</I>, through death and renewal <I>{Vir}</I>,
you must put aside old things <I>{Garibaldi}</I>, old fears
<I>{Sinclair}</I>, old lives <I>{Ivanova}</I>. This is your death
<I>{G'Kar}</I>, the death of flesh..."
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<li> <A NAME="AN:13">For the record, Londo and Vir eat their fruits,</A>
Garibaldi declines, Ivanova puts hers down, G'Kar exchanges his
with hers, Ivanova (unawares) then eats hers, and G'Kar gives his
new fruit a distrustful sniff. Sinclair, under Delenn's compelling
gaze, eats his as well.
<li> <A NAME="AN:14">When Catherine hears about "red fruit" being part</A>
of the Minbari ceremony, she asks if there was a serious exchange
of looks. When Sinclair confirms this, she chuckles, "Oh it's a
rebirth ceremony all right. It also doubles as a marriage
ceremony. Depending on how seriously anyone took it, somebody got
married the other day." Sinclair did not mention who was seriously
looking at whom - he may in some sense now be married to Delenn.
<li> <A NAME="AN:15">"You must put aside... old lives" reaffirms the</A>
Minbari belief in reincarnation revealed in <A HREF="002.html#AN:2:2">
"Soul Hunter"</A>, and suggests that the Minbari may have
<em>conscious access</em> to their own past lives. Else what would
they have to put aside? (cf: <A HREF="007.html">"The War Prayer"</A>)
</ul>
<H2><A NAME="NO">Notes</A></H2>
<ul>
<p>
<li> <A NAME="NO:1"><B>G'Kar's song</B> (presumably translated from Narn):</A>
<PRE width=50>
I'm thinking of thinking of calling her right
after my afternoon nap.
I'm thinking of thinking of sending her flowers,
right after Bonnie gets back.
So many fishies left in the sea,
so many fishies - but no-one for me...
I'm thinking of thinking of hooking a love,
soon after supper is done.
</PRE>
<p>
<li> <A NAME="NO:2">Ko'Dath, G'Kar's previous aide (with whom he was</A>
none too happy) died in an unexplained airlock accident a week before.
<p>
<li> <A NAME="NO:3"><B>Londo's joke:</B></A><br>
Garibaldi: And what happened to the Xon?<br>
Londo: Dead, all of them, and good riddance. Do you know what the last
Xon said, just before he died? "AAAAARGH!"<br>
Garibaldi (to Sinclair): Can I kill him now?
<p>
<li> <A NAME="NO:4"><B>Londo's toast</B> (and reprise):</A><br>
"Valtoooo!"
<p>
<li> <A NAME="NO:5">Ivanova was the only non-Centauri who seemed to</A>
be enjoying herself at their festival.
<p>
<li> <A NAME="NO:6">Na'Toth's "sponsor" for her position as G'Kar's</A>
aide was Li'Dak, fifth circle. Li'Dak's sponsor was Du'Rog himself.
<p>
<li> <A NAME="NO:7">G'Kar's "reputed fascination with Earth women"</A>
(cf: <A HREF="003.html#NO:1">"Born to the Purple"</A>) is
well-known among the Narn ruling class.
<p>
<li> <A NAME="NO:8">Delenn's new assistant is Lennier of the Third Fane</A>
of Chu'Domo, which has served with honor for 500 years. He has
just gone from being a "simple novitiate" to serving one of the
Grey Council - apparently quite a big jump.
<p>
<li> <A NAME="NO:9">There is consistency in the shape of Minbari</A>
head-bones. The top edge of the female head-bone is a smooth curve
back to a raised point in back, while the top edge of the male
head-bone rises to several points on its way back.
<p>
<li> <A NAME="NO:10">There were nine participants in the Minbari rebirth</A>
ceremony. All of the instruments visible were triangular, as was
the table around which they stood.
<p>
<li> <A NAME="NO:12">In the lingo of the Free Traders, Earth</A>
(or thereabouts) is "The Hub".
<p>
<li> <A NAME="NO:13">Sinclair has a brother, about whom he has not yet</A>
spoken.
<p>
<li> <A NAME="NO:14">Sinclair has been caught on</A>
<A HREF="/lurk/making/ulysses.html">Tennyson</A> since his
academy years - "we find meaning where we can," he says.
<p>
<li> <A NAME="NO:15">G'Kar and Na'Toth both imply she enjoyed beating</A>
him up.
<p>
<li> When this episode was broadcast in Malaysia in July 1995, the Centauri
celebration was cut, probably because of its depiction of drunken
behavior.
<p>
<li> A sign in the arrivals area:<br>
Welcome to Babylon 5<br>
Customer Section<br>
Atmosphere Caution<br>
<p>
Six different atmospheres are currently available on B-5. Others may be
created by prior arrangement. Uncommon atmospheric makeups may be
synthesized for encounter suits. For specific atmochemical breakdowns
see monitor below.
</ul>
<H2><A NAME="JS">jms speaks</A></H2>
<ul>
<li> By the way...on the Kosh poisoning thread, which was originally to
be discussed in "Parliament"...we ended up about 3 minutes long on
"Parliament," and three minutes short on D.C. Fontana's "War Prayer."
So we lifted that scene and inserted it into her episode, doing a
small bit of ADR to facilitate the move. It's now quite seamless.
<p>
<li> BTW, this week will Bill Mumy's first week on B5, and he's done a
very nifty job as Lennier. He brings a wonderful sense of absolute
innocence...the proverbial innocent abroad...to Lennier's character.
The Minbari prosthetics look great on him, enhancing the sense he
brings to the character. He's also great with the cast, and keeping
things up during shooting. At one point, as they're leaving camera,
Delenn says to Lennier, who has just arrived at the station, "Now
tell me of home; I have been away far too long." His ad-libbed
off-camera response: "Beatlemania is back." (Another ad-lib for
another shot: "Minimalls...they're everywhere," and "Well, we just
got Pizza Hut and cable.")
<p>
<li> Regarding Catherine Sakai...believe me, this ain't a consort kind of
relationship. It will be monogamous, but difficult in many ways.
This has been an on-again/off-again relationship between them for
years, made up of three parts passion and two parts teeth. It will
be a very fiery relationship. And this is a woman with her own
business, her own ship, who comes and goes as she wishes. You have
to understand that I love writing strong female characters, and
Catherine will be probably one of the strongest.
<p>
<li> Catherine Sakai is played by Julie Nickson Soul, an asian-american
actor who's done quite a bit of work in high-profile films. Her
character is never Cathy, only Catherine (occasionally Cath to
Sinclair, but *only* occasionally). She's a planetary surveyer,
working for one of the Earth corporations, looking for uninhabited
worlds and asteroids for exploitation.
<p>
<li> We've shot our first scenes between Sinclair and his new love
interest, Catherine Sakai (as played by Julia Nickson). This is a
very, very strong character, and she brings a wonderful vibrancy to
Sakai. They have a unique relationship that looks and sounds like
a real relationship, with all its ups and downs and dumb moments.
One way that I've reinforced this is that...well, in the first
episode in which they meet again (they were involved before), just
about every scene between them is lifted almost directly from
personal experience.
<p>
And given some of the awkward, even painful conversations that take
place, it was very, *very* hard to watch this being rehearsed.
(Michael and Julia worked over a weekend with the director to get the
nuances just right.) When it came time to shoot the scenes, much as
I wanted to be on-set, I just couldn't do it. My heart just kept
falling right down to my shoes. I can't wait for the first person to
say "I don't buy this as a real relationship" just so's I can whap
him upside the head. But I have a hunch that won't happen. It comes
across as very real, and as a very vulnerable moment for both
characters.
<p>
"Write what you know," they said. Right. How about I just take a
power drill and stick it in my ear...it'd be faster, less painful,
and after a while I might even come to like it....
<p>
<li> A parliament is a gathering of officials, of representatives, which
matches the story in terms of representatives of different places,
and beliefs. The dreams are the belief systems.
<p>
<li> The "stay put" line was ad-libbed by Andreas, because the crawfish
kept crawling off the table.
<p>
<li> Yes, definitely keep in mind the intent of the ceremony...but be
sure to remember *all* aspects of it. (<A HREF="#AN:10">see
Analysis</A>)<br>
Also, take a good look at Li, goddess of passion, in Londo's
ceremony. There's something about it that will be very funny
later. (<A HREF="#AN:9">see Analysis</A>)
<p>
<li> RE: the glasses...it's not something I've been able to figure out
how to mention, but the Narn pride themselves on their physical
perfection. Hence there is no market for physical aides; it's
something to be ashamed of. So they have to crib stuff from other
species, like glasses that have a prescription close enough to be
useful. I have *no* idea how to work that into a script, and am
not sure it is even a good idea to do so.
<p>
<li> The atheist was not only first in line, he was the best dressed and
smartest looking and nattiest one in the line.<br>
jm(what a coincidence)s
<p>
<li> From a personal point of view, I'm very fond of "The Parliament of
Dreams," which is a very funny show, and at times a very emotional
show. "Parliament" is all over the place...it's got all of our
major characters, our ambassadors, their seconds, we see lots of
group scenes, we're all over the station, dipping in and out of
three different but interconnected stories...it's really a matter
of keeping a lot of balls in the air at one time, and I think we
pulled it off nicely.
<p>
<li> There's one truly remarkable shot we did for the current episode, shot
Friday evening. Generally, in any shot with a crowd, you need
about 20-45 people. That's usually enough to fill out the shot
in any set you can go to. More than that gets costly, and
isn't really noticeable unless you frame your shot just *so*.
Yesterday's shot has 160 extras. It's a very impressive, and
very moving shot. It appears in the tag of "the Parliament of
Dreams." It's the kind of shot you just don't see anywhere
else. We had some people from PTEN and a film crew for a
behind-the-scenes piece on hand, and they all commented on how
only this show would do this shot...and how significant it is.
(I can't tell you what it was, because that gives it away, and
I want it to be kind of a surprise; suffice to say you'll
definitely know it when you see it.)
<p>
<li> The SkyDancer appears in the next episode. "See you next Wednesday"
is...well...it's when she's going to be back on the station. She has to
complete her run by Tuesday, and will be back on Wednesday. Sometimes a
cigar is just a cigar....
<p>
<li> [G'Kar's] song is an original, by our series composer, Christopher
Franke.
<p>
<li> The "fishy" song was composed by Christopher Franke specifically for
that scene. I told him I wanted sort of a Narnish Gilbert and
Sullivan, and that's what we got.
<p>
<li> I would think that Londo and G'Kar might actually find something in
common in appreciation of Gilbert and Sullivan. In fact, G'Kar's
"little fishie" song in "Parliament of Dreams" was intended to be a
bit G&S in nature.
<p>
<li> One of my favorite exchanges, which never seems to show up, is from
PoD v.1, when G'Kar says to Tu'Pari, who has come looking for
Ambassador G'Kar, "This is Ambassador G'Kar's quarters. This is
Ambassador G'Kar's table. This is Ambassador G'Kar's dinner. What
part of this progression escapes you?"
<p>
<li> Episode #5 is the two year anniversary of B5 going on-line; not two
years since the pilot movie. It took about a year and a half to
grow to this point, and for the final of the Big 5 ambassadors, Kosh,
to arrive, completing the group. It's now roughly six months after
that, into the new year.
<p>
<li> "So, I've been wondering who made up Londo's line in Parliament,
`but in purple, I'm stunning!'"
<p>
Ummmmm.....the scriptwriter?
<p>
<li> The Xon did evolve into fair amount of intelligence. There are a
very few land masses on Centauri Prime, separated by huge oceans.
The two species evolved pretty much separately, on different
continents that were absolutely unreachable until one or both sides
developed sufficient technology for extended sea travel...and that's
when all hell broke loose.
<p>
<li> There's a definite improvement arc in the show; the deeper we got
into production, the better the stories generally became, and the
better the production values. (With a few exceptions.) The biggest
change in the show came once we began writing scripts *after* we'd
begun shooting episodes, so that we/I could again see the actors and
find their fingerprints. "Parliament" is the first one I wrote after
we started filming; "Soul," "Infection" and "Midnight" were all
written prior to filming starting.
<p>
<li> You're seeing, btw, why this episode, much as it's a favorite,
couldn't be shown any sooner; there has to be some familiarity with
the characters for this to be most effective.
<p>
<li> Re: G'Kar being theatrical...that's who he is. I like theatrical
characters. I know many in real life that're much bigger than life,
very broad...and great fun. Not every character has to be sonorous
and serious and restrained. The whole point of *having* alien
characters is that they shuld act differently than the majority of
us.
<p>
<li> The Xon? Dead. All of them. And good riddance.
<p>
<li> The Xon weren't any more evil or good than the race that survived;
two equally sentient species emerged on the Centauri homeworld over
the course of evolution. They were more or less separated by
distance and land masses and oceans, so there was little contact
until either side developed the technology required to find the other.
It was the next best thing to a first contact situation, except it's
on their own world; they were very much alien to one another.
Somewhere along the line, it was decided that this world wasn't big
enough for both of them, so they began a campaign of slaughter against
each other. Londo's people won.
<p>
<li> Kosh was otherwise engaged....
<p>
<li> Actually, many of the alien races do *not* have monolithic religious
beliefs. You'll note that G'Kar didn't take part in the festival
from the Narn POV. You'll see Narn beliefs in "By Any Means
Necessary," and there it's mentioned that there are many different
bliefs among Narns, G'Quon and G'Lan being the two larger systems.
<p>
<li> Sure, I could've gotten them into bed by the second act...but that
wasn't the point. What I wanted to show, what interests me, is the
give and take leading up to that moment, the feints and parries and
"how do we get past this?" That to me is some of the most
interesting stuff in a relationship.
<p>
<li> As to the interpretation of the final tag scene...my thought was that
it's a way of saying, "Our dominant belief is that ALL beliefs are
respected."
<p>
<li> There was a follower of Islam; right next to the orthodox jew at the
front of the line. "Mr. Rashid, a Moslem." I made sure we put them
side by side.
<p>
<li> I didn't say that Earth was the ONLY one with diverse religions. I
don't understand why it is that when ONE thing is shown, it means
that's the ONLY thing. It's not. Narns, as we'll see in "By Any
Means Necessary," have several competing beliefs. The idea of the
festival wasn't to compare and contrast, only to show what *we*
(whoever *we* is) believes.
<p>
<li> Well, we're doomed...I just realized today that our first *really*
strong episode, "The Parliament of Dreams," airs the same night (in
most markets, the 23rd) as the Tonya Harding/Nancy Kerrigan face off
in the olympics.
<p>
Imagine a silence vast as space...that sound is neilsen ratings meters
stuck unmovingly on CBS....
<p>
<li> Needless to say, though, we got *creamed* by the Tonya/Nancy Show.
Which got a 64 share, the 3rd biggest ratings for a sporting event in
history. But then, *everybody* got beat up by that one, so again
it's okay.
<p>
<li> The line, "See you next wednesday," was basically an offhand line,
slightly but not significantly based in the idea that in most markets,
B5 airs on Wednesdays. It was never meant to be a John Landis
reference, and if I'd known it was (I'd never heard it before),
would've changed it.
<p>
<li> I keep constantly fighting the urge to have G'Kar return from a trip
to the Narn homeworld with a limp, a cane, and a (temporary) eyepatch,
muttering, "Boy, the Thenta Makur have *no* sense of humor."
<p>
(Now we'll see how many get *that* one.)
<p>
<li> BTW, re: Sinclair remembering all those names...we used many of the
real names of the people standing in line, many of whom *did* belong
to the religion they had come to represent. We went down this line
of 250 people, and went over their names *twice* with O'Hare. That's
all. After that, he got each name right every time; amazingly quick
memorization.
<p>
<li> This is something that Andreas and I discussed, and it's not so much
that G'Kar *has* to cook, but that he *likes* to cook. From the
singing, it's clear he's having a good time....
<p>
<li> Ko'Dath met with an unfortunate accident with an airlock.
<p>
<li> Just learned that Babylon 5 won an Emmy for its Makeup Design, for
"The Parliament of Dreams." This is our second Emmy so far, our
first for the series. I'm determined that next year we get some
notices for our acting and other above-the-line areas.
<p>
In any event, congratulations to our makeup and prosthetics design
people.
</ul>
<HR>
Originally compiled by Matthew Ryan <i>mbr2@kimbark.uchicago.edu</i>

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<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
Talia's old Psi Corps instructor, the victim of a secret experiment, is the
target of a manhunt involving the Psi-Cops. Catherine wants to survey a
promising planet for possible mining, but G'Kar warns her to stay away.
</cite>
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Koenig,+Walter">Walter Koenig</a> as Bester.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Waterman,+Felicity">Felicity Waterman</a> as Kelsey.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Young,+William+Allen">William Allen Young</a> as Jason Ironheart.
</blockquote>
<pre>
Sub-genre: Intrigue
<a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/006">8.44</a>
Production number: 110
Original air date: March 2, 1994
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Bruce Seth Green
</pre>
<h3>Watch For:</h3>
<ul>
<li> A peculiar <a href="#NO:13">salute.</a>
</ul>
<p>
<hr size=3>
<p>
<H2><A NAME="BP">Backplot</A></H2>
<ul>
<li> <A NAME="BP:1">Jason Ironheart</A> was Talia's instructor and lover
at the Psi Corps Training Academy. After she graduated and went
into commercial telepathy, they kept in touch by letter - until a
year ago when his letters stopped. As Ironheart recounts, he
volunteered to undergo genetic and biochemical modification he
thought was intended to make him a stronger telepath. The
experiment turned out to be an attempt to make him
<A HREF="#AN:a">a stable telekinetic</A>, and it after many months
and hundreds of injections it worked - stunningly! Ironheart
became able to see through any mind like glass, and manipulate
matter and energy both. He discovered then that those in charge
were after offensive military applications for TK, like secret
assassination. So, he killed the head researcher (the only person
who could duplicate the work) and fled to Babylon 5, still
undergoing changes to his mind and body.
<li> <A NAME="BP:2">What is it like to be a telepath?</A><br>
<B>Talia:</B> "It's like staying in a hotel room where you can just
hear the people talking next door. You can try and shut it out,
but it's always there. The key is not to eavesdrop unless you're
invited... casual thoughts are very easy to block, but strong
emotions have a way of slipping through."<br>
"Do you know what it's like when telepaths make love, commander?
You drop every defense, and it's all mirrors, reflecting each
others' feelings, deeper and deeper, until somewhere along the line
your souls mix, and it's a feeling so profound it makes you hurt.
It's the only moment in a telepath's life when you no longer hear
the voices."
<li> <A NAME="BP:3"><B>Ironheart:</B></A>"We all thought Psi Corps was
controlled by the government, but that's changing. The Corps is
starting to pull the strings behind the scenes; they're more
powerful than you could begin to imagine. Telepaths make the
ultimate blackmailers..."<br>
"The Psi Corps is dedicated to one thing: control. Control over
telepaths, the economy, the courts, over matter, over thought
itself."<br>
A
<a href="006.ironheart.html">transcript</a>
of Ironheart's meeting with Sinclair is available.
</ul>
<H2><A NAME="UQ">Unanswered Questions</A></H2>
<ul>
<li> <A NAME="UQ:1">How much of what Ironheart said was true?</A> He
<EM>was</EM> mentally unstable, to say the least. He was also very
motivated to gather fast allies.
<li> <A NAME="UQ:2"><B>G'Kar</B> (to Catherine):</A> "Let me pass on to
you the one thing I've learned about this place. No-one here is
exactly what he appears. Not Mollari, not Delenn, not Sinclair.
And not me." What does G'Kar know that we don't?
(cf <A HREF="008.html">"And The Sky Full Of Stars"</A> [Delenn,
Sinclair], <A HREF="012.html">"By Any Means Necessary"</A> [G'Kar])
<li> <A NAME="UQ:3">Just before he departs, <B>Ironheart</B> says to
Talia:</A> "In memory of love, I give you a gift, the only gift I
have left to give." The gift, as she soon discovers, was
at least the beginnings of telekinesis. What manner of telepath
has she become?
<li> <A NAME="UQ:4">What did Ironheart mean by his final words to
Sinclair?</A> "Good-bye commander. I will see you again, in a
million years."
</ul>
<H2><A NAME="AN">Analysis</A></H2>
<ul>
<li> <A NAME="AN:1"> If Ironheart's figures are true,</A> and if there
are 20 billion human beings in existence, then there should be a
thousand people who are (or will become) stable telekinetics. If
the Psi Corps' pursuit of a stable TK justified the extreme
measures they attempted with Ironheart, then something about
naturally occurring TK's must make them unusable. It could be that
use of TK invariably drives one insane, or perhaps natural TK is
insufficiently fine-controlled enough for their purposes.
<li> <A NAME="AN:2">Whatever it was that the Psi Corps scientists did to
Ironheart,</A> it wasn't more than physical alterations to his
brain and body. Yet those alterations started a process that led
to his essentially becoming a demigod. This could represent a
latent potential in humanity as a whole, of which iceberg telepathy
is merely the tip. Or perhaps not - "This is a power that we were
never meant to have," Ironheart tells Sinclair, "we're not ready
for it."
<li> <A NAME="AN:3">Ivanova hates the Psi Corps</A> with a passion
(understandably - cf <A HREF="001.html">"Midnight on the Firing
Line"</A>) "Good ol' Psi Corps. You never cease to amaze me - all
the moral fiber of Jack the Ripper. What do you do in your spare
time, juggle babies over a fire pit? Oops, there goes another
calculated risk!"
<li> <A NAME="AN:4">In spite of this, Ivanova gives Talia a glass of
water</A> after she comes through the ordeal of being scanned by
Bester and Kelsey. Ivanova's hatred is tempered with compassion
for individuals. (see <A HREF="#JMS:8">"jms speaks"</A>)
<li> <A NAME="AN:5">By threatening to hold him accountable</A> for
endangering the station and causing the death of his partner,
Sinclair strong-arms Bester into omitting from his report mention of
Ironheart's real fate and Talia's willful collaboration. However,
this can only be an agreement about what gets made
<EM>official.</EM> Just as folks on Babylon 5 know full well that
Something happened to Ironheart (with the willing help of both
Talia and Sinclair) the right folks in the Psi Corps should know
the same through Bester's <EM>unofficial</EM> report.
</ul>
<H2><A NAME="NO">Notes</A></H2>
<ul>
<li> <A NAME="NO:1">Sinclair mentions to Catherine</A> in the morning
that he's got a budget meeting with the construction guild that
day, in which he'll have to make some cuts to which he's not
looking forward. (cf: <A HREF="012.html">"By Any Means
Necessary"</A>)
<li> <A NAME="NO:2">Universal Terraform:</A> a mega-corporation that
explores and prepares new worlds for colonization or exploitation.
<li> <A NAME="NO:3">The procedure for evaluating a newly discovered
planet:</A> first, an unmanned sensor probe launched by the
exploring ship assesses gross features and composition. If that's
promising, a manned survey is undertaken to determine its value for
various purposes. Finally, if the corporation wants to continue,
a life sciences probe is sent out to determine the legality of
exploitation. (If there are sentient species present then the
planet is off-limits.) (see <A HREF="#JMS:9">"jms speaks"</A>)
<li> <A NAME="NO:4">Due to an EA shortage</A> of the material
"Quantium-40", jumpgate construction is backed up 6 months.
Catherine's survey mission to Sigma 957 is largely to determine
whether this material is present on the planet.
<li> <A NAME="NO:5">The being that appeared at Sigma 957</A> appeared to
enter and leave through its own jumpgate. It may have been there
for the Q-40.
<li> <A NAME="NO:6">Just as the Narn fighters</A> match up with
Catherine's ship, part of it sloughs off as it burns up in the
atmosphere. The fighters are unaffected; presumably they are
atmosphere-capable ships.
<li> <A NAME="NO:7">Rent for a spartan studio</A> on Babylon 5 is 500
credits per week.
<li> <A NAME="NO:8">Psi corps ratings:</A><br>
<B>P5</B> - level of commercial telepaths. Can easily detect
deception and other surface thoughts at close range. Deeper
probing is possible but difficult.<br>
<B>P10</B> - level of Psi Corps trainers. Can observe the mental
actions of other telepaths, block some scans, cut through some
blocks, perform long-range scans, and may have some fringe skills.<br>
<B>P12</B> - level of Psi Cops. Can communicate smoothly with
normals via telepathy. Two Psi Cops can invasively probe a P5.
<li> <A NAME="NO:9">Stronger telepaths</A> have a <em>harder</em> time
shutting out "the voices".
<li> <A NAME="NO:10"> Upon graduation from the Academy</A> all telepaths
take a telekinesis test - it's a much sought-after skill. .1% of
human beings have some level of telepathic ability, and only .01%
of <B>them</B> have TK, half of whom are clinically insane. (see
<A HREF="#AN:1">Analysis</A>)
<li> <A NAME="NO:11">Most telepaths have <em>fewer</em></A> human rights
than normals. They're forbidden to possess psi abilities unless
they're in the Psi Corps or in prison
(cf: <A HREF="001.html">"Midnight on the Firing Line"</A>).
They're required to submit to scans by Psi Cops, and aren't even
allowed to have fleeting bodily contact with normals, since that
would raise the chance in inadvertent scans.
(see <A HREF="#JMS:7">"jms speaks"</A>)
<li> <A NAME="NO:12">Psi Cops</A> are afforded greater latitude than
other telepaths, "in the interest of efficiency". For example,
they can perform at least surface scans on normals without
permission.
<li> <A NAME="NO:13">As he leaves, Bester gives Sinclair an odd
salute</A> - a circle of thumb and forefinger at the forehead - and
says, "Be seeing you, commander." This is tribute paid to one of
jms's favorite shows, "The Prisoner", in which the line was
identical but the hand-motion framed the eye instead. An
appropriate twist for a telepath salute!
</ul>
<H2><A NAME="JS">jms speaks</A></H2>
<ul>
<li> <A NAME="JMS:1">In a tip of the cap to an SF writer,</A> the Koenig
character in "Mind War" is named Bester.
<li> The direction and intent and background of the Psi Corps is *very*
different from Bester's "The Demolished Man." What may cause some of
the confusion is that when I decided to name the Psi Cop we'll be
seeing, knowing of Alfie's work in the genre in general, and knowing
that he was a close friend of Harlan's, I decided it would be a nice
testimony to the man to name the Psi Cop Bester. There's nothing
beyond that.
<p>
<li> <A NAME="JMS:2">Re: my favorite thing about this episode...</A>it's
that when all is said and done, *nobody knows anything*. Bester
doesn't know what Ironheart is turning into; Sinclair doesn't know
if Ironheart was really telling the truth or not; nobody knows
where Ironheart went; nobody knows what the alien ship is/who they
were...the closest I can come to is to compare it to writing a
mystery novel, without revealing the killer, but *without*
frustrating anyone in the process, because there's *closure*.
<p>
<li> <A NAME="JMS:3">...it was my intent</A> to imply in the scene with
the guard and Bester ("nothing, just a drill") that he DID scan the
guard's mind. He found out what he was hiding (which is how he
managed to show up to try and cut Ironheart off from his escape),
exchanged a glance with Kelsey, and headed away quickly.
<p>
<li> <A NAME="JMS:4">Bester wasn't killed</A> because a) it took a *lot*
out of Ironheart to take out Kelsey, and b) Bester *shot him* prior
to being taken down, and the pain and trauma of being shot has a
tendency to have an adverse effect on one; it took all his strength
just to knock Bester down before collapsing to the floor, his
energy (as you can see in the film) fading away....
<p>
<li> <A NAME="JMS:5">We'll definitely see Bester again,</A> probably
twice next season, in one capacity or another. (And we'll *hear*
about him once more this season.)
(cf: <A HREF="016.html">"Eyes"</A>)
<p>
<li> <A NAME="JMS:6">Nope, Jason Ironheart will not be seen again,</A>
insofar as I know. I don't like beings with that much power
running around the plotline....
<p>
<li> <A NAME="JMS:7">Telepaths are the ultimate minority,</A> and when
it comes to the use of their talents, and the protection of the
rights of the hysterical majority, their rights don't mean a whole
hell of a lot.
<p>
<li> <A NAME="JMS:8">Thanks</A> for noticing that. Yes, it *was* very
important (to me, at least, whether or not anyone noticed it), that
Ivanova was the one who handed Talia the water, and had that brief
moment with her. For those who understand their relationship, it
adds a tiny layer; for those who don't, because the dialogue keeps
on going over it, it's not obtrusive.
<p>
<li> <A NAME="JMS:10">The episode of "Mind War" broadcast henceforth</A>
will be the one with slight alteration.
<p>
<li> In the pursuit in the teaser, you could see one of the binary stars
THROUGH Ironheart's ship; we deleted that shot and replaced it.
<p>
<li> We discovered, when we went to put in the revised CGI, that the
international versions had already been made and transferred, and it
would be nearly impossible to recall that part of the process...so it
was left alone rather than have multiple versions of the same episode
floating around.
<p>
<li> <A NAME="JMS:11">Funny incident today,</A> though, also at lunch.
Walter Koenig joined some of the cast members at their table for
lunch, and as he came to the table, they all stood up at attention.
When asked why, they explained that it's protocol for junior
officers to stand when a senior officer comes to the table. It was
kind of a nice moment.
<p>
<li> Today, Walter Koenig's 2nd day working in the B5 universe, as a Psi
Cop in "Mind War." He's doing well, taking part in some very
difficult scenes (fight scenes and the ilke), and it's a very
powerful performance, not at ALL what people have seen before. He's
a terrific performer when given a role with some meat to it. And
the dailies look great. I think this episode will wake up a lot of
people who have never seen Walter as anything other than Chekov.
<p>
<li> Walter decided that an interesting character trait for Bester would
be if this skilled psi cop had a useless left hand.
<p>
<li> It's a funny thought, but knowing Walter as I do, I can say without
fear of contradiction that he was *not* doing Shatner. Given the
chance here to do something *utterly* outside ST, which was his hope,
and our pleasure to provide, he wouldn't do this, and having spoken
with him at some length about his character and his performance, know
that he *didn't* do this.
<p>
<li> Chekov is just one character, which was created by another, and played
by Walter. Agreed, too many people have seen him as just this one person;
but there's a talented actor with a great range behind that character, able
to do *many* other things. I'm glad we've been able to let him show that
range a little.
<p>
<li> We'd initially offered Walter the role of Knight Two in "Sky," but
when his health prohibited using him, we went to Patrick McGoohan,
who loved the script, wanted to do it, but was going to be out of
the country at the time of shooting. We then shifted Walter to
"Mind War."
<p>
<li> "Commander" wasn't dubbed onto Walter. That was Ironheart speaking
with his back to us.
<p>
<li> We'll see more on Talia's additional talents in year two.
<p>
<li> Ironheart was created, as one of many reasons, to exemplify a problem
that is growing within Psi Corps. There will be other symptoms, though
not as grand as that one.
<p>
<li> The Psi Corps doesn't exist just to help telepaths avoid infringing
on the privacy of others. They service the business community, the
military, some other governmental agencies...it's important that they
control, regulate, and profit from telepaths. You can't just leave
the corps.
<p>
<li> "Mind War" is important to the arc because Psi Corps, and certain
aspects of it, is important to the arc.
<p>
<li> Some of the events in "Mind War" are significant indeed.
<p>
<li> The ant was paid strictly according to SAG rules (Screen Ants Guild).
<p>
<li> But for the other stuff...no, there's no in-joke in Sigma 957, but
***CONGRATULATIONS!*** You are the FIRST person to pick up on the
Native American line that Ironheart quotes when he goes up against
Kelsey. (And yes, I believe it is ojibwe in origin.) I've always
considered it a very powerful line (a prayer of protection against
one's enemies), and wanted to use it. That seemed the perfect
opportunity to do so.
<p>
<li> "Who watches the watchmen" is an old Latin phrase, sometimes
translated as "who guards the guards?" Given sufficient time I could
probably dig up the origin of the phrase; it's fairly common.
<p>
<li> My source on this was the original, classical quotation.
<p>
<li> Congratulations. I was wondering when anyone was going to hit on the
CSICOP reference. I was looking for a good name for the pit bulls of
the Psi Corps, and thought it made for a great play on words, and a
very obscure almost-pun, to name them Psi-Cops.
<p>
<li> <em>Talia's stress during Psi Cop scan</em><br>
It's because they dig *deep*. And to another telepath, who is
sensitive to begin with...it hurts bigtime.
<p>
<li> A Psi-rating comes through training and examination of a person's
skills over time. Ivanova's mother never went through the full
sequence to get rated. (Although they generally don't bother with
P1s through P2s, so she was at least a P3 or above, in terms of raw
ability.) A psi rating isn't hereditary.
<p>
<li> Talia is a P5, as Lyta was in the pilot.
<p>
<li> The number of psi's in each category, from 1-12, gets rarer as you
get higher. Lots of folks have a minimal tendency, very few have any
real talent.
<p>
<li> Yes, the abilities are often discrete; a TK may not be able to
scan anyone's thoughts.
<p>
<li> You don't have to read another book to "get it" re: psi's making
love. Perhaps her problem was more with the making love part than
the psi part. Haven't read Julian May's book. It's just the obvious
answer to what happens if and when telepaths make love: if they truly
open up, then you're going to get a mirror effect. Have your lady
friend stand between two mirrors and look at the effect. This ain't
rocket science.
<p>
<li> Scanning only hurts if it's a deep scan, trying to dredge out lost
or buried thoughts, or if the other person is resisting. It can be
anything from a headache to a migraine in intensity in general..
<p>
<li> There will be no more Ironhearts, and that character will not return.
<p>
<li> The vaporized Starfuries *weren't* from B5, they were a separate wing
not attached to this station. Black Omega is a special forces unit.
<p>
<li> Ironheart blew out the Omega starfuries.
<p>
<li> No, this [the alien] isn't the mysterious sixth race.
<p>
<li> And in the case of Sigma 957, one can put in a gate, start to explore
that sector of space...and discover to your chagrin that there is one
planet where you don't dare go near. It's not like they *knew* that
there was a problem on Sigma 957 before they (the Narns) put the gate
in; that was discovered only afterward. Sort of like buying a house
and then discovering that one room is haunted; you seal off the room
and tell the kids not to go near it.
<p>
<li> You don't leave one gate and fly light years to another; you use the
same gate for going in and going out. Explorer Ship A comes out of
hyperspace; looks around; decides that there are planets in this area
that are worth possible colonizing, exploitation, that sort of thing;
it's a very quick overview. (Or they go to systems that have been
already selected.) They construct a gate, finish the job, and move
on. Other ships can now use this gate for entering and leaving this
system. Is this clearer?
<p>
<li> The gate was set up in what was believed to be a reasonably fertile
and useful sector of space; the explorer craft can't take too long in
any one area. They find likely areas for exploitation, take a fast
look around, drop a gate, and move on. This allows other ships to
come in and scope out the place in detail. That's when they ran into
whatever's walking around Sigma 957. (And it's not there all the
time, only from time to time.)
<p>
<li> An Explorer-class vessel looks for areas that look like likely
prospects for exploitation, or which are good for logistical or other
reasons, do a fast survey, drop a gate and move on. Nobody *knew*
about the problems in Sigma 957 until well after the gate was in place.
<p>
Generally, the race that builds the gate, owns it.
<p>
<li> Re: the difference as to why Sinclair reacted the way he did...they
SPOKE to him in his head, the same way they did to the guard in
customs. This is different than just "listening" to someone's
thoughts, so to speak.
<p>
<li> The one thing that to me always typified SF was the sense of *wonder*.
Of something mysterious out there. And that is the one thing that I
feel is so missing from much of TV SF; not to pick on ST, but the
reality is that going from world to world seems like going from 7-11
to 7-11. It's all established, there's not much mystery. (Not in all
cases, I'm sure that one or two could be found, but in general.)
There should be *differences*, and things we don't understand and will
*never* fully understand. (For me, one of the best episodes in this
regard is "Mind War," specifically the tag of the episode, which still
gives me a shiver even though I've now seen it over a dozen times.)
<p>
<li> Actually, no...Catherine Sakai is based more closely on another
woman of my acquaintance, with whom I was involved for quite some
time. And that's all you'll get out of me on the subject.
<p>
<li> Incidentally..."Mind War" has come out so well that it looks like
we're going to move it up in the schedule a bit. It was originally
slated to run about episode 10 or so, but the studio is so hot on it
that it'll probably run #6, right after "Parliament." And Walter
has agreed to be the voice-over and on-camera narrator for the
Behind the Scenes/Making of Babylon 5 documentary.
<p>
<li> Re: moving "Mind War" up...no, doesn't affect continuity at all. If
it did, it wouldn't have gotten moved. It's what's called in the biz
a "moveable piece," able to go *almost* anywhere in the schedule, as
long as it's after episode 3 and before episode 15, since stuff in
the first few set it up, and 15 pays off part of it.
</ul>
<HR>
Originally compiled by Matthew Ryan <i>mbr2@kimbark.uchicago.edu</i>

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<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
A violent attack on a Minbari poet rocks B5 and leaves
Sinclair scrambling to flush out a vicious pro-Earth group. Two star-crossed
young Centauri lovers seek Londo's protection. Ivanova is shaken
when a man from her past arrives at the outpost.
</cite>
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Grahn,+Nancy">Nancy Lee Grahn</a> as Shaal Mayan.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+McKellar,+Danica">Danica McKellar</a> as Aria Tensus.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Eastman,+Rodney">Rodney Eastman</a> as Kiron Maray.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Rogers,+Tristan">Tristan Rogers</a> as Malcolm Biggs.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Chan,+Michael+Paul">Michael Paul Chan</a> as Roberts.
</blockquote>
<pre>
Sub-genre: Suspense
<a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/007">6.82</a>
Production number: 107
Original air date: March 9, 1994
Written by D. C. Fontana
Directed by Richard Compton
</pre>
<p>
<hr size=3>
<p>
<H2><A NAME="BP">Backplot</A></H2>
<ul>
<li> <A NAME="BP:1">The Homeguard,</A> a radical pro-Earth group, has
wide support among humans, and is growing in popularity back on
Earth.
<li> <A NAME="BP:2">Shaal Mayan</A> is a renowned Minbari poet. "I
create and perform Tee'la," she says: "poem songs that attempt to
recall old memories and prompt new ideas."
<li> <A NAME="BP:3">The only two human beings</A> ever to have direct
contact with a Vorlon have since been transferred to Earth -
Dr. Kyle to work closely with the president
(cf "<A HREF="004.html">Infection</A>"), and the telepath Lyta
Alexander just a week later. Neither of them shared their
experiences with anyone on the station. (cf <A HREF="000.html">"The
Gathering"</A>)
<li> <A NAME="BP:4">Londo</A> has <A HREF="#AN:3">three wives</A>, all
of them arranged marriages, all of them "great sacrifices". "They
inspire me! Knowing that they are waiting at home for me is what
keeps me here, <A HREF="#JS">75 light years away.</A>"
<li> <A NAME="BP:5">Ivanova</A> used to be involved with a fellow named
<A HREF="#AN:6"> Malcolm Biggs</A>, but left him when she enlisted
in Earth Force 8 years ago.
<li> <A NAME="BP:6">More insight into Londo's personality and Minbari
beliefs:</A><br>
<B>Mayan:</B> Ambassador, you should listen to the girl. We
Minbari consider love to be a most potent force for healing. She
cares deeply for him. Such feelings can turn the tide when all
else fails.<br>
<B>Londo:</B> Oh I see. And if he dies, despite this great power
of lo-<br>
<B>Mayan:</B> <I>If he dies,</I> she will suffer enormous grief,
but every moment together will make her grief a little less.<br>
<B>Londo:</B> I would expect such logic from a poet. What can a
Minbari know about Centauri feeling?<br>
<B>Mayan:</B> Ambassador, I have traveled far and seen much. And
what I have seen tells me that all sentient beings are defined by
their capacity and need for love.<br>
<B>Londo:</B> And she will learn to live without it!<br>
<B>Mayan:</B> As you did?<br>
<li> <A NAME="BP:7">[later...]</A><br>
<B>Vir:</B> Kiron may die because our "glorious" tradition values
wealth and power over <I>love.</I><br>
<B>Londo:</B> My shoes are too tight.<br>
<B>Vir:</B> Excuse me?<br>
<B>Londo:</B> Something my father said. He was old, very old at
the time. I went into his room, and he was sitting alone in the
dark, crying. So I asked him what was wrong, and he said, "My
shoes are too tight, but it doesn't matter, because I have
forgotten how to dance." I never understood what that meant until
now. <I>My</I> shoes are too tight, and I have forgotten how to
dance.
</ul>
<H2><A NAME="UQ">Unanswered Questions</A></H2>
<ul>
<li> <A NAME="UQ:1">The black light camouflage suits</A> worn by the
Homeguard henchmen were developed by Earth Force; friends of
<A HREF="#AN:6">Malcolm's</A> procured some prototypes for them.
Is a faction of Earth Force actually backing the Homeguard for its
own reasons?
<li> <A NAME="UQ:2">Londo</A> seems to have had a troubled childhood
(see <A HREF="#BP:7"> Backplot</A>). What happened that he's so
aggressive and melancholy? None of the other Centauri seem
particularly so.
<li> <A NAME="UQ:3">Why is Kosh studying human history,</A> as
<A HREF="#NO:4">Sinclair's conversation with him</A> appears to
reveal, especially when he says "We have no interest in the affairs
of others?" Perhaps for some reason Kosh does not consider humans
"others." Or perhaps by "affairs" he meant the passing events of
the day, as compared to the millennia of a civilization.
</ul>
<H2><A NAME="AN">Analysis</A></H2>
<ul>
<li> <A NAME="AN:1">The Homeguard sign</A> branded onto Shaal Mayan's
forehead is a combination of male and female symbols from ancient
Greek mythos. Perhaps it's a contemporary symbol for humankind.
<li> <A NAME="AN:2">Vir</A> passed himself off as the Centauri
ambassador in letters to his cousins, and later
<A HREF="#BP:7">rebukes</A> Londo to his face about his decision on
the matter. This is quite bold compared to the quavering fop he's
been before.
<li> <A NAME="AN:3">Londo's nicknames for his wives</A> are "Pestilence,
Famine, and Death" - three of the four horsemen of the apocalypse
from ancient Christian mythos. Who is the fourth horseman War?
Perhaps Londo himself.
<li> <A NAME="AN:4" HREF="#NO:4">Talking to Kosh</A> about the
attacks on non-humans, Sinclair breaks off right after asking him
to "lend a hand". Not long later Sinclair wonders aloud to Ivanova
how an assassin had managed to poison Kosh on the "hand",
<I>through</I> his encounter suit. (cf <A HREF="000.html">"The
Gathering"</A>)
<li> <A NAME="AN:5">Sinclair was brusque and callous</A> to Delenn and
the Abbai agricultural representative at the diplomatic reception.
He also declared to the assembled Council that the hate-crime
investigation was closed, offering neither arrests nor evidence of
safety. This was part of his ruse to win the Homeguard's trust,
but he may still have injured his reputation with other races.
<li> <A NAME="AN:6">The Homeguard plot</A> on the station was,
according to its leader Malcolm Biggs, part of a much bigger plot
to kill prominent aliens all over the Earth Alliance.
<li> <A NAME="AN:7">Black light camouflage</A> is a similar technology
to the chameleon net the assassin used in <A HREF="000.html">"The
Gathering"</A>. However, it requires an entire body-suit and only
works while the user is motionless. No mention was made of what
was done with the four suits captured with the Homeguard henchmen -
Garibaldi may have stashed them away somewhere. And it's unlikely
that those were the only four suits in existence; perhaps the
technology will be seen again (cf.
<a href="020.html#AN:inv">"Babylon Squared"</a>.)
</ul>
<H2><A NAME="NO">Notes</A></H2>
<ul>
<li> <A NAME="NO:1">Mayan,</A> a childhood friend of Delenn's, arrived
on the station on a tour of other worlds. Earth was to have been
her next stop.
<li> <A NAME="NO:2"><B>Mayan</B></A> (of her attacker): "All I could see
was a shadow. It was a shadow, that is all I know.<br>
(cf <A HREF="013.html">"Signs and Portents"</A>, perhaps?)
<li> <A NAME="NO:3">Ivanova</A> is illegally growing coffee in the
station hydroponics area.
<li> <A NAME="NO:4">Kosh speaks.</A><br>
[...]<br>
<B>Sinclair:</B> Meanwhile it might be
helpful if you spoke with the other ambassadors.<br>
<B>Kosh:</B> We take no interest in the affairs of others.<br>
<B>Sinclair:</B> Well I hope you'll reconsider. If you could give
us a hand, we -<br>
<B>Kosh:</B> Yes?<br>
<B>Sinclair:</B> Nothing. We'll respect your wishes. [pause]<br>
That's quite a viewer. I've never seen anything like it before.
What is it?<br>
<B>Kosh:</B> Efficient.<br>
<B>Sinclair:</B> Those are images from my world. If I may ask, what
are you -<br>
<B>Kosh:</B> I am studying.<br>
<B>Sinclair:</B> Studying what?<br>
<B>Kosh:</B> [shuts down]
<li> <A NAME="NO:5">The images</A> on Kosh's levitating viewer were
zoom-ins on pictorial records from Earth history throughout the
span of its civilization.
</ul>
<H2><A NAME="JS">jms speaks</A></H2>
<ul>
<li> Correct; the title of "The War Prayer" is a nod to
<a href="/lurk/making/warprayer.html">Twain's piece of
the same name</a>,
which should be read by *everyone*. Given the growing
problems with illiteracy, I try to refer not to pop society so much, as
to literature...Tennyson, Twain, even writers whose last names don't
begin with T.
<p>
<li> Of course, you're assuming that a Centauri year is the same as our
year. The speed of light is constant...but defined by us by our own
12-month year. For instance, in one episode, we mention that B5 is 12
of our light years from the Narn homeworld, which is equal to about 10
of their years.
<p>
So without knowing the Centauri year, the figures are faulty.
<p>
<li> For those out there who still think the skin tab getting through Kosh's
encounter suit was an error...we're going to be dealing with that,
and some other interesting threads in [this] episode. Sinclair
comments on the whole question of how the poison ever got into
him...and notes how curious it is that, within weeks of that
incident, Dr. Kyle was transferred back to Earth to work directly
with the Earth Alliance President on matters of alien immigration,
and Lyta Alexander was similarly transferred a week or so after that.
The only two people to have personal knowledge of a Vorlon have been
shipped off and possibly locked up.
<p>
<li> By the way...on the Kosh poisoning thread, which was originally to
be discussed in "Parliament"...we ended up about 3 minutes long on
"Parliament," and three minutes short on D.C. Fontana's "War Prayer."
So we lifted that scene and inserted it into her episode, doing a
small bit of ADR to facilitate the move. It's now quite seamless.
<p>
<li> <em>Why was Delenn unfamiliar with poetry in
<a href="000.html">"The Gathering?"</a></em><br>
For the Minbari, it's tee'la, which is a kind of poem-song, sort of.
Delenn was mainly just unfamiliar with the term.
<p>
<li> Y'know...it's a funny old world. And sometimes it just astonishes
you.
<p>
About 2 months ago, one of our freelancers turned in a script that
has to do with a hate group, in the course of which a guest character
-- a Minbari -- is attacked and has her head branded with the symbol
of the group.
<p>
So you will doubtless understand my astonishment when I turned on
DS9 and saw the same thing happen.
<p>
Unfortunately, we've already shot that episode, it's in the can, so
ther nothing we can do about it now. Further -- and let me be
totally clear about this -- there's no way that DS9 could've borrowed
the idea from us, or in any way been influence by us, and no way we
could've been influenced by them. To get on the air now, they
would've had to shoot their episode some time before the writer
turned in that draft for our show. And none of us were in any way
aware of what was going on there until we saw it the night of the
broadcast...and came in the next day with looks of absolute shock.
<p>
These things do happen...and when you're dealing with similar general
areas -- humans vs. aliens, or one alien group vs. another alien
group -- then something like this becomes inevitable. And given the
foreheads on Ferengi, and the foreheads on Minbari, the obviousness
of that target becomes clear. Still, it's amazing when it happens.
And I guess I just wanted it to be clear when this thing airs that
the sequence in our show was in the can and done when the DS9 episode
aired.
<p>
<li> We're in discussions to see if there's any way we can cut this from
the show...the only problem is that the brand stays on throughout the
show. If it were just in one shot, we'd cut the shot and find some
other way around it. The only way we can lose it now would be if we
literally wiped off the brand by going into every frame in which it
appears and digitally removing it from the frame...which is a *real*
pain in the butt...but we are considering it.
<p>
<li> The points made above are essentially correct; the brand goes on in
the very top of the show, in the teaser, and stay on throughout the
episode...and part of the story is dealing with this, and what it
means. An offer is made to remove it, but the victim decides *not*
to have it removed, because there are lessons in these things...and
it becomes almost a badge of defiance.
<p>
In addition to the notes here, I've received a whole bunch of email
notes saying to leave it in, on the grounds that it *does* happen in
real life (or incidents close to it), and how we're handling it *is*
very different. (Some indicated that it can illustrate how the two
hows handle their themes in different ways.) So it's a tough call
...to change would also mean some re-shooting...but given the
responses here, I think it's okay to leave it in place.
<p>
File this one away the next time someone asks, "What sort of ways has
the BBS discussion actually affected Babylon 5?"
<p>
<li> There is some limited life within the garden...some birds (which you
can hear sometimes), and insects, and the like. (In one shot you
can see an insect fly off one of our actors. Yeah, sure, like we
planned that....) It's generally one season in the Garden, and
plants requiringvariation are raised in a separate hydroponics
area, such as the orchard (seen in "War Prayer").
<p>
<li> Lennier is not in the cargo area during the beating, nor is he in BG
during the negotiations. That's a Minbari of the worker class. (You
can generally tell from the orange-ish smock-thingie they wear.)
Sorry.
</ul>
<HR>
Originally compiled by Matthew Ryan <i>mbr2@kimbark.uchicago.edu</i>

707
guide/bak/008
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@ -1,707 +0,0 @@
<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
Sinclair is kidnapped and interrogated by members of a pro-Earth group,
determined to find out what transpired when the commander was briefly
missing in action during the final battle of the Earth/Minbari
war -- something Sinclair has never been able to remember.
</cite>
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Scott,+Judson">Judson Scott</a> as Knight One.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Neame,+Christopher">Christopher Neame</a> as Knight Two.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Youngs,+Jim">Jim Youngs</a> as Frank Benson.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Williams,+Justin">Justin Williams</a> as Mitchell.
</blockquote>
<pre>
Sub-genre: Suspense
<a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/008">8.90</a>
Production number: 106
Original air date: March 16, 1994
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Janet Greek
</pre>
<H3><A NAME="WF">Watch For</a></H3>
<ul>
<li> <a name="WF:3">A</a> <a href="#NO:1">newspaper headline</a> describing
some unusual political machinations.
<li> <A NAME="WF:2">Sinclair</A> <A HREF="008.line.synop.html#manip">reacts to
something</A> just before his ship is manipulated.
<li> <A NAME="WF:1">A small</A> <A HREF="008.line.synop.html#exam">device</A>
is held up in front of Sinclair at one point. Remember what it
looks like; it'll appear again later in the season.
</ul>
<P>
<hr size=3>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="BP">Backplot</A></H2>
<ul>
<li> <A NAME="BP:1">In the days before the Earth/Minbari war,</A>
Dr. Franklin used to hitchhike starships, trading his services as
ship's doctor in exchange for free passage to places he'd never
been before.
<li> <A NAME="BP:2"><B>Franklin:</B></A> "Towards the end, when things
got bad for our side, those of us involved in xenobiology were told
to hand over our notes to be used in genetic and biological
warfare. [...] I took an oath that all life was sacred. I
destroyed my notes, rather than have them used for killing."
<li> <A NAME="BP:3">After his squad was shot down at the Line,</A>
Sinclair's ship was disabled and taken aboard a Minbari cruiser.
He was tortured and examined, and at one point stood unfettered
within the circle of the grey council itself. When they didn't
respond to his questions, Sinclair suddenly walked up to one of
them and pulled back the hood, revealing the face of Delenn. He
was then knocked out again, and some time later returned to his
ship with no memory of the experience.<br>
<I>(A <A HREF="008.line.synop.html">synopsis</A> of the
events at the Line as Sinclair re-experiences them is available.
There is also
a separate <A HREF="008.line.page.html">Guide page</A> devoted to those
events.)</I>
<li> <A NAME="BP:4"><B>Knight Two:</B></A> "Your ship was off the
screens for 24 hours. You didn't just black out, your ship
disappeared!"<br>
<B>Sinclair</B> "The screens malfunctioned, the hearing proved that."
<li> <A NAME="BP:5">This would explain</A> why Sinclair
"fell off the merry-go-round" promotion-wise.
Officers who've inexplicably disappeared in the presence of the
enemy tend to hit a glass ceiling even if their loyalty is
officially accepted.
<li> <A NAME="BP:6">The Knights may be part of a covert operation</A>
within Earth Force that's trying to find collusion between Earth
officials and the Minbari.
</ul>
<H2><A NAME="UQ">Unanswered Questions</A></H2>
<ul>
<li> <A NAME="UQ:1">Franklin asks Delenn,</A> "How were you involved in
the war?". She declines to answer, even though he had just
answered the same question from her. Toward the end of the episode
it's revealed that Delenn did indeed play a significant role in the
war, but little is yet known about what that was.
(cf: <A HREF="020.html">"Babylon Squared"</A>)
<li> <A NAME="UQ:2">Sinclair's absence was first realized</A> when
Delenn reported that he didn't show up for a meeting with her in
the Council room. What was that meeting to have been about?
<li> <A NAME="UQ:3">Delenn said she checked with Ivanova</A> before
asked Garibaldi about Sinclair's absence. Ivanova is willing to
page Sinclair about <em>everyday</em> problems - why wouldn't she call his
link when he's mysteriously long overdue for a diplomatic appointment?
<li> <A NAME="UQ:4">Later, Delenn asks Ivanova</A> if there's anything
she can do to help, and Ivanova replies that the crew is doing
everything possible. Yet why is she strolling down a corridor with
Delenn, rather than following leads and scouring for new ways to
find Sinclair?
<li> <A NAME="UQ:5">How was Sinclair flawlessly abducted from his quarters?</A>
<li> <A NAME="UQ:6">How did Knight One get Benson's body off the station?</A>
(see <A HREF="#JS:a">jms Speaks</A>)
<li> <A NAME="UQ:7">Who were the Knights working for?</A>
<li> <A NAME="UQ:8">Why wasn't telepathy used for the interrogation?</A>
It would have been no less legal than what the Knights did, and a
telepath would probably have had better skills at dredging up old
memories. The whole power source problem (which ultimately sunk
the Knights' plan) could have been avoided - only the stimulation
technology need have been brought on board.
<li> <A NAME="UQ:9">Is Sinclair really a Minbari plant?</A>
<li> <A NAME="UQ:10">Why was Delenn's superior on the station?</A>
<li> <B><A NAME="UQ:11">What is it</A> that the Minbari don't want
Sinclair to remember about his experience on the Line???</B>
</ul>
<H2><A NAME="AN">Analysis</A></H2>
<ul>
<li> <A NAME="AN:1"><B>Sinclair:</B></A> "Everyone lies, Michael. The
innocent lie because they don't want to be blamed for something
they didn't do, and the guilty lie because they don't have any
other choice."<br> This is extra reason to think twice before
taking anything said in this episode at face value. Nor should one
assume that a lie covers up wrongdoing.
<li> <A NAME="AN:2">Earth Force</A> was researching the use of genetic
and biological warfare against the Minbari. These are offensive,
not defensive methods, effective only on planets. They must have
been planning a desperation ground strike of some kind.
(cf: <A HREF="002.html">"Soul Hunter"</A>)
<li> <A NAME="AN:3">After he punches Knight Two in VR,</A> Sinclair
looks at his hand, making a fist and releasing it. Scenes of him
in the cybernet chair after that show him clenching his fist in
real life as well, in unison with continued fist-clenching in VR.
Sinclair is rediscovering, slowly, how to get his brain to control
his body. The pain of the remembered zap in the council chambers
is later enough to propel him all the way back, if groggily.
<li> <A NAME="AN:4">While looking for Sinclair's body outside,</A>
station forces discover the body of Benson floating outside Red
Sector. Garibaldi visually identifies him (other Security folks
had not been able to), and says, "Whoever killed him couldn't have
carried the body very far without being noticed." He may be wrong
in this conclusion - Knight One could have dumped it into a
nondescript cart and gone a long way, for example.
<li> <A NAME="AN:5"><B>Garibaldi:</B></A> "If they dumped the body out
of an airlock, the station's gravity wouldn't let it get far."
This is true <em>only</em> if the body was dumped out of a no- or
low-velocity airlock. Perhaps Garibaldi's assertion is correct
because there aren't any high-velocity airlocks on the station
other than the Cobra Bays.
<li> <A NAME="AN:6"><B>Knight Two:</B></A> "Look at Earth: Alien
civilization. Alien migration. Aliens buying up real estate by
the square mile. What they couldn't take by force, they corrupted!
Inch by inch!"<br> This sounds very much like Homeguard propaganda
- perhaps there is a connection. (cf: <A HREF="007.html">"War
Prayer"</A>)
<li> <A NAME="AN:7">Delenn exhibits ignorance</A> of the powers of Earth
telepaths - Ivanova had to explain to her that Talia, a P5, was not
capable of a search-and-recover mission.
<li> <A NAME="AN:8">Ivanova's only contribution to the search effort</A>
was to track all ships that left Babylon 5 in the previous 8 hours,
which turned out to be wasted effort. This and several
<A HREF="#UQ:3">Unanswered Questions</A> suggest she may have been
working with the Knights.
<li> <A NAME="AN:9"><B>Delenn:</B> "It's me, commander."</A><br>
<B>Sinclair:</B> "I know - I know you. I know who you are."<br>
<B>Delenn:</B> "I'm your friend, commander. Ambassador Delenn.
<em>Your friend.</em><br>
<B>Sinclair:</B> "NO! I know you. I know you."
[Knight One prepares to fire, Sinclair shoots him down]<br>
<B>Delenn:</B> "Welcome home."<br>
[Sinclair collapses]<br>
By his emphatic denial above, it should be clear to Delenn that
Sinclair is remembering <em>something</em> about
<A HREF="008.line.synop.html#GC:2">his discovery of her at the
Line.</A> He later denies remembering anything, but she must wonder
if he's lying. (If the <A HREF="008.line.page.html#AN:5">Analysis</A>
in the Line Guide page is correct, however, she should be
<B>certain</B> he is lying.)
<li> <A NAME="AN:10">Knight Two apparently remembered nothing</A> about
himself after Sinclair's destructive escape fried his memory.
However, the word "Commander" brings him up short, and he remembers
Sinclair's name, saying "There's something in my head. It says:
'Maybe you're still inside. Maybe we're both still inside.'" His
phrasing there indicates that this is not his own current thought,
but a thought that survived his brain damage. So, what did Knight
Two, in full possession of his faculties, mean by that suspicion?
The most obvious answer is "inside the simulation", but this is a
very weak explanation, and goes nowhere.
<li> <A NAME="AN:11">Knight Two's last experience</A> would have been
watching Sinclair's recollection of his Grey Council experience,
<B>including</B> his discovery of Delenn (whom Knight Two may not
have recognized).
<li> See also the <A HREF="008.line.page.html">Guide page</A> devoted to
Sinclair's recollection of the events on the Line.
</ul>
<H2><A NAME="NO">Notes</A></H2>
<ul>
<li> <A NAME="NO:1"><H3>Universe Today Headlines:</H3></A>
<ul>
<li> <B>Sports:</B> Zero-G Tennis Results Inside
<li> <B>Is There Something Living in Hyperspace?</B>
<li> <B>Homeguard Leader Convicted:</B> Jacob Lester Found Guilty
In Attack on Minbari Embassy
<li> <B>Narns settle Raghesh 3 Controversy</B>
<li> <B>EA President Promises Balanced Budget by 2260</B>
<li> <B>Psi Corps in Election Tangle:</B> Did Psi-Corps Violate its
Charter by Endorsing Vice-President?
<em>(see <A HREF="#JS">jms Speaks</A>)</em>
<li> <B>San Diego Still Considered Too Radioactive for Occupancy:</B><br>
A new study published by Earthforce Nuclear Regulatory Office
declares San Diego, struck by the American States first act of
nuclear terrorism over 100 years ago, still uninhabitable for
the next 300 years.
<li> <B>SPECIAL SECTION: Pros & Cons of Interspecies Mating</B>
<li> <B>Copyright Trial Continues in Bookzap Flap:</B> Books Downloaded
Directly into Brain: Who Owns Them?
<li> <B>Is There Something Living in Hyperspace?</B> <em>(a repeat)</em>
<li> <B>New Binary Star Discovered</B>
<li> <B>Inside: Universe Today: Babylon 5 Edition:</B>
<ul>
<li> Classified 5-70
<li> Crossword 60
<li> Editorial/Opinion 10-11A
<li> Lotteries 11C
<li> Horoscope 8A
<li> HoloComics 9E
</ul>
</ul>
<li> The text of all the articles are instructions for the "Babylon 5
Equation Editor", which looks like genuine documentation after a
search and replace has been performed from the product's name to
"Babylon 5".
<li> <em>Source for Universe Today information: "Cinefantastique", April
1994, p35</em>
<li> <A NAME="NO:2">Dr. Franklin</A> now has baseline medical readings
for a healthy adult Minbari.
<li> <A NAME="NO:3">Casino regulations for officers:</A> no gambling on
duty, off-duty gambling is limited to 50 credits per week.
<li> <A NAME="NO:4">Garibaldi has security access to Sinclair's quarters.</A>
<li> <A NAME="NO:5"><B>Jeffrey David Sinclair</B></A><br>
<B>2218:</B> Born on Mars Colony May 3rd.<br>
<B>2237:</B> Enlisted in Earth Force Defense.<br>
<B>2240:</B> Promoted to Fighter Pilot.<br>
<B>2241:</B> Promoted to Squad Leader (!)
<li> Sinclair's ancestors have been fighter pilots for many generations.
<li> <A NAME="NO:7"><B>Knight Two:</B></A> "If I fail, more will come
after me, until the job is finished."
<li> <A NAME="NO:8"><B>Sinclair:</B></A> (to Mitchell) "I tried to warn
you, but you wouldn't listen. You never listen."
<li> <A NAME="NO:9">Payoff money</A> was deposited to Benson's account
at 0300, presumably soon after he delivered a big power supply to
the Knights. At 0700 Sinclair "went missing" - presumably this was
when Delenn was supposed to meet with him in the Council room (see
<A HREF="#UQ:3">Unanswered Questions</A>).
</ul>
<H2><A NAME="JS">jms speaks</A></H2>
<ul>
<p>
<li> Absolutely unlike anything ever produced before for television.
Directorially, and in terms of the visual effects, the CGI, the
performances, right across the board, it's a stunner. And just...I
can't convey this enough...different. It just takes TV SF and yanks it
to a whole other level of complexity.
<p>
<li> As for a production report...things are going swimmingly. Today we started
getting dailies on our first day of shooting on "And the Sky Full of
Stars," which deals with the Battle of the Line. This is not going to
look like your conventional episode of television. We've brought in
equipment that you don't normally see on a television set, certain kinds
of cranes and lenses and lighting packages that will give this
particular episode a very strange, almost surreal look. It's quite
remarkable.
<p>
And Ron's pushing the envelope on the CGI...compositing some
live action stuff with CGI that'll blow your TV out.
<p>
It's going *well*.
<p>
<li> Spent a very, very, very long day today in editing...not out of any
problems, but because of the *astonishing* amount of detail we're
putting into "And the Sky Full of Stars." Leaving out all the live-
action shots, there are 25 CGI shots in one and a half minutes in
one sequence alone. (By way of comparison, there were 55 or so in
the full two hour pilot for B5.) So we go frame by frame, making
sure that everything meshes properly, through some pretty intense
gistics. You'll understand when you see it.
<p>
I've never seen the like of this particular episode before. It's a
real gem.
<p>
<li> On returns... Garibaldi's aide: yes. Knights: yes, but not
identified as such.
<p>
<li> Lurkers is indeed a net reference.
<p>
<li> Psi Corps, as a government-regulated agency, is prohibited from
endorsing candidates or taking a political stance.
<p>
<li> I would *never* pull a "he wakes up and it was all a dream" on the
series. I hate that kind of story.
<p>
<li> <A NAME="JS:a">It has *always* been my sense</A> that the body was
slipped out an access airlock in the zero-g cargo area. Every
other access -- like the boarding area and standard cargo area --
is under close security to prevent this kind of thing, or the
influx of contraband. There's really nowhere to GO from the zero-g
section, so it's a little looser. As for how he got the body
there...there is an answer, and a reason, and if you look at this
episode again after the season is over, even the nitpickers who
brought it up will be able to figure it out. I didn't address it
in the issue because I didn't think anyone would make a federal
case out of this, and for other reasons that will in time become
apparent. Several other nits picked at this episode will *also* be
clarified by season's end. It's not easy to sit quietly, knowing
the answer, and being unable to tell it, but that's simply what I
have to do for the time being.
<p>
<li>
Psi Cops are *authorized* to carry firearms. The Knights had an in
with Security, and by virtue of high government contacts, got their
stuff on board. Those seem to me not requiring much explanation.
<p>
<li>
I can't believe this "explain how the guns get aboard" discussion is
still going on. This isn't the Enterprise, to use the cited example,
which is a *military vessel*, and only the occasional rare civilian
gets on board. There are a QUARTER MILLION PEOPLE on board at any
given moment. (People = humans and aliens.) Not staying there, but
in a state of flux. Going and coming. Anywhere from 50 to 100 ships
per day dock at B5. Thousands upon thousands of boxes, crates, cargo
loads, pallets, you name it. If you stopped and inspected every
single box that came through, the system would grind to a halt. So
you do the best you can, you catch whatever you can, scan as much as
possible, and accept that some stuff is bound to slip through.
<p>
Further, this is the kind of explanation that has nothing to do with
a story, only with someone's need to have something explained to them.
I think the time is spent better elsewhere.
<p>
<li> Yes, that is a triluminary on the grey council staff in "Sky."
(cf. <a href="020.html">"Babylon Squared"</a>)
<p>
<li> Bear in mind, though, that Sinclair really had no reason to doubt what he
remembered happening on the Line until the Minbari assassin uttered those
seven fateful words. As for others...there have been suspicions, but more
broadbased...and we'll deal with those a bit here and there.
<p>
<li> Also, check the readout on Sinclair's screen as he's trying to engage the
enemy. You'll see "negative lock" popping up. One problem in fighting the
Minbari vessels is that they have a kind of stealth tech that makes it very
hard for our weapons to lock on.
<p>
<li>
Bill Mitchell from "Sky" is a reference to General Billy Mitchell . . .
<p>
<li> Yeah, it was an off-the-cuff reference to Billy Mitchell . . .
<p>
(Didn't really mean that much; just thought it wuz cool.)
<p>
<li>
Re: "Sky"...my theory is to *never* assume prior knowledge of the
background info that goes into an episode. If you never saw the
pilot, you will miss *nothing* going into "Sky" (though it'd be nice
because of one quickie flashback to know where that came from). I
don't think anyone will have a hard time following that one.
<P>
<li>
This was one segment of the battle; there were others going on in
other areas as well. It's said that no one ever *saw* the Battle of
the Bulge; each saw a small part of it. Same here.
<p>
Reality is, no matter how big we would've made it, more would've been
wanted. (If anything, it seems that the more we show, the more is
wanted.) But all things considered, best to have folks wanting more
than wanting less....
<p>
(And remember, we're managing to do all this with roughly *half* of
TNG's budget. Give us their budget, and I'll show you ALL of the
Battle of the Line, and the ENTIRE Earth/Minbari War, PLUS all their
home worlds.)
<p>
Nonetheless, as we go deeper into the season, the CGI/action sequences
do get bigger and more detailed in many places. In "Signs and
Portents" (formerly "Raiding Party"), you'll see three pretty good
sized squadrons of ships engaged in a very fast-paced battle that goes
on for most of an act and a half, as opposed to just a few scenes in
"Sky." Big battles weren't really the *point* in "Sky," it was more
about his REACTIONS and his personal fate. There were a number of
action/battle shots we had on hand, but decided not to use because we
didn't want to dilute the *point* of the scene.
<p>
And as stated elsewhere...yes, you'll be seeing the Minbari war
cruiser(s) again.
<p>
<li>
Actually, as you'll see in "Sky," sometimes the Good Guys *do* get
their ships hit; sometimes they blow up and kill the person (as you
will see), and sometimes they do damage without destroying the ship,
in which case there is an eject mechanism that separates the cockpit
part from the rest of the fighter, which contains the volatile
reactors.
<p>
So in those circumstances, a flight suit is a *very* good idea....
<p>
<li>
We actually had a lot more shots we could've used to prolong the
sequence, but felt we *really* had to get to Sinclair, and go into
his point of view more. Also we step-printed the CGI to give it a
more dream-like appearance, since we're seeing this from inside
Sinclair's memory, and he wasn't really able to *see* all this,
particularly stuff happening around and behind him, this is more his
*sense* of the events of that time. The sections we didn't step-print
were those where he was RIGHT THERE, to make a subtle distinction.
<p>
<li>
What? Who, me? Near as I remember, the Question was, "What happened
at the Battle of the Line?" Answer: Sinclair was taken aboard the
Minbari cruiser, tortured, interrogated, mind-wiped and shoved back
into his ship.
<p>
The Question *now* is, "WHY was Sinclair taken aboard the Minbari
cruiser, tortured, interrogated, mind-wiped and shoved back into his
ship?"
<p>
That question was not asked heretofore...so how could it be still
unanswered?
<p>
<li>
A number of people have commented that they weren't much surprised by
Sinclair being taken aboard, because on the nets -- and this has ONLY
taken place on the nets -- this speculation has been bandied about
for some time. We now have ten zillion speculations on the reason
*why*. I will not comment on them one way or another (though I
suppose I could point, without making the real comparison between
types of typists, to the idea that an infinte number of monkeys typing
on an infinite number of keyboards would eventually produce Hamlet
simply by chance combination; sooner or later, something close to the
reality might be stumbled upon...and let me ask a simple question:
what purpose does that serve? It only lessens the enjoyment of those
who would simply like to enjoy what happens WHEN it happens).
<p>
Any good detective knows that you can't really begin to speculate
about motive until you have all the information right at hand. At
this point there is information you don't have...and absent that, any
guesses will either be wrong, or close enough to hinder the fun but
still essentially incorrect. It's like trying to guess the contents
of a box without knowing the size of the box...it could be a marble,
it could be an elephant or a pre-fabricated house.
<p>
All I'm suggesting is that you consider not trying to come up with
every possible angle, and let the show progress on its own. Right
now everybody seems to be scrambling to make sure every even remotely
feasible possibility is covered, and there an infinite number. As an
organized activity, this will in time only prove frustrating. By the
end of the season, as with being near the end of a movie, you'll have
enough info on hand to start making some educated guesses. To do so
now is to begin the proess of calling out possible endings during
the first five minutes of a movie...you'll miss the important things,
and annoy the people sitting behind you.
<p>
I'm not saying stop; I'm just saying...relax, a little, I guess, and
simply be aware that you *cannot* scatter-shot this thing without
having access to all the information. It's like trying to guess the
beginnings of World War One without knowing *any* of the background of
the countries involved. Suffice to say that the reason would not be
simplistic, or cliched, or *easily deduced*. One thing I learned in
two years on "Murder, She Wrote" was to come up with a fairly complex
mystery, something that can't be easily solved going in, but which
makes perfect sense after you have all the facts and know which clues
were the real ones, and which were simply red herrings.
<p>
Just a thought....
<p>
<li>
We'd initially offered Walter [Koenig] the role of Knight Two in
"Sky," but when his health prohibited using him, we went to Patrick
McGoohan, who loved the script, wanted to do it, but was going to be
out of the country at the time of shooting. We then shifted Walter
to "Mind War."
<p>
<li>
Thanks. I love Patrick's work. Problem is he's *very* fussy on the
roles he takes. (And justifiably so.) He has to be sold on the
script or there's no deal. We'd sent him a copy of "And the Sky Full
of Stars," which would have had him as the main interrogator, Knight
Two...and he liked it, and was prepared to do it...when we checked our
respective calendars and discovered that he was going to be out of the
country when we were scheduled to shoot.
<p>
We hope to get him at some later time. He's just terrific.
<p>
<li>
The CGI scenes were deliberately step-printed to give the shots a
more dreamlike look.
<p>
<li>
The CGI won't look as good in slow motion because we step-printed
them deliberately, in order to give them a more dream-like appearance.
For us, this wasn't about the ships, it was about one of the men in
the ship, which is why we kept him in sharp focus, and went to step-
printing whenever we went outside (and since we're seeing this from
his memory, clearly he wouldn't actually have *seen* most ofthis,
it's his *sense* of what happened). You'll get plenty of clear CGI
in "Signs and Portents," airing in May.
<p>
<li>
Actually, there's a second shot in which you can see a body being
thrown out; it's between Mitchell and Sinclair being hit. Remember
that the body is strapped in in an angular fashion, and look for it
as it blows (as I recall) from left to right. It's there.
<p>
<li>
This weekend, I was at the Space Frontier Foundation to receive an
award for Babylon 5 for Best Vision of the Future, part of which was
its recognition of our *deliberate efforts* to get things right.
Zero-G maneuvering, civilian use of space, a working O'Neill station,
on and on, all the stuff you think happens by "coincidence." And
which has not generally HAPPENED on TV before. In attendence were
the Delta Clipper team of engineers, astronaut Pete Conrad, leading
researchers with NASA, JPL, McDonnell-Douglas, you name it.
<p>
And one of the people there, who had been with SDI and the Space
Program for 12 years, currently a top-level NASA consultant, pulled
me aside and said that after seeing the line about the gravity not
letting the body get very far . . . he said he sat down to do the
math required to come up with the actual MASS of B5, starting with
the 2.5 million tons of actual structure, plus likely vegetation,
quarters, occupants, ships docked inside...and when you add it all
up, it came to about the same mass as a fairly small moon...and IT
WOULD BE ENOUGH TO KEEP THE BODY FROM -- AS STATED IN THE SCRIPT --
GETTING VERY FAR.
<p>
The body would drift from the station a bit, get pulled back, hit
the hull, bounce, drift a bit, and be pulled back. Or go into a slow
elliptical orbit. (He mentioned that in the history of the Apollo
program, little bits of debris that would flake off the outside of
the ship would remain in proximity to the ship, just on the basis of
ITS mass and gravity, and it's not very big.)
<p>
A couple of other high-level engineers backed him up, and said that
it was quite reasonable.
<p>
<li>
The 2.5 million tons of spinning *metal* refers only to that part,
the metal casing. It doesn't include the furniture, the structures,
the Garden, the 250,000 humans and aliens...so the total mass of the
thing is MUCH greater than the 2.5 megatons. Also, the body was
shoved out of the area around the cargo bay, non-rotating, which
would also cut down on the momentum (as opposed to shoving out out of
the rotating part, where it would speed away at 1g).
<p>
<li>
Yes, it was always my assumption that the body was dumped out through
the zero-g section, since that has more traffic with cargo loaders
and unloaders and less security than the passenger-oriented bays and
airlocks.
<p>
<li>
There is a security problem on B5, yes. And we hope to deal with it
at some point. It's inevitable, really; 250,000 residents, huge
crates being moved in and out every day, people going and coming...
they try to confiscate what they can, but a lot slips through.
<p>
<li>
The second shot to Knight One is a gut-shot, and the security guard
is shot through the chest.
<p>
Bear in mind, also, that some of this may be expected by folks here
on the nets because of the ongoing conversations, speculation and the
bits of info I drop here; but for 99.9% of the rest of the nation,
this IS new info. And even with the nets, I suspect that there are
some surprises here....
<p>
<li>
<em>'Universe Today' Headline</em><br>
I lived in San Diego from 1974-1981, and it's actually a great place,
so I'm inclined to tweak it once in a while, just for funsies....
<p>
<li>
The wisp of smoke is a wisp of smoke, nothing more important than that.
If something living in hyperspace bothers you...good, it
should. The Psi Corps article is in frame for a reason. Yes, we
sometimes put additional or important information in the background,
but I don't think we can be fair and assume that everyone sees it, so
if you don't see it in one place, it's stated out loud later on...the
background stuff is to give the alert viewer a fighting chance to
guess some stuff BEFORE it happens; when stuff DOES finally happen,
all the required information is supplied at that time.
<p>
<li>
Correct, Gregory. One of the things we learned from the pilot was
that we shoved too much information at people too fast. So I
deliberately held back a lot of arc stuff in the beginning of the
series, allowing people to move gradually into the B5 universe, learn
more about it, and THEN start whapping them with the arc. It isn't
until "Mind War" and "Sky" that we really begin cranking the arc.
</ul>
<HR>
Originally compiled by Matthew Ryan <i>mbr2@kimbark.uchicago.edu</i>

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<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
The station becomes a hotbed of galactic controversy when
Sinclair is forced to protect a notorious war criminal -- a
scientist who's invented an immortality serum. Ambassador Kosh hires
telepath Talia Winters to oversee a very unusual negotiation.
</cite>
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Douglas,+Sarah">Sarah Douglas</a> as Deathwalker/Jha'Dur.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Curtis,+Robin">Robin Curtis</a> as Ambassador Kalika.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Costa,+Cosie">Cosie Costa</a> as Abbut.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Aleong,+Aki">Aki Aleong</a> as Senator Hidoshi.
</blockquote>
<pre>
Sub-genre: Intrigue
<a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/009">8.21</a>
Production number: 113
Original air date: April 20, 1994
Written by Larry DiTillio
Directed by Bruce Seth Green
</pre>
<p>
<hr size=3>
<p>
<h2><a name="BP">Backplot</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> The League of Non-Aligned Worlds and the Earth Alliance are allies,
thanks in large part to Earth's intervention while the League was
being devastated by the Dilgar thirty years earlier. JMS says, "The
Dilgar War was one of the first conflicts that the EA got into, soon
after establishing a presence in space. We mainly entered it to try
and make a `rep' for ourselves, then got more morally involved when we
saw what was going on. That and the Minbari War are the only real major
conflicts Earth has been involved with, and Earth was not directly at
risk in the Dilgar war, though if they hadn't been stopped, that might
have changed eventually."
<li> The Vorlons have a strong distrust of telepaths.
<li> The Minbari warrior castes know about the hole in Sinclair's mind.
</ul>
<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> What do the Vorlons know about immortality?
<li> Why don't they like (non-Vorlon) telepaths?
<li> Is this the last we'll hear about the immortality serum, or did Dr.
Franklin keep the sample he was testing? (JMS has hinted that it's
not a simple plot device which'll never be mentioned again.)
<li> Why do the Wind Swords speak often of Sinclair? What do they know
about what happened to him?
</ul>
<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
<UL>
<LI> Na'Toth's grandfather had the misfortune to be on a planet that Jha'dur
took, and her misuse of him is the source of Na'Toth's fued, yet the
Narn seem to give the incident no particular weight. What world this
was is not disclosed, but either it wasn't a Narn colony, and Na'Toth's
grandfather was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, or it was
a Narn colony and the incident was smoothed over at the time. Evidence
seems to point to the former, but it's unclear.
<p>
<LI> Jha'dur is a specialist in, "biochemical, biogenetic, and cyber-organic
weaponry." During the Dilgar invasion of the "non-aligned sectors" she
decimated whole planets to further her own research. Presumably the
other Dilgar were equally vicious and callous. She seems to be
especially notorious though, known by name 30 years after the event,
perhaps because her biological experiments seem especially horrible.
<p>
<LI> At the time of the Dilgar war humanity was fresh on the interstellar
political scene, having been discovered and given jumpgate/hyperspace
technology by the Centauri. The non-aligned worlds seem to be
relatively low-tech, and they were being overrun by the Dilgar in a
particularly ruthless bid for an empire. Earth's entry into the
conflict turned the tide against the Dilgar, leading to the race's
confinement to their own system and their ultimate destruction when
their sun went nova.
<p>
<LI> Jha'dur was shielded and hidden by the Minbari Wind Swords, members of
their warrior caste, at the close of the Dilgar war 30 years ago. The
Minbari didn't encounter humans until about 20 years later, at which
time the first contact went bad and initiated the Earth-Minbari war.
Up until now it seemed that neither side knew of the other, but how
could the Minbari have aided and supported Jha-dur for 20 years without
learning of Earth? Moreover, when the Minbari are debating
their response to the loss of their leader the Wind Swords arrive on
the scene with new, very powerful weapons. Presumably much of the
Minbari arsenal of weapons and ships derives from designs given them
by Jha'dur. The circumstances
of the first contact problem between the Minbari and the Humans may
also indicate that it was the result of a plot by Jha'dur for revenge
on those who (at least indirectly) destroyed her race.
<p>
<LI> The serum designed by Jha'dur is insidious, requiring something
critical from living beings to make. It's unclear whether this same
process would be applicable to every species, or whether the same
serum could be used across species. But in any case it was designed,
perhaps intentionally, to cause a great deal of harm when used.
<p>
<LI> Just what benefit the Wind Swords derived from her research is
unstated. Note, however, that she has (a) been permitted by the Wind
Swords to use up enough living entities to pursue her research, and
(b) used at least one dose on herself with
some amount left over. She has also been permitted to leave to
negotiate with the Narn, her first entry into public view since the war.
<p>
<LI> Senator Hidoshi calls Sinclair while Jha'dur is still in medlab.
He insists that Jha'dur cannot be Deathwalker, but also insists that
she be sent to Earth immediately. Still, he clearly knows all about
the situation, which implies that he has sources of information both
on B5 and perhaps among the Minbari or the Narn.
<LI> Talia Winters has an interesting time with Kosh during this episode.
Here we see the first of a known class of people called "vicars",
short for "VCR's." These people are human recorders, capable of
recording sensory and environmental information for later playback
through devices directly implanted in their brains.
This demonstrates a very high degree of possible integration between
people and computers at the time of B5. How common this is and how
sophisticated it can be has yet to be seen.
<p>
<LI> Is Kosh a telepath? During the interviews between Kosh and Abbut (the
vicar) Talia is occasionally goaded with an image dredged up from her
mind. Clearly these are not her own thoughts, and clearly Abbut cannot
be the source since human telepaths are regulated. That only leaves
Kosh him(it?)self. Yet Talia doesn't seem to have any hint that Kosh
is doing this to her. If Kosh is a telepath, what other abilities
does he have? And if he is a telepath, and the cause of Talia's
distress, what did he need the vicar for? It seems clear that
the byplay between Kosh and Abbut was intended as misdirection, to
divert, bore and confuse her leaving her open for Kosh to penetrate
her shields and stimulate the images he collected.
<p>
<li> Kosh collects from Talia, in his words, "Reflection. Surprise.
Terror. For the future." He may intend the data as a lever or weapon
against her.
<p>
<LI> Kosh may be a telepath, and a very subtle one at that.
</UL>
<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> The Hour of Scampering is usually around tea-time, according to the
Vorlon/Human Translation Dictionary.
<p>
<li> <em>How do Vorlons scamper?</em><br>
The Vorlons do not scamper terribly well, but no one has yet told
them this.
<p>
<li> Your statement about the serum being a means of getting to the truth or
her truth at the very least is quite correct. And appropos to current
reality. We look back at the Nazis, and others, and say, "Well, WE
could never do that." But of course we could. Fine tune your
attention to the frequency of misery and inhumanity, and in short
order you'll pick up Rwanda, and Bosnia and a host of others. Our
capacity for greatness is as substantial as our capacity for evil.
And we must constantly be reminded of that duality; to pretend it
simply isn't there, or is somebody else's problem, inevitably leads
to tragedy. (For those interested, btw, I would encourage you to
check out a short story by Mark Twain, called "The Man Who Corrupted
Hadleyburg." I think you will find it *most* illuminating.)
<p>
<li> Abbut was not - repeat, NOTan imitation of Harlan, as some have
suggested. It was originally written for Gilbert Gottfried, who we later
learned was unavailable.
<p>
<li> The Babylon 5 Advisory Council and the League of Non-Aligned Worlds
functions in much the same fashion as the Security Council and the
General Assembly in the U.N. The smaller worlds and alliances can't
weild as much power as any of the Big Five. Together, they as a
group get a vote equal to one of the Big Five; they can deputize one
of their number to speak for them and cast that vote, which can often
break ties or create ties. It is not a terribly equitible situation,
but it was the only workable solution that would be accepted by the
other Ambassadors. We'll see them chafing at this in "Deathwalker."
<p>
<li> The prosthetics on our background aliens and the League started out
okay, but we felt we could do better, and began a series of
improvements, which can be seen most clearly in "Deathwalker," where
they're all proper prosthetics rather than masks.
<p>
<li> We didn't have the League of Non-Aligned Worlds up and running for
the pilot. They get one vote, determined by majority decision. EAch
mamber of the main Advisory Council gets one vote, equal to that.
In "Deathwalker," you had one abstention (Kosh), two to try her
(EA and League), and three against the trial (Narns, Centauri and
Minbari). Abstentions don't count either way in such a vote; it's the
negatives vs. the positives, and there were more no's than yes's.
<p>
<li> You assume the crowd meeting Sinclair could be placated. They make it
clear, in dialogue: "You will have to kill us all." They could not BE
placated. Your assumption has nothing to do with what happened, or
what was said. Maybe in the ST universe, Picard can turn on the charm
and just talk people out of things. That doesn't happen here, not
easily at any rate. It was turn back or kill them. Those were the
choices.
<p>
<li> As far as we knew, Lennier was going to vote with Sinclair and the
League. So you hold off his change of vote for the end. You get a
few no votes, annoy the League, Sinclair raises their hope, and then
Lennier, much as he hates it, dashes that hope. It's an arc that way,
rather than a descending staircase.
<p>
<li> Except of course that Sinclair said that the non-aligned worlds would
have observers there at all times...there are no other Dilgar to help
break her out...the Narns have no desire to attack Earth installations
to break her out as long as they get their share of the serum...and
there really was no other alternative short of war.
<p>
<li> There's no one escaping Deathwalker's ship; it's just debris spinning
away. She's dead as a mackeral.
<p>
<li> Just to clarify...the Vorlon ship destroyed only Deathwalker's ship,
not an EA vessel. And the Vorlon ship waited until Deathwalker's
ship was far from B5, just before entering the gate, before coming out
to strike. At that range, it couldn't miss, and at that distance,
B5 couldn't react fast enough.
<p>
<li> The EA escort got her as far as the gate. Then peeled away. And then
the Vorlon ship came out. That's what Sinlair said: "They will escort
you as far as the gate." And even if they had stayed with her THROUGH
the gate, it would've made no difference. Vorlon ship comes through.
Fires at Deathwalker's ship. EA ships fire back. No visible effect,
the cruiser shrugs it off and goes back the way it came. Single
Starfuries wouldn't even *dent* a Vorlon cruiser. So same result.
<p>
<li> Sinclair was taught by Jesuits...and as far as Kosh goes, better to
have him where you can see him, than not. They *are* a powerful
group, and it wouldn't serve to ignore them. We courted them for 10
years for a first contact...and now we're stuck with them.
<p>
<li> Jim, your thesis comes from the underlying assumption that, as in the
Trek universe, All Things Must Be Done Fairly, the government must in
the end be wise and fair and sensible.
<p>
That ain't our universe. That ain't even *this* universe.
<p>
Sinclair must follow orders. He didn't want to escort Deathwalker off
and on to Earth, those were his marching orders. *The same marching
orders would be given to an ambassador representing Earth*. So your
career diplomat would be in exactly the same position. What, do you
think that career diplomats are independent agents of goodness? They
all work for SOMEone, representing their interests.
<p>
Earth put in the majority of the money required to build and operate
B5. They have the right, as such, to appoint a provisional governor,
nad (and) that is the function that Sinclair mainly serves. He runs
this place, AND he is responsible for maintaining good relations with
other representatives. He is also on a short leash. And in some
cases, as in "By Any Means Necessary," other people are sent in to
handle certain kinds of negotiations.
<p>
Yes, it is a conflict of interest. So what? Do you think Earth cares
much about that? Is it awkward? Yes, of course. It *should* put him
in moral quandries. The Earth Government is constantly getting him
into binds. What they wanted him to do in "Deathwalker" was more or
less of a dubious nature. But in the end, he found a fairly moral
solution to the problem. That's what he does. He finds anhonorable
way out of very difficult and morally ambiguous situations. What you
suggest is that we remove the moral ambiguities. Ehhh. I find that
boring as hell.
<p>
Do the other species like it? Of course not. Okay, so what're they
going to do? Boycott B5? And let other species take advantage of all
the economic and political benefits the station provides? Let others
grow in familiarity and form alliances that might in time turn against
them? Not a chance. Fair or not, it's the only game in town.
<p>
So I don't buy your solution because I don't think it's a problem.
You do. That's life. Political situations are rarely fair, or
logical, or ethical. If politics were based on ethics this would be
a MUCH better world. But politics are generally based on who has the
power, and the money, and the guts.
<p>
<li> The Dilgar War was one of the first conflicts that the EA got into,
soon after establishing a presence in space. We mainly entered it to
try and make a "rep" for ourselves, then got more morally involved
when we saw what was going on. That and the Minbari War are the only
real major conflicts Earth has been involved with, and Earth was not
directly at risk in the Dilgar war, though if they hadn't been stopped,
that might have changed eventually.
<p>
<li> And yes, the Windswords were the warrior clan involved in the events
in "The Gathering."
<p>
<li> Talia, like all Psi Corps members, wears gloves because she has to,
when in public, to minimize physical contact and accidental scans.
As for others wearing gloves...sometimes it's a fashion statement
... and other times, well, space is very very cold....
<p>
<li> Abbut was screwing around when he said "I'm a 23 myself," just
messing with her.
<p>
<li> "Kosh's voice-the rumblings and bells and stuff, not the translation-
seemed to be missing a lot of the lower tones and bass that I
remembered hearing previously."
<p>
He had a cold.
<p>
<li> "It also adds another piece of miracle tech never to be seen again."
<p>
Wrong.
<p>
In point of fact, virtually *none* of the new tech stuff is just
gone...you'd be surprised what'll be showing up again down the road
a piece....
<p>
<li> Re: B5's roster of strong women characters...this is something of a
bugaboo/obsession with me. I *love* writing strong women. (For that
matter, I love strong-willed, independent, smart women in real life
as well; I love being outsmarted, love it when someone can go toe-to-
toe with me on something.) Generally, and this isn't entirely
intentional, women on shows I work on tend to get some of the best
lines, as is often the case with Ivanova. It's not a case of being
"one of the boys," but being one of the *people*. There's a subtle
difference.
<p>
The women I write are often very close to many of the women I've been
involved with over the years. So far, no one's sued....
</ul>
<p>
<hr>
Compiled by Dave Zimmerman
and Steven Grimm.

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<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
Dr. Franklin asks Sinclair to intermediate with an alien family who, because of
their religious beliefs, refuses to allow surgery that would
save their dying child.
</cite>
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Gallardo,+Silvana">Silvana Gallardo</a> as Dr. Maya Hernandez.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Kaplan,+Jonathan+Charles">Jonathon Kaplan</a> as Shon.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+O'Neil,+Tricia">Tricia O'Neil</a> as M'Ola.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Lee,+Stephen">Stephen Lee</a> as Tharg.
</blockquote>
<pre>
Sub-genre: Drama
<a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/010">7.74</a>
Production number: 105
Original air date: April 27, 1994
Written by David Gerrold
Directed by Richard Compton
</pre>
<p>
<hr size=3>
<p>
<h2><a name="BP">Backplot</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Some outside influence has interfered with the Minbari religion
in the past.
<li> The Children of Time, a minor race with strong religious beliefs,
would rather let one of their number die than allow invasive surgery,
which they believe destroys the soul.
</ul>
<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> How did Ivanova defeat or escape all those raiders? There is some
slight evidence she's working with them (cf.
<a href="../synops/001.html#ivanova-console">"Midnight on the
Firing Line"</a>.)
</ul>
<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Franklin's willingness to break the rules for a cause he believes in,
while it's indicative of a strong moral character, seems likely to
get him into hot water at some point.
<li> On the other hand, Sinclair doesn't want to be placed in a position
in which he has to stop Franklin from doing what he believes in;
Sinclair would rather sidestep the issue than have his hand forced.
This is consistent with his handling of the Senator's instructions
in <a href="001.html">"Midnight on the Firing Line."</a>
<li> The parents' reaction when Delenn refused to help could be viewed as
hypocritical; they were perfectly willing to ask Delenn to violate
<em>her</em> beliefs so they wouldn't have to violate their own.
</ul>
<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Kosh is aware that he was examined by Dr. Kyle (cf.
<a href="/lurk/guide/000.html">"The Gathering"</a>.)
When he's asked how <em>he</em> would feel if a doctor performed
an operation on him, he says, "The avalanche has already begun.
It is too late for the pebbles to vote."
</ul>
<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>
<ul>
<p>
<li> By the way, here's something interesting: an outline got turned in
this week for an episode which I won't identify just now. Came in
from one of our writers, based on an assigned premise. It's
something you've never seen done in ANY SF-TV series, and I don't
think has ever been done in TV overall. A very daring little story.
<p>
Word finally came back from our liaison with PTEN. "Number one, this
is absolutely against the demographics on the show. Number two, no
studio or network executive in his right *mind* would EVER approve
this story in a million years. Number three...it's a hell of a
story, I love it, let's do it."
<p>
This has been emblematic of our relationship with PTEN: they've left
us alone, and are trusting us in our storytelling. We want to go
right out to the very edge, and they're letting us, which is
wonderful. They've been, and continue to be, terrific to work with.
<p>
If the end of this particular story doesn't absolutely floor you,
nothing will.
<p>
<li> When I developed the basic Believers story, and was looking for someone
to assign it to, David was the first person we went to. He asked me
at the time why him...he's more generally associated with humorous
stuff. I had my reasons. See, lately, David adopted a young boy,
about the same age as Shon. So about halfway into the outline, David
called and said, "NOW I understand." I knew that having a child of
his own now would mean that the story would be a lot more personal.
Especially the end scene, which I knew would have to be done *very*
carefully. I think David did a great job, and under his guidance it
turned into a very moving episode. And with any luck, he'll write
more down the road.
<p>
<li> There's some small amount of blurring that goes on in this show; a
freelancer turns in a script, and things get added. For instance,
there was a need to really tighten up the story in "Believers,"
which could best be done by bringing in a small B story, which would
allow us to streamline and intensify the main story. So I wrote the
B story and slipped it in.
<p>
<li> Today David Gerrold came by the set to watch some of the shooting
on his episode, "Believers." Unlike many shows, which basically
throw the writer off the set, our writers are welcome to hang around.
It's not only okay, it's *expected* that the writer will be there at
some point, to be a part of the process. David was quite ebullient
about the whole thing; he thinks that this is the best script he's
ever written, and it's being filmed exactly as he'd hoped, if not
better. So there he was, getting autographs, muttering something
about somebody named "Hugo...."
<p>
What was interesting was one comment he made, which echoed almost
verbatim something D.C. Fontana said when she came by the stage: that
the atmosphere on set, with the crew, the cast, the production people
is exactly the same as it was on the first season of the original
Star Trek.
<p>
<li> I know from pfingle eggs...I let David have the reference because...
well, I don't know anymore...I think water torture was involved.
<p>
<li> <em>Similarity between "Believers" & a DS9 novel?</em><br>
A couple points. 1) When "Believers" was written, Peter's book hadn't
yet hit the stands. 2) Peter likely got his notion of the sick kid
and the religious parents from the same basic source we did: the
headlines. This has been an ongoing problem in real life for some
time. So he took that real premise, and did one story based on it,
and we did another extrapolation. This notion did *not* originate in
the Trek universe....
<p>
<li> And yeah, TV generally doesn't do this kind of ending. Which is
why we did it...and our liaison at Warner Bros. deserves a lot of
credit for letting us do it.
<p>
<li> It was important to tell David to pull no punches because in TV, most
producers *want* you to do so, and he had to know going in that this
was the way the story would go. David's a great writer, and David's a
professional...meaning he understands where the general limits of TV
are. If you're going to move the lines around, it behooves you to
tell your writer that. Knowing the rules, he went out and did a
bangup job on the episode.
<p>
<li> I view Delenn's comment about "suffering the interference of others"
in regards to matters of the soul in "Believers" to be a reference to
the Soul Hunter.
<p>
<li> What happened to Ivanova when she encountered the raiders? She
got away by long-distance firing as she retreated as fast as she
could, taking shots as she went. It wouldn't look real exciting in
the long run.
<p>
<li> How Ivanova got away from the Raiders was taking advantage of her
lead to run away, occasionally firing backward to deter pursuit,
until she got to the jumpgate. It wasn't really anything dramatically
interesting, and at that point you would start distracting from the
main plot...and that couldn't be allowed to happen. There's really
no place in the rest of the act where you can cut in without destroying
it. And in the tag there's no room for the pursuit, only the arrival.
<p>
<li> Excuse me....
<p>
You don't think that "Believers" was SF. Tough.
<p>
No, it didn't have warp gates, or tachyon emitters, or lots of
technobabble...it was about people. And the dilemmas they face.
<p>
Part of what has screwed up so much of SF-TV is this sense that you
must utterly divorce yourself from current issues, from current
problems, from taking on issues of today and extrapolating them into
the future, by way of aliens or SF constructs. And that is
*precisely* why so much of contemporary SF-TV is barren and lifeless
and irrelevant...and *precisely* why such series as the original Star
Trek, and Outer Limits, and Twilight Zone are with us today.
<p>
Like Rod Serling and Gene Roddenberry and Joe Stefano and Reginald
Rose and Arch Oboler and Norman Corwin and a bunch of other writers
whose typewriters I'm not fit to touch, my goal in part is to simply
tell good stories within an SF setting. And by SF I mean speculative
fiction, which sometimes touches on hard-SF aspects, and sometimes
doesn't. Speculative fiction means you look at how society changes,
how cultures interact with one another, how belief systems come into
conflict. And as someone else here noted recently, anthropology and
sociology are also sciences; soft sciences, to be sure, but sciences
nonetheless.
<p>
It's been pointed out that TV-SF is generally 20-30 years behind
print SF. This whole conversation proves the point quite succinctly.
In the 1960s or so, along came the New Wave of SF, which eschewed
hardware for stories about the human condition set against an SF
background. And the fanzines and prozines and techno-loving pundits
of hard-SF declared it heresy, said it wasn't SF, this is crap. And
eventually they were steamrolled, and print SF grew up a little. Now
the argument has come to settle here. Well, fine. So be it.
<p>
I think it was Arthur C. Clarke who said that SF is anything I point
to and say, "That's SF." Go pick up a copy of "A Canticle for
Liebowitz," one of the real singular masterpieces of the science
fiction genre, and it won't fit the narrow criteria you've set up for
what qualifies as SF by your lights.
<p>
There is a tendency among the more radical hard-SF proponents to stamp
their feet and hold their breath until they turn blue, to threaten
that unless the book changes or the field comes around or the series
cottens to *their* specific, narrow version of what SF is -- and that
definition changes from person to person -- they'll take their ball
and their bat and go home. Fine and good. And the millions who come
to take their place in the bleachers and on the field will get to have
all the fun.
<p>
Some of our episodes will fit your definition of SF. Some will not.
This worries me not at all.
<p>
<li> The area that cannot be opened is the chest area, primarily; a nick or
cut or scratch really doesn't count; it's puncturing to the body
cavity wherein the soul is housed.
<p>
<li> No, the parents were not charged with murder. When a species on the
station acts against one of their own kind in a particular way, and no
other species is affected, they are judged by the laws that apply to
their own species and culture. In their culture, what they did is not
a crime, so they received no punishment. Had they done this to a
human, then yes, they would have been charged with murder.
<p>
<li> I'm not quite sure if we're talking about the same thing; the
two parents never said that the kid would die if he underwent the
surgery, only that his soul would escape. This would leave him
"soul-dead," for lack of a better phrase. And how are we to tell that
they weren't right? I don't think it's quite as cut and dried as you
seem to present. (And again, they were acting very much out of their
real beliefs of how the universe operates. If someone here is
injured, and declared brain dead, most folks think it's okay to pull
the plug...even though one could make the argument that there's still
a living soul in the body. This is the opposite situation; one may
argue that there is still a mind somewhere in the body, but the soul
is dead or gone. The phrase they use is that they put the shell out
of its misery. To their mind, he was dead already.)
<p>
<li> Actually, I disagree when you say that the doctor was right. Says
who? Not the parents. Not the episode. Nobody was really right,
when you come down to it, except maybe Sinclair, who made the correct
call. You say the boy was okay at the end...the parents didn't think
so. Who's to say if there was or wasn't a soul inside?
<p>
I think David's script walked a very fine line and really didn't
endorse either side. (I've had people send me email upset because we
showed that the parents were right, and others because we said the
doctor was right, and others because neither was right and the
ambiguity bothered them.)
<p>
<li> Of course the surgical scars would've been a dead giveaway that
surgery had been performed. Also, lying to them would have also been
a violation of medical ethics. This was not a story about easy
solutions.
<p>
<li> There's a wonderful scene in "Fiddler on the Roof" where Tevya is
caught in an argument between two Rabbis. The first one makes a
point. "You're right!" Tevya says. The second Rabbi makes a
contradictory point. "You're right!" Tevya says. A third Rabbi,
looking on, says, "Wait a minute, they can't *both* be right."
<p>
"You know," Tevya says, "you're right too."
<p>
<li> A lot of our episodes are constructed to work as mirrors; you see
what you put into it. "Believers" has been interpreted as pro-
religion, anti-religion, and religion-neutral..."Quality" has been
interpreted, as you note, as pro-capital punishment, and anti-capital
punishment. We do, as you say, much prefer to leave the decision on
what things mean to the viewer to hash out.
<p>
A good story should provoke discussion, debate, argument...and the
occasional bar fight.
<p>
<li> "The concept of loving parents being able to kill their child for
their religions seems to be unrealistic."
<p>
Funny...I seem to recall this little story in the Old Testament about
how a good and wise man was asked by god to sacrifice his own son, to
himself kill his own child, and he was willing to do it, and was only
stopped by god saying, in essence, "April fool."
<p>
<li> On the "predictable" argument...I can only shrug. The kid has a 50/50
chance...he'll survive or die. And guessing the end isn't, for me,
the key; this isn't a who-dunit; it's how our characters react on the
way there, and what it *does* to them, I think.
<p>
<li> Since I suggested the ending to David, right down to the candles, I
suppose I'll take the rap...but the question you're raising isn't the
issue. There are only two possible results: the kid lives, or the kid
dies, there ain't much in-between. You ask, "Who on earth is going to
side with people who kill their own child?" The audience isn't being
asked to *side* with anyone, there IS no easy solution, and no one is
100% in the right.
<p>
There is a wonderful short story, which we adapted for Twilight Zone,
called "The Cold Equations," where a small shuttle is going from point
A to point B. There is enough fuel for the shuttle, and one pilot,
and no more. The ship is bringing medicine to save 500 colonists. A
young girl has stowed away on the ship to see her brother. She's
discovered. If the pilot does nothing, the ship won't arrive, and he
and the girl will die, and the colonists will die. If he sacrifices
himself, she won't be able/won't know how to guide the ship to its
destination. The only way out is to ask her to enter the airlock so
he can space her and continue the mission. And that's what happens.
You can't argue with math.
<p>
Sometimes, there are no-win scenarios. And what matters then is how
your characters react, what they do and say, and how it affects them.
That, really, was the thrust of the episode. And to go back to your
question, "Who on earth is going to side...."
<p>
The operative word in your question is "Earth." No, no human is going
to side with them (although I'd point out in the Bible that there is
the story of Abraham, who was quite willing to murder his own son at
god's request). They're not humans. They have a wholly different
mindset, cultural background and belief system. People ask for ALIEN
aliens, then judge them by human standards, and feel it's wrong if
they don't behave like humans. These didn't. That's who and what
they are. If humans side with them, or accept them, doesn't enter
into it.
<p>
<li> The choice *had* to be either/or. That was the point; to put the
characters in a situation of conflict and see how they handle it.
Sometimes in life there are ONLY two choices, neither of them good.
Your message comes from a position of trying to avoid the hard
choices. But the episode is ABOUT hard choices. It *has* to be
either/or.
<p>
To support your thesis, you bring up the "Cold Equations" alternate
ending of the pilot cutting off both his legs to make up the weight
differential. Lemme explain something to you. I was there. When we
turned in the script, by Alan Brennert, MGM went nuts. "You can't
have a sympathetic young woman commit suicide! It'll kill the
ratings!" So they (the studio exec) suggested various "fixes." One
was that instead of stepping willingly out the airlock, the pilot
shoots her and has to deal with the guilt. (This by them is a
*better* idea?) The other was the notion of the guy cutting off his
legs to make up the weight.
<p>
First and foremost, it was a dumb idea because he'd be in no shape to
pilot the ship. Second it wouldn't be enough weight. And finally,
the very *nature* of "The Cold Equations," what the very TITLE means,
is that there are some occasions in which the choices are stark, and
there is NO way around them. If the ship has X-weight, and the fuel
is for Y weight, and Y is less than X, then you've got a problem that
can only -- ONLY -- be resolved by someone walking out the airlock.
(And yes, they tried dumping things, but the ship is lean, not much
to get rid of.) That's why it's the COLD equations; not the LUKEWARM
equations.
<p>
I fought like hell to retain the original ending, and won. (You
probably read about this, btw, in my articles for TZ Magazine.) This
is studio-think, let's find a nice, unthreatening, safe, middle-ground
where we can resolve this without anybody being upset, threatened or
offended by the story. I'm sorry, but life sometimes hands you hard
choices, there ARE either/or scenarios, in which nobody really wins,
and SF should be exploring those as well as the fuzzy feel-good
stories. It's time SF grew up a little, damn it, and started
confronting hard questions that can't always be resolved by reversing
the polarity on the metaphase unit.
<p>
<li> Afterthought: I just wandered into the kitchen, still ranting (as I
am wont to do), explained it to Kathryn...who brought me up short (as
*she* is wont to do) by pointing out the antecedent to BOTH stories.
The ultimate "hard choice" example in SF-TV is of course "The City on
the Edge of Forever," fromST. There are only two choices, both hard:
either Edith Keeler dies, or the Nazis win WW II. Kirk *has* to let
her die; there's no other choice.
<p>
It is, at the same moment, gratifying and annoying to have someone
around who's smarter than I am....
<p>
<li> There were no changes in dialogue made in "Believers" subsequent to
the first airing.
</ul>

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<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
Garibaldi's past catches up to him, with some disastrous consequences.
He's blamed by some for an accident
aboard B5, which leads to hitting the bottle again after a
prolonged abstinence.
</cite>
Elaine Thomas as Lianna Kemmer.
Tom Donaldson as Cutter.
</blockquote>
Originally titled "A Knife in the Shadows"
<pre>
Sub-genre: Intrigue
<a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/011">7.65</a>
Production number: 111
Original air date: May 4, 1994
Written by Mark Scott Zicree
Directed by Jim Johnston
</pre>
<p>
<hr>
<p>
<h2><a name="BP">Backplot</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Garibaldi was a shuttle pilot on Mars before coming to Babylon 5.
</ul>
<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Who was the assassin working for? Who wants Santiago dead?
</ul>
<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Ivanova's reluctance to stop the countdown is suspicious. Perhaps
she had some reason to want the launch to take place; perhaps she
even knew what was going to happen if it did.
<li> Everyone from his past considers Garibaldi a no-good drunk. Why
did Sinclair give him a second chance? (Addressed in comic series,
<a href="/lurk/comic/005.html">"Shadows Past and Present."</a>)
</ul>
<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>
<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> We're already doing it, and have done it. We've already begun
integrating "virtual sets" in with real ones. As an example...in the
next-to-last shot in "Survivors," someone is entering a ship in the
docking bay. The only real object in that room, aside from the actor,
is a ladder. Everything else is CGI...but you can't tell.
<p>
<li> In "Survivors," we attempted a cgi/composite shot out the window, which
looks pretty spiffy, actually. It's in the teaser. We may do this in
future.
<p>
<li> The *reason* we had Garibaldi go through all the hoops he went through
before finally falling into the bottle is because simply having Liana
show up and depress Garibaldi isn't, frankly, sufficient motivation.
I don't buy it. We wanted to strip away everything he had, and leave
him with only *himself*. So we took away his job, his reputation, his
money, his home, neutralized his friends wherever possible...it was
deliberate and systematic to peel him down to the bare essentials, to
just Garibaldi. Take him all the way down before taking him back up
again. Because it's more dramatically interesting. It's more logical
that it would take something this major to drive him back into the
bottle after staying sober all this time. I'm sorry, I don't accept
your suggestion that Liana's "anger and accusations" would "drive him
over the edge as he deals with his guilt." He's BEEN dealing with his
guilt, and her showing up wouldn't be enough to drive him back into
the bottle again. I'm sorry, but as a producer or a story editor, I
wouldn't buy that from a writer as being sufficient motivation.
Particularly not a character who's as strong and as bull-headed as
Garibaldi.
<p>
<li> What do I know about alcoholics, to portray them? Well, aside from
a degree in clinical psychology, and some internship work in the area,
I come from a family with alcoholism going back at least four
generations, and I'm talking *heavy duty*. I am, in fact, the first
male Straczynski in my branch of this particular stunted tree NOT to
have this problem.
<p>
I have had far, far, far more experience with this area than I care
to recite...and from that perspective, I have no problem with
Garibaldi's portrayal.
<p>
<li> Cutter went after Garibaldi only because that's who the dying worker
named as being responsible for the bomb. (He didn't know he was dying,
and wanted to throw blame; and even if he did know, what better than
to nail the guy who'd hassled him before?) Cutter only took advantage
of the situation.
<p>
Luis Santiago is playing it both ways, allowing more trade and certain
kinds of immigration, while preserving earth *culture*; this isn't the
same thing as a trade embargo.
<p>
<li> The name of General Netter was stuck in as a tweak to Doug, it's a
tuckerism (for those who know the term). We've done it a bit here
and there; I kinda started shutting the process down after a while,
since it was getting carried away. I don't want it to be obtrusive.
<p>
<li> I think Kemmer's name was inspired by the actor's name from the
Space Patrol series....
<p>
<li> The Drazi are a very violent, ill-tempered species; they were the ones
who first showed up in "Deathwalker" in a Sunhawk to threaten the
station; they beat up the guy in "The War Prayer;" they show up here
in "Survivors;" there's an episode about a form of martial arts among
the aliens that has a Drazi going at it...if there's a fight around,
you can often find a Drazi at the center of it or at least nearby.
<p>
<li> I think you're taking what I said to the extreme; I didn't say [the
Drazi] were bloodthirsty savages, only that they had a predilection
toward violence, and were generally very cranky. And not all great
thinkers have to sit around in elizabethan garb, delicate flowers
watching the skies rotate. Aggressive people can be good thinkers;
it needn't be one or the other.
<p>
<li> ...the end of "Survivors," where Kemmer enters her ship...in reality
there is only a ladder there. The ship, the walls, the door she
enters, all that is CGI/virtual set.
</ul>

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<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
An accident in the docking area kills a worker, threatening to spark an
illegal strike. Londo interferes in an
important Narn religious observation which leads to a
confrontation between him and G'Kar.
</cite>
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Snyder,+John">John Snyder</a> as Orin Zento.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Boyer,+Katy">Katy Boyer</a> as Neeoma Connoly.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Aleong,+Aki">Aki Aleong</a> as Senator Hidoshi.
</blockquote>
Originally titled "Backlash"
<pre>
Sub-genre: Drama
<a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/012">7.84</a>
Production number: 114
Original air date: May 11, 1994
Written by Kathryn Drennan
Directed by Jim Johnston
</pre>
<p>
<hr>
<p>
<h2><a name="BP">Backplot</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> The Narn homeworld is 12 Narn light years away, about 10 Earth
light years.
<li> Narn ranks seem to connote some kind of religious authority; the
highest-ranked Narn is expected to lead religious services.
<li> The Rush Act, put in place during the Earth-Minbari War, allows the
Earth government to break up labor strikes using any means necessary.
</ul>
<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> How much trouble did Londo go through to get the G'Quan Eth plant,
and did he do it solely to upset G'Kar?
</ul>
<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> The Earth government has a very low tolerance for troublemakers,
it seems -- at least, troublemakers who operate in the open.
</ul>
<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> The Rush Act was named after conservative American television and radio
commentator
<a href="http://www.eskimo.com/~jeremyps/rush/">Rush Limbaugh.</a>
</ul>
<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>
<ul>
<p>
<li> Nearly all of our production crew appear in "By Any Means Necessary"
at various spots; the guy yelling "I say we STRIKE!" is our director,
Jim Johnston. And yes, John Flinn ["Grail"] was played by John Flinn,
our DP.
<p>
<li> The Rush Act only refers to unions, for the most part; it's not a
wide-ranging law. It was developed during the Earth/Minbari war to
deal quickly and effectively with corporations or unions which were
being difficult and otherwise holding up the war effort. (The air
traffic controllers union would be a good example of the government
doing whatever it felt necessary to resolve the situation.) The law
grants extraordinary power to resolve any kind of strike or union
action which endangers the operation of a military base or other
military operation, as Zento states. It applies only to that area,
and remains on the books, though (as is also pointed out) it hasn't
been used in a while.
<p>
<li> <em>A UK poster inquires about Rush Limbaugh, for whom the Rush Act
in this episode was named</em><br>
Re: who is Rush Limbaugh....
<p>
Leading American proctologist.
<p>
Trust me.
<p>
<li> Sinclair's decision is legal...but not politic, and it will come back as
one of many decisions to haunt him in "Eyes."
<p>
<li> As for happy endings...you want some variety, I think; we had a tough
ending in "Believers," a bittersweet ending in "Survivors," and here
things worked out for G'Kar and Connoly, but in a way did *not* work
out for Sinclair. He's going to be hearing about this decision of
his again, in the not too distant future. He's getting further and
further behind the eight-ball with some of these decisions, and he's
going to get hammered about it.
<p>
<li> Exactly my point; there are differences between similar alien groups
(like the Narn) in culture, language and religion, with BAMN being
a good demonstration of the latter. Which is why I could only shrug
and say "Wait" after people started hammering on me here about
monolithic alien religions after "Parliament." We'd already filmed
BAMN by then, so I knew it was there. That's one thing about this
show that some have found out...generally, what you'd like us to do,
we've probably done or are about to do (hence the many times, when
I'm asked about something, that we can just say, "Wait until X airs
in 2 weeks" or somesush).
<p>
Still dancing as fast as I can....
<p>
<li> The writer for "By Any Means Necessary" is Kathryn Drennan, who is
very astute politically, a believer in the rights of workers (and all
folks, actually), and think that characters are more interesting if
they act smart than if they act stupid.
<p>
<li> Kathryn's last name is Drennan. Her full credit is Kathryn M.
Drennan. Not Straczynski. Probably displaying considerable wisdom
on her part. Ten thousand letters, no vowels.
<p>
Absent a collaboration on a series of articles for TZ Magazine a few
years ago (a guide to the Night Gallery series), we don't collaborate.
Ever. I also don't collaborate with Larry D., or any other of my
writer friends. As I learned before, particularly on the one occasion
when Larry and I tried it -- we co-wrote a pilot and bible for CBS
based on the "Elfquest" books -- all parties concerned will live a LOT
longer by keeping a respectable distance.
<p>
<li> One thing I can mention now, since it's nearly finished: see, I have
this real problem with nepotism. Specifically...I hate it. As a
result, I make people I know work twice as hard. The closer the tie,
the more the person has to work to prove him or herself.
<p>
Kathryn Drennan, my Spousal Overunit, is also a writer, and has
written for many other shows, primarily in animation, but with some
forays into other areas. (She was co-author on the Night Gallery
series of articles I wrote for Twilight Zone Magazine, as one
fr'instance, and was a producer with public televison for some time.)
<p>
Anyway, she desperately wanted to write a B5 script. But because of
my feelings about nepotism, I refused to give her an assignment. (I
can be a REAL pain in the ass.) Something similar happened when I was
working on The Real Ghostbusters; she loved the show, and wanted to
write for it. I put her through the wringer: she had to submit
written premises, just like any other freelance writer, which were
then sent on to the producers for final approval. They did not know
of any relation between her and me; they based their approval only on
the merits of the story. Period. And she ended up writing two
episodes: "Egon's Dragon" and "The Man Who Never Reached Home." (The
former is considered a favorite by many viewers of the show.) Only
long after we finished production did the exec producers on TRGBs
learn that there was a relationship there; it was all based on the
quality of the work.
<p>
But in the case of B5, I *am* the exec producer, so it became more
difficult. At first I said simply no. Finally, I set into place a
number of conditions/provisions. NOT because she wouldn't do a great
script, but only because I don't like the look of nepotism; I hate it,
and I hate the way this town operates on the principles of nepotism.
The conditions were that she had to write the script completely on
spec, no assignment; not a spec outline, which is shorter, but a spec
*script*. It would then have to pass muster in-house; if even one
person thought it wasn't up to snuff, it got deep sixed. And
revisions would not be handled by me, for the most part; she would
have to work with Larry, who has a reputation (as Katherine Lawrence
can attest) to not pulling his punches. No favoritism. Then the
script would have to pass muster with Warners. IF, after all that,
the script was approved, then it would be bought, and not a moment
before. If anywhere along the line it didn't meet one of those
criteria...then it would be a 50 page learning experience and nothing
more.
<p>
Well, I'm pleased to say that it *did* pass muster with everyone, and
"By Any Means Necessary" is now over halfway through production, with
a number of people -- including Michael O'Hare -- saying it's their
favorite so far, mainly for very odd reasons. The premise is one that
ST would never, EVER do, which is one thing I like about it; it also
shows us more on the inner workings of B5, the blue-collar types who
keep the whole place operational...and what happens when that falls
apart. The B story gets into a confrontation between G'Kar and Londo
when Londo interferes in an important Narn religious observation.
<p>
We brought back John Snyder (Soul Hunter #2) minus prosthetics for
one guest role, and Katy Boyer as our other guest star. They're both
doing terrific jobs, and it's a very intense script in which we
basically put Sinclair through the wringer for 48 hours and try and
make him absolutely nuts. And succeed, for the most part.
<p>
Anyway...there you have it.
<p>
<li> The reference in "By Any Means" is to Matewan, where a terrible
labor strike took place (and a film was made about it); the other is
Matawan, which is where I lived for a while, but the reference is to
the former, not the latter.
</ul>

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<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
A sharp increase in raider activity has the station on the defensive.
Londo obtains a priceless Centauri artifact. A mysterious stranger visits
the station's alien ambassadors.
</cite>
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Graham,+Gerrit">Gerrit Graham</a> as Lord Kiro.
Fredi Olster as Lady Ladira.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Wasser,+Ed">Ed Wasser</a> as Morden.
</blockquote>
(Originally titled "Raiding Party")
<pre>
Sub-genre: Action/intrigue
<a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/013">9.01</a>
Production number: 116
Original air date: May 18, 1994
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Janet Greek
</pre>
<p>
<hr>
<p>
<h2><a name="BP">Backplot</a></h2>
<ul>
<li>The Minbari refused to support Babylon 5 until Commander Sinclair was
named as the Earth Alliance representative.
<li>The emperor of the Centauri hasn't been seen in public for some time,
contributing to an erosion of the government's credibility in the eyes of
the Centauri populace.
</ul>
<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Who or what is Morden, and who does he represent?
<li> What do Delenn and Kosh know about him?
<li> Why did the Minbari want Sinclair in charge of the station?
<li> How big and organized are the raiders?
<li> What impact will the Eye have on Londo's career? Will he even return
it to the Emperor, or will he try to use it for his own gain?
<li> How did Mr. Reno get his hands on the Eye?
<li> How did Morden's associates locate the raiders and recover the Eye?
<li> Who will escape on the shuttle in Ladira's vision? When will the
vision come true, if ever, and what will the circumstances be?
</ul>
<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Delenn and Kosh clearly have some sort of perception beyond normal
senses, be it telepathy or something else. Kosh's seems to be much more
advanced.
<li> Delenn's perception seems to be connected to the appearance of the
triangle on her forehead. Note that this triangle was also present
when Sinclair was interrogated by the Grey Council at the Battle of
the Line (cf. <a href="008.html">"And the Sky Full of Stars."</a>)
<li> Kosh recognized what Morden was immediately. That suggests
previous contact between the Vorlons and Morden's people.
<li> Kosh said, "They are not for you," referring to humans, though that's
not completely clear from the episode itself. (See
<a href="#JS:1">jms speaks</a>)
<li> Morden and Kosh appeared to have fought, resulting in the damage to
Kosh's encounter suit. Since Morden continued to go about his business,
perhaps Kosh capitulated or lost the fight, or perhaps he was only
interested in stopping Morden from seeing Sinclair. One interesting
thing about this alleged fight is the light that shatters behind
Morden as the scene ends -- just a power surge from the attack, or
something else at work?
<li> Babylon 5 may be destined for destruction, apparently with only a single
shuttle escaping in time. (cf.
<a href="020.html">"Babylon Squared"</a>)
<li> Where did Morden's disembodied voice come from at the end?
</ul>
<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> This episode has the most complex battle sequence to date, spanning
nearly an act and a half.
<li> <a name="prisoner">The raider on Babylon 5 is "Six," a tip of the
hat to "The Prisoner."</a>
<li> Ed Wasser, the actor who played Morden, also appeared as the main
C&amp;C technician in the pilot movie,
<a href="000.html">"The Gathering."</a>
The same character? JMS won't say.
</ul>
<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>
<ul>
<p>
<li>
We're retitling "Raiding Party" (which I always figured was a working
title, too prosaic) to "Signs and Portents." Figured it'd be nice to
have one episode title per (projected) year carrying the year-arc
title.
<p>
<li>
"Signs and Portents" is the overall title for year one; but just as one may
entitle a chapter in a book the same as the book itself, this episode has the
year-title in it (which may signify that this one is, well, significant....).
<p>
<li>
<a name="JS:1"><cite>What did Kosh mean by "they?"
And who's on the shuttle?</cite></a><br>
They refers to humans. There was no need to ask Sinclair, and he
was under orders not to. And who is on that shuttle...is an excellent
question.
<p>
<li>
<a name="JS:2"><cite>Why the same old launching scene?</cite></a><br>
I tend to agree re: the launching shots. There were going to be some
new ones for S&P, but there were SO many new shots in that one that
we just ran out of rendering time. There's some new ones coming, though,
and very dramatic looking, in "Babylon Squared" and the two-parter.
<p>
<li>
<a name="JS:3">I agree; Ed [Wasser, who played Morden] did a great job.</a>
He was perfect for that role. (He has an oddly Rod Serling-ish quality to
his stance, I've noticed.) And he will definitely be seen again.
<p>
<li>
Ed Wasser is sort of our discovery; I pretty much wrote the part
of Morden with him in mind for the role. He's great in it.
<p>
<li>
You noticed that too, huh? Surprised me, too. We'd cast him in the
part of Morden, then the first day's dailies come in, and his stance,
his manner, the way he looks...we all looked at the TV and said, more
or less at once, "Holy shit, it's Rod Serling!"
<p>
<li>
Funny story. Saw Ed Wasser ("Morden") the other day, and asked him if
he'd had any reaction to his first appearance on the show. Just one,
he said. He was in a florist shop, picking out some stuff for a
friend who was sick. The proprieter came over, asked, "What do you
want?" Ed sorta mumbled about wanting some flowers. "What do you
want?" the owner asked again. Ed -- still not getting it -- said he
was looking for some nice stuff for a friend who was sick. "Yes, but
what do you *want*?" the owner asked. At which point Ed finally
twigged to what was going on. He said afterward that it really *is*
an unnerving approach, which was kinda the point.
<p>
Of course, the owner then added that he thought the scene was from
DS9, but what the hell, it's an imperfect universe.
<p>
<li>
<a name="JS:4">One lovely thing about "Signs and Portents,"</a> which
you picked
up on, is something I like to play with; implying one thing while saying the
opposite. Look at all the shadow's main representative, Morden, does: he
asks people what they want; he gets tossed out of Delenn's quarters; he
is pleasant in his demeanor at all times, never yells, always smiles, and
is courteous; he takes an action which saves one of our main characters,
Londo, from disgrace and resignation, and helps in the process of scragging
the bad guys in the episode.
<p>
And yet everyone walks away thinking that the shadows are bad. Which
was of course the intent...by the way in which they did "good."
<p>
Kosh prevents humanity from achieving immortality, scares the hell out
of Talia (cf.
<a href="009.html">"Deathwalker"</a>,)
never gives anyone a straight answer, doesn't seem to mind it if
people fear him...and we walk away with the presumption that he is good,
by virtue of the way in which he did things that were "bad."
<p>
[...] This is something I do a lot in my scripts, which I don't generally
see a lot of other people doing. You *really* have to construct the
script very carefully to pull something like this off...a little game
between me and the audience.
<p>
<li>
Morden tried to find out what the ambassadors would like. Morden
arranged to rescue an important Centauri artifact. Morden helped
wipe out the crooks. Morden saved Londo's career, and asked for
nothing in return.
<p>
And yet we get the sense that Morden is a bad guy.
<p>
Kosh destroys our chance for immortality. Refuses to get involved
in the affairs of others. Is plainly studying us. Terrorizes one
of our main characters, Talia, for unknown reasons.
<p>
And yet we get the sense that Kosh is a good guy.
<p>
If anyone should ask, I really *love* writing this show....
<p>
<li>
Actually, the origin of "What do you want?" comes from encounter
groups I've run, and from other kinds of group psychotherapy, such as the
original Synanon games; you ask, "Who are you?" over and over, refusing
to take the same answer twice, to peel away the fabric of what the
person is. It's a slight jump to "What do you want?" (I knew that
degree in Psychology would come in handy one of these days.)
<p>
<li>
Why Londo? Because he was the one who answered Morden's question
correctly. Things happen for a *reason* that is suited to who the person
is. G'Kar's ambitions aren't nearly big enough; Delenn knows better than
to get near these guys; Kosh is against them; the EA are being kept at
arm's length for now, the non-aligned worlds aren't big enough...so here
we are.
<p>
<li>
There would have been more than one answer that would have sufficed,
but one answer was better than all the rest. Just the right mix of
resentment, nostalgia, ambition, frustration and a sense of displaced
destiny. Londo was hitting all those cylinders when he answered Morden's
question.
<p>
<li>
"jms, what do YOU want?"
<p>
I'll have fries with that.
<p>
<li>
The working name for the sixth race is the Shadowmen.
<p>
<li>
David: you hit it *exactly* on the head. Again, as you point out,
stuff here operates on a lot of different levels. I try, where I can, to
make a given scene do more than one thing. The hall argument is a good
example of this. The script stipulated a human being stuck between G'Kar
and Londo. Not any other race. Had to be a human. Because that becomes
emblematic of how we're stuck between the two sides in the war, something
which is *very* strongly brought home in the next batch of episodes.
<p>
Obviously, the first most important thing in that scene is just the
gag, the humor. It has to work on that level, and that's how it came to
me first: just the gag. Then, when it came time to write it, that's when
I start poking at things to see if I can layer on another level of
meaning, and I saw a way to do a little (very little) visual foreshadowing
of stuff to come. Didn't matter if anybody ever noticed it or not; it
was never really intended to be of much note, just a little item that
becomes a nice bit of irony later.
<p>
<li>
Londo does not have the Eye. If he'd failed to turn it over, his
career would've been ruined; getting it back was the only thing that
kept him on B5.
<p>
<li>
There's a reason Morden didn't go to the Earth Alliance.
<p>
<li>
The raiders are gone for good, yes.
<p>
<li>
<em>Re: Happy endings and non-happy endings</em><br>
As for "Signs and Portents," I don't quite know *how* to characterize
the ending on that one. Someone gets what they wanted, but this may
or may not be a good thing. I'd say basically it has an ominous
ending. We do try to keep it a mixed bag...one person may achieve a
niceness, but somebody else pays the price, or gets nailed.
<p>
<li>
Like Tolkien, and Jonathan Carroll, whose wonderful books start out
looking very nice and comfortable...and gradually take you to
someplace strange and dark and unique...I've tried to apply a similar
structure to Babylon 5. It seems to be chugging along at a good clip
along relatively familiar terrain. Now my job is to walk up alongside
the story with a crowbar and give it a good, hard WHAM! to move it
into a different trajectory. "Parliament" was just sort of a
preliminary nudge. "And the Sky Full of Stars" was a good, solid
WHAM! This week's episode, "Signs and Portents," is another WHAM,
even bigger than the one that precedes it.
<p>
There are two more major WHAM episodes: "Babylon Squared," dealing
with the fate of Babylon 4, and "Chrysalis," our season ender, which
is really more of an atomic bomb rather than a crowbar. So roughly
about one-fourth of this season's episodes are WHAM episodes. That
figure will increase in year two to about one-third. Year three
(Neilsen willing) will be half-WHAM and hal-not. Year four would be
three-quarters WHAM. And year five is all WHAM.
<p>
<li>
Let me dive in and take issue with you. The problem you seem to
have with the show(s) is alas a part of basic dramatic structure.
You have an introduction, a rising action, a climax, and then a
denouement. Aside from experimental theater kinds of things, that is
the basic underlying structure to all movies, plays and television
series.
<p>
"Twin Peaks," which you cite, really isn't a very good example
because, in my view, TP *never* resolved ANYthing. Thus it became an
exercise in viewer frustration that eventually was a major reason why
the show was canceled.
<p>
The first batch of B5 episodes tended to be a little more self
contained because, remember, we're trying to bring viewers in here,
and do so without startling or pissing them off. We get a little
funkier the deeper into the show we get. In some cases, as with
"Sky," parts of the story are resolved, parts aren't. Generally, it's
our feeling that if you have an open-ended B story, you generally have
to include an A story that has some measure of closure.
<p>
"Signs and Portents" and "Babylon Squared" are two episodes offhand
that I think are emblematic of what you're asking for. The A story
in "Signs" is resolved...but that episode really isn't *about* the A
story, it's about something unusual that happens with the B story that
begins to set a lot of things in motion for this season. And that
story is ended, but not *resolved*, if you get the distinction.
<p>
<li>
What you address in the last bit of the music in "Signs" is what
I've been trying to get across. The theme music appearing there is
not quite what we use otherwise. I suggested to Chris that it'd be
cool to have the B5 theme there in *minor keys* or minor chords. It's
a somewhat different version, and playing a theme in minor instead of
major keys or chords makes it somber, sad, unsettling. We've just
seen B5 explode, and doing that particular riff on the theme seemed
to both of us a good idea. Play it again, then the regular theme,
and you'll see the difference.
<p>
<li>
We've done a lot with themes over the season, and plan to do more,
developing themes for all our characters. I like interpolating bits
and pieces of the B5 theme into parts of the show; the minor-key
version at the end of "Signs" has always struck me as very effective.
<p>
<li>
Re: the theme music at the end of"Signs," I think it was me (but I
could be mistaken) who suggested to Chris, our composer, that he use
the theme, but in *minor chords* rather than major chords. Makes it
very sad, and very effective.
<p>
<li>
Overall, though, I've always told Chris to push it...to go absolutely
as far with the music as he wants. If it goes too far, we can always
pull it back or duck it down a little. Basically, I'm a rock-and-roll
kind of guy...I like my music loud, and I like a LOT of it. This show
is often wall-to-wall music. Chris often composes as much as 20-25
minutes of new music per episode; most hour shows have maybe 13-16
minutes of music per hour episode. And he is often called upon by us
to do some VERY long cues. Often, TV music is just there to cover a
transition (10-20 seconds), or establish a mood at the top or bottom
of a scene, and get out (1 minute to 1 minute-30 seconds average). We
have many, MANY cues on this show that go 2, 3, even 4 minutes. I
think we actually had a 6 minute cue at one point in one episode.
Check act 3 of "Signs and Portents" and see how much music we crammed
into that act; it's almost non-stop.
<p>
<li>
<em>Re: The elevator scene</em><br>
For as long as I've been writing, I've had a very simple belief that
comes across with B5 as well: try to get in one really great action
moment,minimum one real nice character moment, one solid dramatic
moment...and one moment or scene that's fall-down funny.
<p>
I like humor. I like that characters can show another side of
themselves. If there is any real test of sentience, one of them must
surely be the possession of a sense of humor, since it requires self
reflection. And there is always unintentional (on the part of the
character, at least) humor.
<p>
SF-TV has generally taken itself either too seriously, with rods up
butts, the humor forced...or it's not taken itself seriously at ALL,
and gone campy. This show takes itself seriously, but not in quite a
way that lets it fit in either category.
<p>
For me, as a viewer, I enjoy the shows that are roller-coasters, that
take you from something very funny...and slam you headfirst into a
very dramatic scene. Hill Street was like that, Picket Fences is
like that now...why not SF? I've also found that humor can help you
reveal things about the characters. The Londo/G'Kar scene at the
elevator in "Signs and Portents," for instance. It says something
about both of them without coming out and *saying* it.
<p>
<li>
In general, you don't see a lot of light reflecting off other
objects when there's an explosion because in general those objects
aren't close enough to cause a reflection. Now, in "Signs," which
comes up in a couple weeks, there's explosions near a large object,
and there we do get some reflected light.
<p>
<li>
To have a station commander *and* a rep for Earth can be cumbersome
in many ways, when someone has to give orders. It's cleaner this
way; and no different than any of the sailing vessels of the 18th
century and before, when each captain was viewed as, and expected to
perform as, the official representative of his country.
<p>
There is, however, a second agenda at work here, which you'll find
out about a bit in "Raiding Party" ["Signs and Portents"].
<p>
<li>
There's not a lot of CGI in either "Legacies" or "The Quality of
Mercy" (which will follow "Raiding Party" in the production lineup),
because neither story really called for it. But there's a *lot* in
"Raiding Party," some of it very elaborate. By way of comparison, in
an average B5 episode, a script from beginning to end has about 60 or
70 setups (a setup is a numbered scene or shot, i.e., INT. SCOCKPIT
or INT. ZEN GARDEN). "Raiding Party" has around 112 setups. That's
more than in some movies. It's a *very* busy script.
<p>
<li>
Yes, we're doing virtual sets...and there's a doozy in the first
little bit of act one in "Signs and Portents."
<p>
<li>
Yes, this is the actual text of a script. And a script contains scene
descriptions, dialogue, directions. (Contrary to popular opinion, the
actors don't just make up their lines when they hit the stage, based
on loose ideas by somebody.) My scripts tend to be *very* detailed,
with camera movement suggestions, optical notes, indications of
dissolves vs. cuts, on and on. A typical scene might look like this:
<pre> EXT. BABYLON 5 - ESTABLISHING
A scuttleship unloads cargo from a transport parked alongside the
station. PAN ACROSS with the scuttleship, tracking with it until
it passes into the docking bay, then DOWN TO the observation dome
window, where we can just see into
INT. OBSERVATION DOME
where Lieutenant-Commander IVANOVA stands at the console, cup in
hand, staring bleakly out into the starscape as SINCLAIR comes up
alongside.
IVANOVA
I hate mornings...I've always had a
hard time getting up when it's dark
outside.
SINCLAIR
We're in space. It's always dark
outside.
IVANOVA
(forlornly)
I know...I know....</pre>
(That, by the way, is a slight re-do of an actual shot from "Raiding
Party.")
<p>
A script page, single-spaced, works out to about the same wordage as a
double-spaced prose fiction page, about 225-250 words per.
<p>
<li>
<em>Why was the ship in Lady Ladira's name instead of Lord Kiro's?</em><br>
Ladira was Kiro's aunt, and much of the family money/property is in
her name.
<p>
<li>
I think that the Eye was returned the next day, so there was
a goodly span between Ladira's vision, and the scene in Londo's
quarters.
<p>
<li>
I hate to burst your bubble, but the Raider ship *was* rotating.
Look at it again. It's most visible when the ship is being
photographed from behind with B5 in the background. You can see the
round part of the ship rotating (with the docking bay at center).
</ul>

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<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
An old friend of Garibaldi's arrives and tries to take part in a dangerous
alien combat sport.
A rabbi helps Ivanova come to terms with her father's death.
</cite>
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Bikel,+Theodore">Theodore Bikel</a> as Rabbi Koslov.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+McKinney,+Gregory">Greg McKinney</a> as Walker Smith.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Oh,+Soon-Teck">Soon-Teck Oh</a> as The Muta-Do.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Stroud,+Don">Don Stroud</a> as Caliban.
</blockquote>
<pre>
Sub-genre: Drama
<a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/014">6.41</a>
Production number: 119
Original air date: May 25, 1994
Written by Larry DiTillio
Directed by John Flynn
</pre>
<p>
<hr size=3>
<p>
<h2><a name="BP">Backplot</a></h2>
<ul>
<li>
Ivanova's brother Ganya was killed in the Earth-Minbari war a year after her
mother committed suicide.
</ul>
<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
<ul>
<li>
The fact that aliens of several races -- including a Centauri -- all seemed
to agree that humans had no business fighting in the Mutai seems to indicate
that there is a lot of resentment toward humans among the other races, enough
that they see the distinction between humans and themselves as much greater
than the distinctions between each other.
</ul>
<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Walker Smith was the real name of famed boxer Sugar Ray Robinson.
</ul>
<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>
<ul>
<li>
At one point, there was a discussion in the scene about the whole
gills/scales/fins issue, to define kosher...but it *really* brought the
scene to a screaming standstill, and we needed to concentrate on the
relationships at that moment. In addition, as we looked at it, you would
have to get into the question of how alien gills/scales/fins compare to
earthly gills/scales/fins, because they're going to be very different in
many ways. In short order it became a massive Talmudic discussion, and
we only have an hour for the show....
<p>
<li>
Babylon 5 (the show) got not a dime for sticking in the
<a href="http://www.zima.com/">Zima</a>
sign. We just thought...well, it'd be funny.
<p>
<li>
Yes, slappers = skin tabs, for introducing medication. The ones in
TKO had been stolen from B5 medsupplies.
<p>
<li>
Through a miscommunication, Warners thought TKO was in the slot in which
we'd placed Quality [of Mercy], so that went out to TV Guide, and it's now
too late to change the order back. Doesn't matter; neither are really
arc-stories, though it was hoped to hold back some of Susan's development in
TKO just a tad longer.
<p>
<li>
It was Larry's idea to name the character Walker Smith, after Sugar
Ray Robinson.
<p>
<li>
If the deceased has been dead for quite a while, the period during
which one must sit shiva is greatly reduced to a day or so, I'm told.
<p>
<li>
Larry wrote the shiva stuff all on his lonesome. As for being an
abbreviated version...apparently shiva lasts 3 days for someone
recently deceased. If it's been months since the death, the service
is usually much shorter, and again, there was only Ivanova and Koslov
who actually were part of or knew the deceased.
<p>
<li>
I'm told that shiva need not last 7 full days, if the death was not
recent, and if the body has already been buried.
<p>
<li>
Now, on the samovar issue...whatever your background, if your family
grew up in Russia and has been there for several hundred years or
more -- and the Ivanov family has been there since at LEAST the 1800s
-- you do become part of the culture. That, as I always understood
it, was part of the reason for making sure children learned hebrew,
yiddish *and* the dominant language of the culture, to give their
kids a fighting chance in a difficult world. It's not so much a case
of the culture assimiliating the individual (though certainly that
happens as well), but the individual INCORPORATING the culture.
<p>
Ivanova is jewish. Ivanova is russian. Of the two, she tends to see
herself as a russian first. There's no value statement there, that's
just the way she is. Her parents were both russian, going back many
generations on both sides. Some in her family tree were jewish, and
some were not; there was some intermarrying. That may be part of why
she sees herself as more russian than jewish, but it may be just a
quirk.
<p>
(And to the protest of, "Well, you created her," yes, I did. But
there comes a time, if you've done your job right as a writer, when
the character more or less takes over, and starts telling YOU who and
what he or she is. There are times I mentally turn to Ivanova and
say, "Okay, what do *you* think?" And she talks to me in my head, as
do all of my characters. It's part of making your characters real.)
<p>
When she went off to boarding school overseas -- part of an ongoing
international system put into place by EarthGov to help its various
member nations get along with one another -- she identified most
strongly with that russian aspect in relation to those around her.
She learned to speak English without a perceptible accent.
<p>
The samovar is a valued and valuable part of russian life. It is the
family hearth, on one level, a possession passed on from generation to
generation. Knowing that Ivanova was not terribly religious herself,
he would generally not leave her any of his personal religious
artifacts, but would dnate them to the local synagogue, while some,
like a menorah, might go to other relatives. People who could
appreciate them and use them. The samovar is a very personal object;
to the correspondent with a fiance who is russian...*I* am byeloruss,
white-russian, one-and-a-half generation American born. And I can
tell you that the biggest fights I've ever seen over bequeaths were
over a) money, and b) the samovar.
<p>
The problem with this discussion is that it has very little to do
with who Susan Ivanova *is*, and more to do with the politics of what
a russian or a jew or a russian jew *should be*. She is what she is,
like it or not.
<p>
<li>
To the problems some have with Theodore Bikell's accent not sounding
real...it's my understanding that he was raised in Russia.
<p>
Ivanova does not have an accent because she was educated overseas,
her father wanting her to have certain advantages the rest of her
family did not.
<p>
Nowhere did we say that Andrei or the rest of the Ivanov family ever
emigrated. They didn't. They live in Russia. Or lived, in any
event. Not everyone migrates to the US or to Israel, and not everyone
wants to.
<p>
On the treel/kosher discussion...I can only shrug. Nobody's ever
shown that jews go forward into the future, placed them at the heart
of a science fiction show as a regular character, nobody's shown shiva
before in (and possibly out of) an SF series...and some folks are
complaining that not every aspect of a treel's kosher-ness was
discussed at dinnertime.
<p>
Some days, you just can't win....
<p>
Feh.
<p>
<li>
<em>What was that Harlan Ellison book Ivanova was reading?</em><br>
The book is Harlan's autobiography, which he plans to write around
the year 2000, and yes, that's his photo. (He borrowed the prop when we
were finished and casually carried it with him to a few places, just to
make people nuts thinking there was a book out they'd missed....)
<p>
<li>
[Posted 28 May 1994] BTW, there's an interesting couple of articles
about this episode in this week's Jewish Journal, for another
perspective on the show.
<p>
<li>
<em>Channel 4 in the UK didn't show "TKO" during the initial run</em><br>
TKO's main importance is to the Ivanova arc, as she finally comes to
terms with her father's death. Do I have an opinion on C4's decision
not to show TKO?
<p>
Absolutely.
<p>
<li>
If the problem is showing bare-kunckle fighting to the death, then
somebody should point out to C4 that *nobody dies* in the match.
<p>
<li>
The Mutari are those who fight in the Mutai; and you *did* see Narns
and Centauri and others hanging around the ring. The only ones you
won't see there are Minbari. It ain't their thing.
<p>
<li>
As I've noted before, over the long haul, as you watch episodes, you
will see things you didn't see before. Sometimes they're clues, and
sometimes they're comments which now read a different way than they
did the first time you saw them. There's been a number of the latter
very subtly sprinkled through the episodes aired so far...lines that
everyone jumped on as meaning one thing, but which will mean something
else, and lines which nobody thought much of the first time out...but
which will elicit a wince of irony later on.
<p>
There's a corker in "TKO," but at the moment, it's absolutely
invisible. It's not a clue, it's not necessary for the story, it's
just one of those things that, after you've seen all the rest of this
season's episodes, you will go "Ouch," when you see it next.
<p>
<li>
Actually, the idea of Zima lasting even into 1995 is hysterical. I
keep fighting the urge to have some guy show up on B5, "Zo then I
zays to him, nize ztation"...and five Narns just jump on him and beat
the shit out of him, WHAMWHAMWHAMWHAMWHAM!
<p>
<li>
We've killed off all of Ivanova's close family, yes. Maybe some
cousins are left, but that's about it.
<p>
<li>
There's a Billy Joel song, where one particular lyric (and I'm quoting
from memory) says, "You still have a pain inside you / That you carry
with a certain pride / It's the only part / Of a broken heart / You
could ever save." That's Ivanova.
<p>
She's had her heart stomped on a lot. And she's been holding it in.
Even with her father's death, she sucked in the pain, fought back the
tears. There is one episode, which will be right at the end of the
year, where she finds she can't run from her pain anymore...can't run
from the tears...and deals with them in a scene that's very moving
and absolutely brings tears to the eyes.
</ul>

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<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
A traveller comes to B5, seeking the Holy Grail. A series of unexplained
attacks on several Lurkers may be linked to Ambassador Kosh.
</cite>
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Warner,+David">David Warner</a> as Aldous Gajic.
Tom Booker as Jinxo.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Sanderson,+William">William Sanderson</a> as Deuce.
</blockquote>
<pre>
Sub-genre: Mystery
<a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/015">7.43</a>
Production number: 109
Original air date: July 6, 1994
Written by Christy Marx
Directed by Richard Compton
</pre>
<p>
<hr size=3>
<p>
<h2><a name="BP">Backplot</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Babylon and Babylon 2 were sabotaged. Babylon 3 blew up before it was
finished. Babylon 4 vanished without a trace in front of witnesses.
<li> The Minbari highly value people who spend their lives searching for
something. Delenn seems to believe that's true of Sinclair.
</ul>
<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Delenn seems to consider Sinclair a true seeker. What is he seeking?
<li> Why didn't the feeder want Gajic?
<li> What happened to Babylon 4? (cf.
<a href="020.html">"Babylon Squared"</a>)
</ul>
<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Perhaps Delenn's comments about Sinclair simply refer to his
search for the truth about the Battle of the Line, if she realizes
he knows something of what happened to him. Or there could be
a deeper meaning.
</ul>
<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> This episode features the series' first
CGI alien (the na'ka'leen feeder, pictured above.)
<li> The transport <cite>Marie Celeste</cite>, which Thomas boarded at the
end of the episode, is a reference to a sailing ship
found adrift on the sea in 1872 by the crew of the ship <cite>Dei
Gratia</cite>. The <cite>Celeste</cite>'s crew was missing, as was her
single lifeboat, but there were half-eaten
meals in the mess hall and other evidence the crew had left suddenly.
Investigators found that Captain Morehouse of the <cite>Dei
Gratia</cite> had
dined with Captain Briggs of the <cite>Celeste</cite> the night before
departure, and Morehouse and his crew were tried for murder. There was
no hard evidence, and they were acquitted. The missing crewmen were
never found.
</ul>
<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> In an earlier version of the story, it was indeed Kosh who appeared out
of nowhere and scragged the Feeder, saying, "Some things we do not
allow," but it seemed kinda un-Kosh-like on one level, and it repeated
the Deathwalker finish, so it was dropped.
<p>
<li> The grey-alien trial scene from "Grail" will be excerpted for a
two-part "Sightings" on alien abduction.
<p>
I'm *still* laughing.
<p>
<li> The human won the case, but damages awarded were minimal.
<p>
<li> Yes, this Christy Marx is the same as the one who writes games and
has written comics as well.
<p>
<li> Actually, Christy has gone on record (otherwise I would not have
noted it myself) that the trial scene at the top of "Grail" was
written and inserted by me, since it was a bit short.
<p>
<li> Actually, it was Christy Marx, who wrote Grail, who named Aldus after
Mira [Furlan]'s husband.
<p>
<li> I don't think I've really said that much about "Grail." The trick,
though, is that I don't approach the episodes in quite the same way
that a viewer does. I have somewhat different agendas and goals, and
there are times when hassles in *doing* the episode -- which in no
way affect the show itself - - affects my *perception* of the episode.
<p>
I did a small screening of "Grail" here about a week ago, to get some
other reactions, and they were all very positive; they enjoyed the
episode quite a bit. (Similarly, there were people who thought that
"Infection" was one of the best of the season.) There is *no one* who
is harsher in critiquing the episodes than I am. I want each one to
be absolutely perfect. And sometimes that means that I see flaws that
no one else ever will.
<p>
In any event, I definitely want people to come at this from an open
minded point of view. For reasons that have nothing to do with
Christy's script, it still isn't one of my all-time favorite episodes;
if I said otherwise, I'd be lying through my teeth. But different
opinions are what makes horse races, and as stated, most of those
who've seen it so far *do* like it, so at the moment I'm considerably
outnumbered....
<p>
<li> John Flinn, who is our DP, has at various times also been an actor,
and so we used him to play Mr. Flinn in the episode as well. A
cameo by yet another member of our talented and multifaceted
production team.
<p>
<li> There were no asymmetrical aliens in the pilot, but there's a real
dandy coming your way in the B5 episode "Grail." You want nonhumanoid
aliens, you *got* non-humanoid aliens....
<p>
<li> Yeah, the Feeder is pretty cool; wrapped up Foundation's rendering
machines for the better part of a week just to pull that one off.
<p>
<li> On the feeder being sentient...neither Sinclair nor anyone else on
"our" side of the story ever heard it speaking; all they knew was that
it was a killer, and it was dangerous, and had to be stopped.
<p>
<li> <em>Who let the Feeders out?</em><br>
Stupid bureaucrats who couldn't afford to maintain a quarantine
enforcement team in the sector.
<p>
<li> The hardest part is always writing Kosh, because you have to be very
careful how much you use him, and what he says. Too much and he
loses his sense of mystery, and you don't want him spouting fortune-
cookie type aphorisms. He has a very deliberate way of speaking in
which everything, every smallest nuance and inflection means something,
but sometimes not what it appears to mean, or comes at it from a very
different angle than normal conversation. So I go as minimalist as
possible, to get the meaning down to the smallest number of words
possible. And in one scene, one of only two he appears in, I got him
down to *one word*, and that one word -- and it's a totally inoffensive,
neutral word on its own terms -- should scare the hell out of
*everybody*.
<p>
Ah loves this show....
<em>(Editor's note: the word in question is "Good.")</em>
<p>
<li> At one time we were working out what the time-reference would be on
B5. One of the early things we talked about were cycles, but in
fairly short order I decided against it because it didn't seem to mean
much. But this was, sadly, after "Grail" had been produced, and we
couldn't dub over the cycle references with anything else, so it
stayed. It won't be appearing anywhere else henceforth. One of our
few continuity glitches.
<p>
<li> After "Grail," we had a discussion with Chris about funny music. We
do not anticipate further discussions. (In a full season of music for
B5, this is the only discussion we've had of a critical nature, which
is extraordinary for any series; he's done a lot of wonderful work for
us . . . .)
<p>
<li> Yeah, it was a bit of *really* perverse humor...Jinxo survives all
five Babylon stations, and leaves thinking all is well...on a ship
named the Marie Celeste?
<p>
We're a sick bunch, but we're fun.
<p>
<li> I would love to have David Warner do another episode, though it
would have to be an alien, for obvious reasons.
<p>
<li> And the grail story was fairly self-contained, not much in the way of
arc related stuff there.
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<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
An internal affairs investigation to find out
what's been going on at B5 leads to Sinclair having a
problem with the military when he has to answer for his
actions in settling the labor strike (cf.
<a href="012.html">"By Any Means Necessary"</a>)
as well as other
decisions made during the course of the season.
Ivanova confronts a member of Psi-Corps, as well as her own fears, when
she is told to submit to a scan.
</cite>
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Martin,+Gregory+Paul">Gregory Martin</a> as Col. Ari Ben Zayn.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Combs,+Jeffrey">Jeffrey Combs</a> as Harriman Gray.
</blockquote>
<pre>
Sub-genre: Intrigue
<a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/016">8.16</a>
Production number: 122
Original air date: July 13, 1994
Written by Larry DiTillio
Directed by Jim Johnston
</pre>
<h3>Watch For:</h3>
<ul>
<li>
Some alarming developments on the Mars colony.
<li>
A possible change in Ivanova's attitude toward Talia Winters.
</ul>
<p>
<hr size=3>
<p>
<h2><a name="BP">Backplot</a></h2>
<ul>
<li>
The unrest on Mars is continuing to escalate; now the separatists have
started carrying out terrorist attacks and are arming themselves. (cf.
<a href="018.html">"A Voice in the Wilderness"</a>)
</ul>
<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
<ul>
<li>
How will the powerful backers of the investigation react to Ben Zayn's
failure?
</ul>
<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
<ul>
<li>
Several interesting hints about Ivanova and Talia Winters are dropped, most
notably the fact that Ivanova was thinking of Winters when she and Gray were
talking in the lounge. Ivanova's insistence that no one must ever intrude
upon the memory of her mother's telepathic contact may foreshadow a less
adversarial relationship between the two of them in the future. (cf.
<a href="006.html#AN:4">"Mind War"</a>)
<li>
The fact that Bester was able to intervene in the investigation at all
suggests that he, and possibly Psi Cops in general, wield a lot of power
in the Psi Corps. It is also conceivable that Bester and at least some of
the factions in the Senate who backed the investigation are related.
<li>
Is Ivanova's reluctance to be scanned simply what she says it is -- a result
of her contact with her mother and her general hatred of Psi Corps -- or does
she more immediate reasons, perhaps something to hide?
</ul>
<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Lennier's chant, "Za ba ga bee," is the title of an album by Barnes and
Barnes, of which Bill Mumy is a member. (See
<a href="#JS:zaba">jms speaks</a>)
<li> One of the masked men in Ivanova's dream is played by Macauley
Bruton, who also play's Garibaldi's aide in
<a href="006.html">"Mind War,"</a>
<a href="008.html">"And the Sky Full of Stars,"</a>
and
<a href="022.html">"Chrysalis."</a>
See
<a href="#JS:mac">jms speaks.</a>
</ul>
<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> The last episode [of Season 1] to be shot will be Larry DiTillio's
"Eyes," which is sort of a nice wrap-up to the season, almost an
overview. Once again, nothing that happens this season is simply
forgotten...and a *lot* of it comes due in this episode. It actually
manages to incorporate references to about 6 prior episodes without
being obscure about it.
<p>
<li> BTW...about the time we were delivering "Eyes," somebody on one of
the nets was going on and on about how "B5 continuity *stinks*...I'll
bet we NEVER hear about Deathwalker again, or the strike, or the
Vorlons killing Deathwalker, or Raghesh 3...."
<p>
And seeing what was at that moment on my TV, I wanted to reach through
the computer monitor, roll up my forefinger, and *plink* that person
right upside the nose.
<p>
Unfortunately, I have not yet found a modem program that supports this
feature.
<p>
But Ron is promising me something by the Fall....
<p>
<li> The other thing about "Eyes," btw, is that it's not something dumped
in outta nowhere to make a conflict; it's the direct payoff of events
that take place throughout the season where Sinclair breaks or bends
the rules. Lots of people on the various nets said, "Yeah, there he
goes, breaking the rules in the strike, but is this every gonna pay
off? No, probably not." If we're consistent with reality, and with
our story, and Sinclair's broken some rules, and pissed off some
people back home, then it is *inevitable* that this will eventually
come home to roost in the form of an investigation.
<p>
<li> BTW, for those who saw the promo for "Eyes" at the end of "Grail," I
have *no* idea what it has to do with the episode. Sometimes they
"enhance" the story to make it promote-able...but I think this time
they "enhanced" it right into a parallel dimension....
<p>
<li> <a name="JS:zaba"><em>Was Lennier's chant scripted?</em></a><br>
When it came time for that chant, nothing had been scripted; it was
supposed to be a soft, under one's breath kind of chant. Bill came and
asked me and Larry if we had anything in mind. We said no, whatever you
decide is fine...and he ended up chanting his album cover.
<p>
Later...*much*...later...when I discovered this, we discussed it at
some length.
<p>
<li> There's another reason why Macauley was used as Tragedy in a dream
mainly centered around Psi Corps; it's not really something anybody
needs to see or catch. After "Revelations," it'll be clearer.
<p>
<li> Actually, ben-Zayn is an Middle Eastern/Arabic name.
<p>
<li> I believe the bike in question was a Ninja. And Jerry Doyle is
something of an enthusiast, which is part of what led us to that.
<p>
<li> Correct; Kawasaki did not pay us a dime to use the bike in the show.
We called around, to see who would loan us a bike, with the
understanding that we'd be tearing it apart. Because Kawasaki does
advertise with some of the PTEN shows, someone there had a
relationship with the company, and gave us a name. After we tried a
couple of other companies, we tried Kawasaki, and they agreed...not a
donated bike, just a loaner. And that's what we used.
<p>
<li> The masks were the basic (though somewhat modified) tragedy and
comedy masks, associated with theater. And a couple of times,
Ivanova's mother does use the Russian nickname for her as well as
the English version. Susan was taught and raised to a large extent
overseas, and they always tried to keep her in both worlds.
<p>
<li> Yes, Psi Corps members must wear the Psi symbol at all times when in
public. (Though since Grey was there undercover, that briefly went
by the boards.)
<p>
<li> New Jerusalem is a planet; there's a side-story about it that I'm
contemplating getting into, so don't want to blow it here.
<p>
<li> . . . Let me only emphasize some stuff here. As stated, Larry never
SAW the Drumhead. We generally make it a point NOT to watch what's
done on ST to avoid being influenced. Second, the basic ending which
you feel is strictly ST's can be seen in the Caine Mutiny, A Few Good
Men and others. "Eyes" was a direct consequence of all that preceded
it in our first season. It came about because Larry suggested that
with all that Sinclair has done, sooner or later somebody's going to
take notice back on Earth. There would have to be some kind of
investigation. Because we are doing some very specific things with
the Psi Corps this year and next, which I wanted to foreshadow, a PC
telepath was inserted into the story, to show that they are starting
to get a foothold into the military, with new laws concerning scans.
<p>
We knocked the story back and forth for some time, and it went through
many different permutations. We also figured that the episode should
be kind of a Cliff's Notes guide to season one, hitting the high
points for those who joined the series later than those who were here
at the beginning. The ending also went through various changes, but
what made the most logical sense was to get the Colonel to admit bias
in some fashion or another...and the only way to do this really was to
get him so angry, so furious, that he'd incriminate himself enough, or
open the door enough for Mr. Grey to verify the bias.
<p>
That was how the structure was arrived at. I was there. It had
nothing -- *nothing* -- whatsoever to do with the Drumhead, which I
have a vague memory was written by Jeri Taylor, who is a friend of
mine, and further invalidates the very idea.
<p>
<li> Mr. Grey would've been a P10. PsiCops are P12s.
<p>
PsiCorps administrators at the upper reaches are P11 or better.
<p>
<li> Grey reached into Ben Zayn's head and, for lack of a better term,
pushed his "pain button," the same way you can stimulate someone's
memory or physical sensations with an electrode or chemicals. It was
only a second, and he would've shrugged it off quickly, had Sinclair
not been there to follow up.
</ul>

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<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
A girl entering puberty exhibits telepathic abilities, and the crew
must decide whether to turn her over to the Psi Corps. The corpse of the
Minbari military leader who oversaw the Battle of the Line is the focus
of a diplomatic incident.
</cite>
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Vickery,+John">John Vickery</a> as Neroon.
Grace Una as Alisa Beldon.
</blockquote>
<pre>
Sub-genre: Intrigue
<a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/017">7.87</a>
Production number: 115
Original air date: July 20, 1994
Written by D. C. Fontana
Directed by Bruce Seth Green
</pre>
<p>
<hr size=3>
<p>
<h2><a name="BP">Backplot</a></h2>
<ul>
<li>
The Grey Council ordered the surrender at the Battle of the Line.
<li>
Many among the Minbari warrior caste do not approve of the surrender, a
fact which has caused something of a rift between the religious and
warrior caste.
<li>
Caste membership is determined by heritage. Membership in the religious
caste takes precedence if one parent is in the religious caste and the
other is a warrior. (This is ambiguous; Delenn's statement on the matter
could be interpreted to mean that the mother's caste takes precedence over
the father's.)
<li>
The Earth-Minbari War began with the death of Dukhat, the head of the Grey
Council at the time.
<li>
The war was regarded as a holy war among the Minbari, and had the full
support of the religious caste at least part of the time.
<li>
One of the warleaders (heads of the military clans?) committed suicide
rather than obey the order to surrender.
<li>
Telepaths are highly regarded among the Minbari, and are fed and clothed
by people in exchange for providing their services.
<li>
The Narn keep alien slaves, or at least are reported to do so.
</ul>
<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
<ul>
<li>
What is the significance of the word "chrysalis?" Note that this is the
title of the first-season finale.
<li>
How was Delenn able to sense that she was being probed?
</ul>
<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
<ul>
<li>
Delenn's identity doesn't seem to be a secret among the warrior caste, or
at least its upper echelons. The warriors seem to be playing along and
keeping her secret safe.
<li>
As JMS mentions below, in the original airing order, this episode came after
<a href="020.html">"Babylon Squared."</a>
If that is the intended chronological order of the two episodes, then
Delenn's statement to Neroon that she speaks for the entire Grey Council
takes on different connotations; it is plausible in that case that she is
lying and hadn't even consulted the Council.
<li>
Likewise, the device used to stun the guard appears to be a triluminary;
its presence makes much more sense if this episode is after
<a href="020.html">"Babylon Squared."</a>
Its exact function is still a mystery; did it in fact stun the guard, put
him in some sort of stasis, or something else?
</ul>
<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>
<ul>
<li>
The only first season
script that was developed outside the B5 offices.
</ul>
<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>
<ul>
<li>
Originally, this ep was to be broadcast later in the run, because I
didn't want two PsiCorps episodes back-to-back, and for one little detail that
will become clearer after "Babylon Squared" airs; it would've been better to
have followed that episode, but again, these eps are made to be watched in
just about any order, so it's okay in the long run.
<p>
<li>
Yeah, the audio thing with Talia is something I thought of during the
final audio mix. We wanted to convey somehow her trying to get
through and initially it was just distortion. Then I figured, wait a
second, she is going to be thinking what she's going to say before
she says it, why not pre-lap the dialogue? Unfortunately, for some
damned reason, the high-tech studio wasn't set up to do that effect,
so we took Talia's dialogue, digitized it, laid it in on a second side
track, and played the one over the other, one preceding the other by I
think about 20 frames or so. The key was to make the *second*
voicing the one synched to her lips, not the first one. Worked out
pretty cool.
<p>
<li>
You will see some of the warrior caste in "Legacies," coming up in
July. You don't see them much because they only go where they're
needed.
<p>
<li>
Generally, the religious caste takes precedence over the warrior caste.
<p>
<li>
From cradle to grave, the Minbari are taught that there is no greater
goal, no nobler thing than to serve. They are raised to be totally
self-sacrificing. The only exception is when someone in the religious
caste believes he or she has received a calling, which if sincerely
felt cannot be contravened (since usually this too involves serving).
So for a Minbari telepath, this is their means by which they may
serve, and they are given great respect. It never even occurs to them
to do otherwise.
<p>
Lately, there has been a bit of a change brewing; "a self-involvement
above the needs of others" (as someone notes in "Voice") that has
begun creeping into the Minbari race. And they're not happy about it.
<p>
<li>
Overall, I'd say that "Legacies" came out better than "War Prayer,"
because Dorothy had more time to get to know the characters, and
because it was better directed. (As a parenthetical, Larry DiTillio
has developed some of his own scripts as well, specifically "TKO" and
"Eyes." "Legacies" is the one I'd say was developed "outside the
office" in the sense of being a freelance effort. Everything else
was either an assigned premise or done in-house by staff.)
<p>
<li>
Stuff like wearing gloves is only enforced if you're a member of Psi
Corps; Allysa wasn't. In addition, though she had P10 *potential*,
the talent was sporadic, came and went.
<p>
<li>
Regarding "Legacies," there's one brief blip in there
that we're going to see again; I'm not sure I'd call it a
clue, but certainly a cue...a hint of something to come. You
won't have to wonder what it is; it'll be shown in a flashback
in that particular yet-to-air episode.
</ul>

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<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
Seismic activity on the planet near the station uncovers what may be
signs of an extinct alien civilization. An old mentor pays a visit to
Ambassador Delenn. The unrest on the Mars Colony intensifies.
</cite>
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Turenne,+Louis">Louis Turenne</a> as Draal.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Lowens,+Curt">Curt Lowens</a> as Varn.
</blockquote>
<pre>
Sub-genre: Suspense/mystery
<a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/018">8.50</a>
Production number: 120
Original air date: July 27, 1994
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Janet Greek
</pre>
<p>
<hr size=3>
<p>
<h2><a name="BP">Backplot</a></h2>
<ul>
<li>
Before Sinclair asked him to be security chief on Babylon 5, Garibaldi was
working for the security division on Mars Colony, where he fell in love with
a woman named Lise Hampton.
Their relationship was rocky ("I was pretty messed up") and ended when he
accepted the B5 assignment.
<li>
The Psi Corps has a secret training facility very close to one of the
Mars Colony cities.
<li>
There is growing lack of purpose and dissatisfaction among the ordinary
citizens on Minbar.
<li>
One of Londo's wives was a dancer at a club, who comforted him when he
was depressed. He married her that night, and regretted it the next morning
and ever since.
<li>
The planet the station is orbiting is called Epsilon 3.
</ul>
<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
<ul>
<li>
What came through the jumpgate?
<li>
What is the function of all the machinery buried beneath the planet's surface?
<li>
Why was the alien connected to the machines, apparently against his will?
<li>
How was he able to project himself to Sinclair and Londo on the station?
<li>
Was the defense system designed to prevent someone from finding the machinery,
or to stop someone from rescuing the alien?
</ul>
<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
<ul>
<li>
The alien might well be native to Epsilon 3, since he was able to breathe
the atmosphere once he was disconnected from the machinery. In the shuttle,
Ivanova can be seen fitting him with a breather unit, presumably since the
shuttle's air is Earth-style. Perhaps the proximity of Babylon 5 to Epsilon 3
is not a simple coincidence.
<li>
A possible inconsistency: if the missiles were being fired from within the
fissure, how could Sinclair and Ivanova safely enter it? All their cover
fire was high in the atmosphere; the missiles could have hit them before
they had time to react once they were underground.
</ul>
<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>
<ul>
<li>
The scene with Ivanova and Sinclair crossing the tunnel bears similarity to
a scene from the 1956 film <cite>Forbidden Planet</cite>. (See
<a href="#JS:FP">jms speaks</a>)
</ul>
<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>
<ul>
<li>
We're halfway through filming the two-parter, "A Voice in the
Wilderness," which is coming along nicely. From a CGI and sets point
of view, this is the largest and most ambitious thing we've shot yet,
with ore of each category than in any other episode.
<p>
<li>
In the two-parter, btw, [Christopher Franke] went absolutely full-out and
gave us some of the best scoring of the season...gorgeous stuff, second only
to either "Sky" or "Chrysalis."
<p>
<li>
...Delenn has quite a few moments when she's laughing,
and funny, but always in a dignified fashion; it's a strange but very
appealing combination. (And there's one scene she's in that is played
*absolutely* straight, but is fall-down funny.)
<p>
<li>
It was always intended to be a two-parter, and was written that
way. Background: the B5 2-hour pilot has done VERY well overseas in
cassette form. Many of the prejudices in the american press that caused
us problems don't exist overseas (it's done *extremely* well in Japan on
laserdisk, in Germany, and England, among others). So they asked if we
could do a two-parter that could be sold as a two-hour episode overseas.
By all means, sez I. So I structured it accordingly.
<p>
Bit of B5 trivia: during the dead of winter last year, I got hit by
the flu as badly as I've ever been hit. Temperature so high that I was
near delerious at times, but refused to go to the hospital (I don't like
doctors, and I was under deadline and couldn't afford the potential time
away.) We're talking mondo sicko here. It was during this time that I
wrote "The Quality of Mercy," a script which I have *no* memory of ever
writing. I know it's here, and I know I wrote it on an intellectual
level, but the process...gone in the fever.
<p>
It was also around this time -- either at the top or bottom of the
flu, I can't remember now -- that I wrote the "Voice" two parter. And
here's the trivia part...this isn't the original two-parter that I wrote.
My brain already deteriorating, I wrote something that even I could see
wasn't up to par. Wrote the entire two-hour script. Printed it up, and
gave it to Doug and John. Before they could even respond, I looked at it
and decided it had to go. So I trashed the entire script. By now we
were getting very close to pre-production, and I was getting sicker and
sicker...but I more or less locked myself in my office, swallowed down
massive amounts of vitamins (as much as my stomach could handle), kept
forcing down coffee, and wrote 12 hours a day for about six days, after
which the original draft was finished. Turned it in; did some mild
polishes thereafter, but what was filmed was essentially what I turned
in in first-draft stage. In this case I do remember some of the process
because the only way I could focus was to keep the stereo up full blast;
in the writing of "Quality," it didn't help...I was beyond recall.
<p>
<li>
I tried to develop a basic language structure for each of the races
on B5. There are certain commonalities to the structure of names. I
came up with some prefixes and suffixes, and assigned meanings to them,
the same as real names. For instance, Rathenn (referred to by Delenn
in "Voices") and Delenn have the same suffix, which has a specific
meaning. You can break it down; Ner-oon (Legacies), Del-enn, Rath-enn,
Der-onn, and so forth. The various parts do have specific meanings,
but I generally keep that to myself, just for amusement.
<p>
<li>
I try not to hype shows that I like unless I know beyond a doubt that
it's absolutely kick-ass. I like "Voice" a lot; it is the point at
which we really start cranking, speeding things up as we barrel
toward "Chrysalis." I think the CGi is nothing less than terrific,
Christopher Franke went balls-to-the-wall and did an *amazing* job
with the music, the performances are good. I like it a lot. I haven't
commented upon it a lot because it's kind of the weird child in the
brood; when I write, I generally write tight and fast. By the third
act, you're *moving*. In this case, you have to pace yourself out
*very* differently, so part of my brain keeps doing this "c'mon, speed
it up, speed it up" when I'm watching the first part because I'm used
to a different one-hour kind of pacing.
<p>
Kathryn says I'm nuts. But then this is nothing new.
<p>
Anyway, I do think it's pretty cool, and does a lot with virtual sets
and composite sets.
<p>
<li>
Re: the elevator/transport tube gag...yes, we set this stuff up WAY
in advance. The first time is in the tube where he tells Talia
about his second favorite thing in the universe. The second time is
in "Mind War" when he gives her the mental once-over and she belts
him. And then we paid it off later with her line about him always
being there.
<p>
One nice thing about the way we're doing this show is that we don't
just have to set up gags within an episode; we can set them up *weeks*
ahead of time, as long as the payoff is self-contained, but then when
you see the earlier shows, now you get more out of it.
<p>
<li>
A First Contact situation is one unlike any other: you don't want
junior officers around to screw it up. Remember, the Earth/Minbari
War began when a First Contact situation got screwed up. EA's policy
is that it's better to risk two people than a full war, and those two
people have got to be command-level personnel. Soldiers get killed;
it happens. And yeah, you can leave a backup person at the shuttle
...but what if *he's* the one to make actual first contact? You're
screwed. Ivanova and Sinclairhave been trained in this; in "Soul
Hunter," Sinclair makes reference to the rules of First Contact
Protocol. If you like, I'll elaborate on this in some future episode.
<p>
<li>
Re: the commander and Ivanova going...remember, this is a First
Contact situation, and that requires the presence of at minimum one
command officer under EA regs. Two is preferred. You don't want
junior officers hanging around or taking hostile stances which might
provoke a fight. Remember that the last major First Contact
situation was with the Minbari, which went afoul and gave us the
Earth/Minbari War. EA would rather lose two replaceable officers than
start another war via misunderstanding or a fouled move. This is a
part of their First Contact Protocol, referenced in "Soul Hunter." (I
should probably expandupon this a bit in future episodes.)
<p>
<li>
RE: the big bridge shot...the storyboard artist came up with 3 shots
we could use. One of them was a wide shot across a crystalline ground
like area, through which a path can be seen at ground level, but it
was narrow and still really didn't convey the scale of what I wanted.
One other was not much different. The third was a downshot designed
to pull back, and though I knew it would make folks say "Krell!", I
knew that it was the right shot for that scene, so chose that one and
decided to live with it.
<p>
<li>
<a name="JS:FP">It's real simple.</a>
Ron Thornton showed me three variations on the
Great Machine shot. Because you're looking at a composite shot, you have
to shoot either sharply angled down, or dead across, and full-figured,
since you have to put them into another piece. That meant either a
horizontal shot, or a 3/4's vertical shot.
<p>
Two of the shots on the storyboards were horizontal; one showed our
characters way off in the distance on a ribboned path lined by crystals.
It'd be pretty, but it looked like another tunnel shot, and I wanted to
show something that wasn't claustrophobic. Also, we'd be limited in the
camera move, and our characters would look kinda like peanuts. Not
terribly dramatic. The second shot just didn't work for me, I don't
entirely recall the reason now. The third possibility seemed the most
dramatic...it was a high angle shot, it had depth, it would let us start
on our characters and do a camera move/pullback in post production, it
worked on every level.
<p>
My second thought was, "Shit, somebody's going to gig us on the
Forbidden Planet thing." Nonetheless, it was the right shot, for the
right reasons, and we chose to go with it.
<p>
<li>
How does one come up with stuff like Londo's song? Easy, really; you
start by putting yourself in the position of an alien trying to
understand us. And if you step back for a second, we do some *very*
weird stuff. What he says about the song is exactly right in terms of
its meaning.
<p>
<li>
Yeah...I love Londo's song, that whole scene. The director wanted to
cut Ivanova's coda after her mantra, but I really felt we needed it,
and it played perfectly with her Russian character, which tends to
have this unusual relationship with higher forces (he said vaguely).
I love character based humor, because it's very powerful once you know
the characters, and it can really blind-side you if done right.
Ivanova's reaction in the core area was about as real as would
probably happen, but it's funny to hear her *say* it.
<p>
<li>
Londo and Garibaldi really are two sides of the same coin, in some
ways. There's an odd friendship there, almost grudging; Londo had
little to gain by cheering up Garibaldi, except a drink perhaps, but
that's what friends do.
<p>
<li>
I love monologues. They are a legitimate part of any drama. The MTV
generation has had its tastes so thoroughly bastardized by quick cuts,
lowering the attention span further and further, that any bite of more
than ten seconds and they start to wander, it becomes a block of words
and they blur out.
<p>
Go rent Network by Paddy Chayefsky, watch nearly any of the TZs by Rod
Serling, go see "The Lady's Not for Burning" by Christopher Fry...all
chockablock with moments where you park for a moment and let fly with
a chunk of dialogue that smashes your head against the wall. Not every
single exchange has to be foreshortened so that you lose the *impact*
of what's being said. Because people's attention spans have been
greatly foreshortened, suddenly more than 3 lines at a time is somehow
viewed as wrong. It ain't. Just that lots of folks are afraid to try
it, afraid to rely on just the words and the actors. And sometimes it
works, and sometimes it doesn't. But it's legitimate.
<p>
The monologue in particular, done right, isn't just to convey
information, it's to create a mood, to paint pictures with words, to
expand on the obvious. Yeah, I could've just written, "The narns hate
us, we hate them, it's equal math." But that doesn't carry the same
meaning, the same sense as "so here we are...victims of mathematics."
The use of the word "victim" connotes, hey, it's not my fault. Yeah,
the former is shorter, but you lose the rhythms, the imagery, and the
*sense* of what is intended. You could say, "The narn hate us." But
to say, "if the narns gathered together in one place, and hated, all
at the same time, that hatred would fly across dozens of light years
and reduce Centauri Prime to a ball of ash," draws a picture, lends
power to the emotion.
<p>
Point being...I like 'em, there's nothing wrong with them, and they're
staying.
<p>
<li>
Re: your suspenders of disbelief becoming unhitched....
<p>
You will learn how the alien knows English in the next part of the
two parter. (Hint: after all, he's been there for a long while, in a
high-tech machine...you'd think maybe he could monitor transmissions.)
<p>
I don't think the Sinclair or Ivanova did automatically believe him;
but they also had no real reason *not* to believe him. And granted
the place was going to hell, quakes and danger. He wasn't armed, he
seems rather sick, had to be helped away, almost carried...they won't
turn the station over to him, they'll keep him isolated on the
station, but there was no reason *not* to try and help him.
<p>
How do you know he's a good guy? You don't. But he wasn't exactly
imprisoned in that thing; it was a support, more than anything else,
a was shown by the fact that they were able to get him out fairly
easily.
<p>
(And yes, your first guess was correct, it is a life support gizmo.)
<p>
Regards to your suspenders.
<p>
<li>
Once removed from his place, Varn was able to lead them back to their
shuttle. It's not terribly dramatic, and I figured that was a fairly
logical leap, so didn't feel the need to put in a scene which would
just consist of Varn saying, "Left....now right...."
<p>
<li>
Ivanova's line: "We don't know if we can find our way back or not,"
not that it was closed off. So showing them wandering around to find
another open tunnel seemed not dramatically interesting; you have to
pick what's important and what's not, and what will work dramaticall
on screen. If she had said "there's no other way out," then you
would've had to show it. She didn't. One can also argue that the
alien showed them which way to get out. Either way...all you've got
is one hour to tell your story. You can't show everything, you have
to let your audience assume some things.
<p>
Roy: there is a quantum difference between a computer game and a TV
show. It's not "lowest common denominator," which means making the
story stupid; I'm saying that if you showed the missiles at full speed,
YOU WOULD NOT SEE THEM AT ALL. And, again, there's nothing nearby
with which to get a sense of how fast they're going, no landmarks, so
it's very hard to convey that. Again, look at space footage; the
shuttle is going *incredibly* fast...but as far as we can tell it
looks nearly motionless, because there are no landmarks.
<p>
Re: not explaining WHY the Starfuries can't enter the atmosphere, we
did that. Ivanova says that they're not built to function within an
atmosphere. Now, I could stop the scene for a long dissertation on
the relative aerodynamics of planes with wings vs. starfuries, but
here you say only what you have to. You show, don't tell.
<p>
It seems like in the same breath, it's accused of catering to the
lowest-common denominator, and being over the head of its viewers by
requiring them to *think* about what they're seeing.
<p>
Which means we're probably doing it right.
<p>
<li>
It seems to me that every generation thinks that things are changing,
usually for the worse. In some cases, they may be right. The B5
story is set at a point in time where things are very much in a state
of flux. Every so often, the wheel turns. Everybody's feeling a
sense of growing uncertainty, of the chairs being moved around.
They're right.
<p>
<li>
Actually, this was not the first B5 or Sinclair had heard about the
escalating problem on Mars; remember, that was the main reason that
Ben Zayn had been sent to B5 in "Eyes," smoking out sympathisers with
the Free Mars movement.
<p>
<li>
The Mars Colony situation will be raising its ugly head on and off
again for quite some time to come.
<p>
Also, the fissure wasn't created by the quakes; Tasaki mentions it
was artificial, but nudged open by the tremors.
<p>
<li>
No, a shuttle like this, which is designed to function in alternate
atmospheres, and may have to evacuate groups, has about 7 standard or
most common atmosphere cannisters. Medlab has the same thing, but in
larger numbers. This is SOP on the show.
<p>
<li>
No, the sets weren't redresses of regular sets; they were built new
and entirely for the two-parter; you can get a better look at them in
the second part, and some angles of the first.
</ul>

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<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
Sinclair fights two turf battles at once as alien invaders claim the planet
the station orbits, and an Earthforce captain disagrees with him about how
to deal with the situation.
</cite>
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Canada,+Ron">Ron Canada</a> as Capt. Ellis Pierce.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Turenne,+Louis">Louis Turenne</a> as Draal.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Lowens,+Curt">Curt Lowens</a> as Varn.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Gentile,+Denise">Denise Gentile</a> as Lise Hampton.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Aleong,+Aki">Aki Aleong</a> as Senator Hidoshi.
</blockquote>
<pre>
Sub-genre: Action
<a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/019">8.49</a>
Production number: 121
Original air date: August 3, 1994
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Janet Greek
</pre>
<p>
<hr size=3>
<p>
<h2><a name="BP">Backplot</a></h2>
<ul>
<li>
In his youth, Londo led the Centauri raid on a planet called Frallis 12.
<li>
Five hundred years earlier, the last of Varn's race died, entrusting him
with a legacy, the guarding and caretaking of Epsilon 3. Some time prior
to that, a violent, cruel faction of the race was cast aside by the rest,
and since Varn took over Epsilon 3, they have been searching for it.
<li>
Some Earth citizens feel they're heavily subsidizing the Mars colony, and
that may in fact be true.
<li>
The Centauri contributed a substantial amount of money to the construction
of Babylon 5.
</ul>
<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
<ul>
<li>
What is the intended use of Epsilon 3?
<li>
What needs to happen before it will be deemed ready for consumption by the
rest of the galaxy?
<li>
Was Takarn's ship the only one of its kind, or are more outcasts from Varn's
race still out there, searching (or heading) for Epsilon 3?
<li>
Are there any other planets like Epsilon 3 waiting to be discovered?
</ul>
<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
<ul>
<li>
The station potentially has a powerful new ally in Draal. It remains to be
seen if he will prove willing to come to the station's defense in the future,
but the threat of retaliation by Epsilon 3 might be enough to keep any
would-be attackers at bay.
<li>
Garibaldi's tentative hopes of one day getting back together with Lisa have
now been dashed. This might make him that much more likely to hit the
bottle again. (cf.
<a href="011.html">"Survivors"</a>)
<li>
Assuming Earth is successful in putting down the revolt on Mars, a continued
presence will likely be necessary to keep things from flaring up again.
This is bound to have political consequences back on Earth, and possibly
on Babylon 5, as Earth has a harder time claiming the moral high ground
if it's occupying one of its own members with soldiers.
<li>
Londo's sense of adventure, now reawakened, might lead him to go even further
in his quest for the "good old days." Between this and his possession of
the Eye (cf.
<a href="013.html">"Signs and Portents"</a>)
he may be a much more influential figure than he appears.
<li>
Delenn's assessment of Sinclair jibes with the hints in
<a href="015.html">"Grail"</a>
that she considers him a "true seeker," someone whose life is devoted to
a cause.
</ul>
<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>
<ul>
<li>
The heavy cruiser EAS Hyperion was named after the Babylon 5 Internet archive
(and home of the Lurker's Guide) at Hyperion.COM.
<li>
Ivanova seems to enjoy saying "Boom!" (cf.
<a href="../synops/015.html#boom">"Grail"</a>)
<li>
When Capt. Pierce is going to launch fighters to land on the planet and
Sinclair threathens to destroy them, Pierce argues for a moment and then
backs down. When he turns briefly to the screen and a computer graphic is
displayed showing him calling down the ships, one of the ships in the top
left corner of the screen has the flight number THX-1138, the name of
George Lucas' first film.
<li>
More SF references can be found in the list of words being downloaded from
the station's language files by the aliens. For instance, "ORAC" is a
computer from the British series <cite>Blake's 7,</cite> and "Skynet" is
from "The Terminator."
</ul>
<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>
<ul>
<li>
BTW, have named an Earth Alliance Cruiser Hyperion, in notation of
the library....
<li>
<em>Does the Earth Alliance have capital ships?</em><br>
Of course there are capital ships. We never said otherwise.
There's one later this season, for instance, the EAS Hyperion, a heavy Earth
cruiser. There aren't as many as they'd like -- the majority having been
wiped out in the war -- but they're building 'em as fast as possible. (The
Hyperion, though it's never mentioned, is one of the leftover capital ships,
not one of the newer ones.)
<li>
<em>Will we see other ships like the Hyperion?</em><br>
That design will never be seen again.
<li>
Correct; the Hyperion didn't have a gravity-positive section.
<li>
Of course, insofar as I recall, it wasn't stated in the episode that
Varn's people actually *built* the Great Machine; after all, if they
could build it, why would the others have been searching for it so
frantically for the last several hundred years?
<li>
Actually the Hyperion is one of the few surviving heavy cruisers from
the Earth/Minbari War period; after we lost a LOT of our ships, there
were some new ones commissioned, which we haven't seen yet, which are
far cooler than even the Hyperion (though we'll see them next season).
<li>
The captain of the Hyperion specifically states that he was already
IN hyperspace, en route to another system, when he was ordered to
stop here. His ship was already in the area. Also, there is a fair
amount of time between the actions on the planet initially, and the
arrival of the Hyperion...enough to know there's some kind of tech
there, based on the initial attacks. The Hyperion continued to
monitor reports as they came in.
<li>
And there we get into the contradiction; Ivanova and Sinclair down on
the planet would be mainly more run-and-jump...Draal talking about his
feelings, Delenn showing she is upset that her friend is going away
and will never be seen by her again, their obvious friendship, that to
me is characterization. And not just throwaway stuff, either, but
important down the road.
<p>
But hey, what do I know....
</ul>

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<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
Babylon 4 returns as abruptly as it vanished, but its reappearance may bode
ill for the future. Delenn receives a momentous offer.
</cite>
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Broadhurst,+Kent">Kent Broadhurst</a> as Major Krantz.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Choate,+Tim">Tim Choate</a> as Zathras.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Gentile,+Denise">Denise Gentile</a> as Lise Hampton.
</blockquote>
<pre>
Sub-genre: Intrigue/mystery
<a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/020">8.57</a>
Production number: 118
Original air date: August 10, 1994
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Jim Johnston
</pre>
<h3>Watch For:</h3>
<ul>
<li> A man shouts at Garibaldi and Sinclair; what he says might provide
clues about the nature of the opponents in another scene.
<li> Look closely at what's inside a transparent case given to Delenn.
It's an object that's been shown in a previous episode.
</ul>
<p>
<hr size=3>
<p>
<h2><a name="BP">Backplot</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Babylon 4 was stolen by people from the future, apparently at Sinclair's
behest during that time period, to act as a base of operations in a
tremendous war being fought between the forces of light and darkness.
<li> Sinclair will be a great leader, possibly <em>the</em> leader, of the
forces of light in that war.
<li> <a name="BP:flash">At some point,</a> long before he participates in
Babylon 4's disappearance, Sinclair will flee a place (most likely
Babylon 5, cf.
<a href="013.html">"Signs and Portents"</a>)
that is about to be overrun by some evil creatures. Garibaldi will stay
behind to fight, but will force Sinclair to leave. A
<a href="020.flash.html">transcript</a>
of the scene in question is available.
<li> The Grey Council stopped the war because of a prophecy. Valen (a
revered figure, see
<a href="#JS:valen">jms speaks</a>)
said that humans, or some among them, had a destiny with which the
Minbari could not be allowed to interfere.
<li> Delenn is on Babylon 5 to study humanity, to determine whether the
prophecy is correct.
</ul>
<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Will Babylon 4 appear again? If so, when?
<li> Was it really Sinclair in the suit? If not, who or what was it?
<li> What was Sinclair trying to prevent from happening?
<li> Who was waiting for Delenn and Sinclair?
<li> Will Delenn keep her position on the council?
<li> What is the purpose of the triluminary?
<li> What was happening in Sinclair's flashforward? Who or what was
attacking the station? Is it related to the destruction of the station
as foretold in
<a href="013.html">"Signs and Portents?"</a>
<li> What was the crazed man referring to when he shouted about "monsters"
and said, "I see you... you think I can't?" (see
<a href="#AN:inv">Analysis</a>)
<li> Is the Grey Council's cruiser the same place Sinclair was taken during
the Battle of the Line? (cf.
<a href="008.html">"And the Sky Full of Stars"</a>)
<li> Why is Delenn so convinced she must remain on Babylon 5, even at the
risk of her standing in the Council?
<li> What "change" does Delenn believe is coming?
</ul>
<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> None of the races have demonstrated an ability to travel through
time. Yet within Sinclair's lifetime, such technology will either
be developed, discovered, or introduced by people from the distant
past or future. Does it exist already? If so, who has it? There
may be a subtle
<a href="008.html#triluminary">clue</a>
in
<a href="008.html">"And the Sky Full of Stars"</a>.
Zathras' people may be the ones to provide the technology.
<li> The voice that speaks to Sinclair sounds like Delenn's, but her face is
intentionally not shown. Presumably there is a reason for that;
Delenn may be due to change in some way that will alter her appearance.
<li> After Babylon 4 completes its time jump, a voice (presumably a
computer) announces that the atmosphere was breathable. Why wasn't
it breathable before? Zathras clearly had no trouble breathing in
the past, so is something about the future Sinclair different that
prevents him from breathing a normal atmosphere?
<li> In the past, when we've seen Grey Council members, they have had silver
triangles on their foreheads
(<a href="008.html">"And the Sky Full of Stars"</a>
and
<a href="013.html">"Signs and Portents"</a>
during Morden's visit to Delenn.) Yet no such triangles were visible
this time. What do the triangles mean, and what causes them to
appear? (see
<a href="#JS:triangle">jms speaks</a>)
<li> <a name="AN:inv">The attacking force</a>
in Sinclair's vision of the future seemed to be invisible.
Witness the fact that Garibaldi's men were firing in seemingly random
directions, as if they didn't know where the enemy was. It also seems
unlikely that they'd use a flamethrower if they could aim at their
opponents. When the unknown force finally cut through the wall, it
was forced inward, but nothing could be seen forcing it. This also
explains what the crazed man on B4 was talking about; he'd seen
visions of a battle against invisible foes too.
<p>
The only instance of invisibility seen in the series up until this
episode was in
<a href="007.html">"The War Prayer"</a>,
and it was developed by the Earth Alliance military, suggesting
perhaps that the attackers might be humans.
<li> Garibaldi flashed back to an event two years earlier. That may
suggest that Sinclair's flashforward (if indeed that's what it was)
was to two years in the future, which would put the scene somewhere
in the year 2260, season three of the series.
</ul>
<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Babylon 4 is larger than Babylon 5.
</ul>
<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>
<ul>
<p>
<li> The one I'm most looking forward to writing just now, though, is
"Babylon Squared," in which we finally show what happened to Babylon
4, and in the process ask more questions than we answer (though at
least we DO answer the questions we asked about the fate of that
station in general...you'll know what happened to it, just not yet
what it means). The end of this episode will cause more speculation
and consternation and astonishment than anything you've seen on TV in
a long, long, very long time.
<p>
<li> What a weird day...filming "Babylon Squared," and one minute I'm
standing in the anteroom/hallway of a Minbari cruiser that leads into
the Great Hall and the chambers of the Grey Council...a few minutes
later I'm standing in a section of Babylon 4, and the whole atmosphere
of the crew is *very* different, the whole sensibility is strange...
very strange.
<p>
"Babylon Squared" has a *very* different look to it, and a very eerie
and foreboding feel about it, which I like a lot. Jim Johnston, who
directed "Soul Hunter" and several others is doing it. Very moody.
<p>
<li> Yesterday, I got the final air-check versions of "Babylon Squared"
and "Chrysalis" to QC before delivering them to PTEN. Watched both
of them three times in the same day. They're just stunning.
Probably the two best episodes of the entire season.
<p>
<li> Yes, you will see the Major Conflict that leads to the situation with
Babylon 4. We're building toward a massive conflagration here.
<p>
<li> Yes, you will definitely, at some point, see the flip side of the
B2 episode.
<p>
<li> No, actually, B2 was structured for maximum jarring effect, thus the
sudden cuts back and forth, the sickly green light in B4...makes the
person watching feel unexplainably anxious, which was a subliminal
but definite intent. So no, nothing much was cut. And yes,
eventually we will see the flip-side of the B4 story.
<p>
<li> In B-squared, we saw the present
events in the vanishment of B4; in a future episode, we'll actually see
our characters make the decision to go back in time and yank B4 forward,
what went wrong, and so on.
<p>
<li> Nope; Zathras is one of his race, which aren't offspring of any
other two groups.
<p>
<li> When Zathras shows up in time, it'll definitely be recognizeable as
Zathras.
<p>
<li> B5 is smaller than B4 because they sunk most of
their budget into B4; on B5 they had to get outside
funding, and scrimped.
<p>
<li> B1-B4 were located in roughly the same sector, with B4 using some of
the materials from 1-3 leftover. B5 was constructed about 3 hours
(traveling time in real-space) from the location of B4.
<p>
<li> No commander had yet been assigned to Babylon 4. One Major Krantz
had been assigned to oversee the final stages of construction, and
was on board -- along with about 1300 others in the construction
crew -- when the station vanished. The station had only been on-
line 24 hours, and the discussions of a commanding officer had just
begun when it disappeared.
<p>
<li> Major Krantz wasn't so much in charge of B4 as he was (as noted in
dialogue) assigned to oversee the final stages of construction. His
job was to get the station finished, then turn it over to someone
else to run.
<p>
<li> <cite>Does the triluminary have anything to do with the sculpture in
Delenn's quarters?</cite><br>
Yes, the Triluminary does have a function in the
device she's been making.
<p>
<li> <a name="JS:triangle"><cite>Why no triangles on the Council's
heads?</cite></a>
<br>
While the triangle is one element of the Grey Council
symbology, it is not present and visible at all times and
under all circumstances; it has a particular purpose or
meaning.
<p>
<li> The triangle only manifests itself for specific reasons, at specific
times, neither of which were appropriate to that moment. And yes,
the Triluminary is much cooler...and does something quite interesting.
<p>
<li> <a name="JS:valen">Valen</a> was the one who brought Minbari
civilization together, he is their Christ-figure. And yes, the
heavyset Grey Council member is the same one as in "Sky."
<p>
<li> <cite>Garibaldi's closing lines in Sinclair's flashforward are
reminiscent of "Aliens."</cite><br>
When you're shooting a show, invariably you get to the stage and
find that you have, for instance, three lines, one per character in the
room...and you're trying to get them out the door, and it moves better
if you give one line to one character and the other two to the other
character. That sometimes happens. But rarely. In the Garibaldi's
yell case, it was written as a quick shot, he yells and we're out. The
director wanted to extend the shot a bit, visually. I wasn't in the
studio at the time, so Jerry improvised a series of yells.
<p>
This sort of thing is *extremely* rare on the show; the actors and
directors know they *cannot* change dialogue on the set without approval
from me or Larry. On any given script, no more than about 3-6 lines get
modified for staging purposes once we get to the set. And always with
approval required. This is an absolute, hard and fast rule. The only
reason the Garibaldi thing happened is that they figured it was just a
yell, so nothing could get messed up story-wise (which is the primary
reason this is so strict; change one word in a line and it could screw
up plot points three episodes down the road) by having him yell a few
specific lines. If I'd been there for that scene, I would've written
him something a little less reminiscent of "Aliens."
<p>
<li> The script called for Garibaldi to take up the Big Massive Gun and
fire, with a primal YELL that went on forever. Any dialogue at that
point which replaced the yell came from the actor. The "you're
already dead" was only relevant to the scene, not T2.
<p>
<li> Re: Garibaldi in the flash-forward scene...no, it wasn't any kind of
"homage" to Aliens. (And for the most part, I try and stay clear of
any kind of homage unless it's primarily a throwaway; I want my story
to be MY story, not a bunch of homages.)
<p>
The single most moving kind of story for me is the "last man on the
bridge"...the last defender who has to hold the line while others get
away, knowing he will probably not survive it. This has great power
for me, and for many others, which is why it shows up again and again
in films, literature, TV and other venues. The Garibaldi scene has
NOTHING to do with Aliens, and everything to do with that figure.
<p>
Re: *why* it is that humans are special...has nothing to do with
sacrifice, or dedication (well, that's not quite true, it has
something to do with it), but that's not the totality of it. There's
one more element you don't know about yet, that won't be revealed
until season two, episode one, "Points of Departure." Once you see
that episode, you'll fully understand that there is one very
particular thing about humans that is very special indeed.
<p>
<li> I kinda *have* to play fair with the story; if you hear Delenn's
voice, then you can be sure it's Delenn.
<p>
In one form or another.
<p>
<li> "So who IS the One? Some of the evidence points to Sinclair, but
other bits seem to indicate Delenn. Yet neither seems to fit all the
facts above."
<p>
Exactly.
<p>
What you have here in your message are two pieces of the puzzle.
You're confounded by the fact that somehow they don't quite seem to fit
into one another. That's because there's one last piece missing in this
part of the picture, which fits in between them. The intent is to put
this piece into clear view in year three, probably between episodes 8
and 11 approximately. At that point, the question of the One will be
fully answered.
<p>
<li> Re: Sinclair as the One...funny how all this time very few folks have
really commented much on how it was that Zathras could look right into
Sinclair's face and say, "NOT the One."
<p>
<li> <em>Garibaldi's eyes glow for one frame in the flashforward scene.</em>
<br>
(sigh) Our rotoscope EFX guy was waiting for a bunch of PPG EFX to
finish rendering in that battle scene, and was bored, and like many
such EFX types, filled in the eyes of Garibaldi with weird stuff
while waiting around. When the other scene finished rendering, he
got out, believing that he had not saved that one frame. Unknowingly,
he had.
<p>
Nobody caught it until after broadcast.
<p>
We talked.
<p>
<li> "It has been divulged that Sinclair is coexisting in a parallel
dimension Babylon 4."
<p>
Actually, this has *not* been divulged...what it is is a speculation
based on an offhand comment by Michael at a convention. I jump in
here only because, well, that ain't it. B4 is not in an alternate
dimension, neither is there an alternate Sinclair. Just a course
correction to the discussion.
<p>
<li> With only one exception, you won't see time travel anywhere in the
five-year run of the B5 story.
<p>
<li> Fasten, button.
<p>
Levi's Jeans forever!
<p>
<li> <em>Why wasn't Franklin delivering the autopsy report?</em><br>
Garibaldi is head of security, and Franklin would likely give him the
report, which Garibaldi then relays. In such things there is a chain
of command. And as you say, it seemed pointless to bring in the actor
just for one half-page scene.
<p>
<li> <em>Credits for two Gray Council members?</em><br>
Mark Henrickson was the...rounder of the two Minbari. The one with
the staff wanted to go uncredited.
<p>
No real reason, he just felt it would be better for the character
to remain mysterious; and since it really wasn't a big part, it
wouldn't make a real difference one way or another in his credits and
resume. (I know that sounds weird, but as near as I can determine,
that's the reason. He did a great job, and we're looking forward to
having him again.)
</ul>

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<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
Talia is involved in carrying out the sentence of a convicted murderer.
Dr. Franklin investigates a possible medical scam in Downbelow. Londo takes
Lennier for a look at the less savory sections of the station.
</cite>
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Lockhart,+June">June Lockhart</a> as Dr. Laura Rosen.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+McNeil,+Kate">Kate McNeil</a> as Janice Rosen.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Rolston,+Mark">Mark Rolston</a> as Karl Mueller.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+London,+Damian">Damian London</a> as the Centauri Senator.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Norton,+Jim">Jim Norton</a> as Ombuds Wellington.
</blockquote>
(Originally titled "The Resurrectionist")
<pre>
Sub-genre: Suspense/drama
<a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/021">7.29</a>
Production number: 117
Original air date: August 17, 1994
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Lorraine Senna Ferrara
</pre>
<p>
<hr size=3>
<p>
<h2><a name="BP">Backplot</a></h2>
<ul>
<li>
"Spacing" someone (tossing them out an airlock to die) is a punishment
applicable only in cases of mutiny and treason.
<li>
Evidence gained from a telepathic scan is inadmissible in court, as it
violates the principles of due process.
<li>
Very few members of Psi-Corps are trained to handle criminal cases, not
for lack of demand, but because it's very a stressful field, with lots
of burnouts.
<li>
The station's indigent are denied medical treatment in Medlab if they
can't afford it (cf.
<a href="010.html">"Believers"</a>.)
<li>
The station's prison is overcrowded already; there's no room for someone
to serve a life sentence.
<li>
Earth possesses the technology to brain-wipe people (cf.
<a href="015.html">"Grail"</a>)
and implant new memories;
it's used as a punishment or rehabilitation measure in certain criminal
cases. A Psi-Corps member oversees the wipe, performing scans before and
after to make sure it's complete.
</ul>
<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> What will Dr. Franklin do with the machine? Will it ever be seen again?
<li> Will Franklin and Janice Rosen continue to see each other in subsequent
episodes?
</ul>
<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
<ul>
<li>
This is the second instance in the series of a mechanism for stealing life
from one being and giving it to another (cf.
<a href="009.html">"Deathwalker"</a>.)
Perhaps the two are related somehow.
<li>
Judging by her reactions during the scan, it seems Talia was not trained to
deal with hardened criminals. Why, then, was she also stuck with the job of
scanning a murderer on the Mars colony, a place that, as a major human
settlement, presumably has a Psi-Corps presence? (cf.
<a href="018.html">"A Voice in the Wilderness, Part 1"</a>,
though admittedly the presence referred to there was not public knowledge.)
<li>
The Centuari's claim that Earth was a lost colony (cf.
<a href="001.html">"Midnight on the Firing Line"</a>)
must have been a short-lived ruse, given the revelations about Centauri
physiology in this episode.
</ul>
<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>
<ul>
<li>
June Lockhart and Bill Mumy were in another science-fiction show together:
"Lost in Space."
</ul>
<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>
<ul>
<li>
Of all the scripts I've written, the only one that I'm less than
absolutely 100% thrilled with is "The Quality of Mercy," because I wrote it
while absolutely sick with the flu, and have NO memory even of writing it. As
it is, though, I'm about 90% happy with it, particularly the B-story with
Londo and Lennier, which came out great.
<p>
<li>
In my original thoughts about the episode, there was more of a con
man ressurectionist angle to the show, which later got dropped.
<p>
<li>
Psi Corps telepaths are ****NOT**** allowed to scan defendants in any
official way connected to a criminal act. It violates the right to due
process. Even if requested, it's simply not allowed. You do NOT want to even
open the door a *crack* in letting a government-regulated agency begin making
determinations about who is and isn't guilty of a crime. That way lies
dictatorship, Thought Police and Big Brother.
<p>
<li>
The scan is preparatory to the prisoner being mind-blanked. It is,
as the Ombuds pointed out, the death of personality, the death of
one's mind. Hence the black band on the Psi symbol.
<p>
<li>
<cite>How has your presence on the net affected the series?</cite><br>
... I was
initially going to gloss over some of the legal aspects of the Psi Corps
in "The Quality of Mercy," but when so many people expressed interest in
how that worked, and when I saw some measure of confusion about it, I
took the time to indicate how the legal aspects work when it came time to
complete that script, thus answering the questions.
<p>
<li>
The one major reason I decided to begin this interaction, despite
CONSIDERABLE discourgement and disbelief from my peers, is that I
think it may be of some use, and because I think that one should be
willing to stand publicly with what you create, and because though
many criticisms are issues of taste or subjective preference,
sometimes (fairly often, actually), I learn something from the
discussion, or I'm corrected in something, and that realignment is
eventually reflected in the show. I'm giving some serious thought to
either revamping n'grath or killing him off given the reaction (paired
with my own). I won't be dictated to, but in some cases, as with
n'grath, I may be uncertain, but willing to try and see if the
experiment works. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't, and the
general perception here seems close to my own. In addition, I was
initially going to gloss over some of the legal aspects of the Psi
Corps in "The Quality of Mercy," but when so many people expressed
interest in how that worked, and when I saw some measure of confusion
about it, I took the time to indicate how the legal aspects work when
it came time to complete that script, thus answering the questions.
<p>
<li>
<cite>About June Lockhart</cite><br>
No, no scenes with Bill Mumy, though some consideration was given to the
notion.
<p>
<li>
We do tend to try and stay open to gender stuff; usuall there's a
reason why someone is male or female, so it's cast that way. But as
an example...in "Quality of Mercy," the role as originally written
was for a father/daughter combination. In the process of casting, we
thought, why not mother/daughter? So that's how it ended up. In
"Points of Departure," we have one of your requests already taken
care of...a part of a war cruiser commander who could've been male or
female...cast female.
<p>
<li>
<em>Q: What are Londo's appendages called?</em><br>
Tentisticularites?
<p>
<li>
<em>Are Londo's appendages in addition to or instead of human-type
"appendages"?</em><br>
That would be instead of, not in addition to.
<p>
<li>
Centauri males have six.
<p>
<li>
Centauri females, btw, have six narrow...ummm...slots on their backs,
three on either side of the spine, right around the base of the spine.
<p>
The awful thing is that the two women in props -- who were having FAR
too much fun with this -- kept bringing me the tentacle to verify the
shape, size, consistency, do we see veins or not....
<p>
I tell you here and now: our staff meetings are something else.
<p>
<li>
"What kind of birth control do the Centauri use?"
<p>
Conversation.
<p>
<li>
We used a bullwhip sound effect for the
"retraction" in QoM; when we were in sound editing,
I asked for the hardest whip-crack they had...and
got it put in REAL loud. Every time I hear it, I'm
on the floor....
<p>
<li>
While the TP themes in "Quality" go back through the history of SF,
including the Demolished Man, among others, the basic storyline (re:
Talia) came out of the pilot. At the time, I was asked -- frequently
-- "Why didn't Lyta scan Sinclair to determine if he had tried to kill
Kosh?" My answer then -- which is in some of the archives -- was that
it would violate the right to due process, that a defendant cannot be
scanned to determine guilt or innocence (in fact, I recall a rather
heated debate about that here a while back). I promised that this
would be elaborated upon down the road, and mentally logged in to do a
show with that premise...and I'd already decided about the death
penalty, and the use of telepaths in it. So "Quality" came out of
that, long before "Mephisto" was even written. At one point, knowing
that there were some common story areas, I called Harlan to tell him
the "Quality" story, so that if there were any problems, I could
revise it, but he said he saw no problem.
<p>
<li>
<cite>Isn't brainwiping as bad as killing?</cite><br>
There are actually many issues to get into in all of
this. Which is really the "person," the mind, the soul,
or the body? If a person has an accident, getting amnesia,
which wipes out his entire personality, is that person as
good as dead? Is there no difference between amnesia and
death? If not, why not just kill the amnesiac? But
obviously there *is* a difference. So what is the person?
What constitutes death?
<p>
We consider the actual death of the *brain* through the
cessation of brain activity to be the test for death. But
what if you simply rearrange those patterns?
<p>
There is also the question of *justice*. If the person
is dead, then that person cannot do much to correct the ills
he visited upon society. It is simply a waste of material.
So why not take someone who, in any decent society, would be
executed or forced to live in a 6x9 cage the rest of his life,
and give the soul, and the body, a new chance by giving the
person a new personality and letting him, as the Ombuds says,
"serve the community harmed by his actions"?
<p>
Finally, if the person is dead, he's dead; let's say 5
years down the road somebody finds evidence that proves the
person was innocent. There is at least the *chance* to
reconstruct some of the original memories and personality
profile.
<p>
All of this, again, has to be considered in light of the
fact that we are talking about a *space station* with limited
space and resources. You cannot warehouse every person who
kill somebody in a station that small; you would run out of
space almost immediately. (If you also include basic felons
and near-killings.) So what *do* you do with them? As was
noted, Earth doesn't want them and won't pay to have them
shipped back...what's left?
<p>
That's the dilemma I wanted to pose in the episode...what
*can* you do?
<p>
<li>
"...the 'personality' remaining in the body will
be punished for a crime that 'personality' did not
commit."
<p>
1) But again, which is the person...the old
personality, the new one, or something else?
<p>
2) Part of the new personality would be the delight
in serving others.
<p>
<li>
You will see the healing machine from "Quality" once more. Part of
the reason for that story was to set up something within the B5 universe
that will come in handy a long time later (but I'm *not* going to have it
lying around indefinitely; it would cause lots of long-term complications).
<p>
(Some TV shows foreshadow/set-up stuff an act or two ahead of time;
we do setups a full *year* ahead....)
<p>
<li>
There are limits to what the healing device can do, for starters;
it can't repair physical damage to the body, mainly it works with
disease and basic low-energy stuff; also, bear in mind that it was a
device used for *capital punishment*...meaning that to save one person's
life, another must sacrifice his or her own, if it's that far along,
so it's not really something you can trot out everytime somebody gets
nailed.
<p>
<li>
They cannot carry out the original sentence because the body is
now dead, which would tend to diminish its social acceptability.
<p>
Dr. Franklin did not know that Mueller had yet found Rosen, or even
knew of it. There are no Babcom systems in DownBelow quarters. To
send a security team, when they're out searching, without cause, is
neither realistic nor sensible. He did the correct thing: to go and
warn her, while at the same time making sure that security knew where
he was going, and if they didn't hear anything, to send in a team.
<p>
<li>
<em>Franklin should have had a search warrant.</em><br>
Allow me to disagree with you.
<p>
Dr. Franklin did not require a search warrant to enter Rosen's
quarters. The door was basically open, and he is NOT an officer of
the law. Only officers of the law are required to have search warrants.
Neither was he there to arrest her.
<p>
Defense counsel was sitting with the defendant at the table. He had
no lines, but he was there. The trial had been ongoing; this was the
part where the verdict is rendered after a decision has been reached.
<p>
The pattern of the judge passing sentence is exactly the same as when
circuit court judges used to work the frontier areas of the US. Where
would you find a jury on B5? Most civilians are passing through, on
stop-over for only a day or two...unable to follow a long hearing.
The only other ones are station personnel, which represents a conflict
of interest. Your only choice is a circuit court style judge whose
loyalty is owed to no one.
<p>
The alien device was being used on humans without any kind of license,
she is not a certified doctor, and it was used in the death of a
human. Under those circumstances, it is within the judge s right to
confiscate the device for the greater good. (You can have a
unlicensed firearm in a state that requires licensing, and use it in a
righteous self-defense shooting, but it will be confiscated afterward.
No compensation is required because its use is/was unregulated,
unlicensed, and she was/is not a working doctor.)
<p>
It *is* due process. Even according to 20th century terms. Only
problem is in understanding what due process actually *is*, as
opposed to what we think it *should* be.
<p>
<li>
Yes, part of the reason for the QoM episode was to set up the notion
of an implanted personality as achievable tech.
<p>
<li>
David: "The Quality of Mercy" title is drawn from the same source as
Compton's book, Shakespeare. It has a lot to do with that episode.
<p>
<li>
Yes, absolutely; in "The Quality of Mercy," you'll get a look at
how the justice system has come to grips with the uestion of how to
handle violent crimes in an environment like a space station, which
has limited room for cells, limited resources, and other complications.
We do plan to get into this area a bit, without getting too LA LAW
about it.
<p>
<li>
A lot of our episodes are constructed to work as mirrors; you see
what you put into it. "Believers" has been interpreted as pro-
religion, anti- religion, and religion-neutral..."Quality" has been
interpreted, as you note, as pro-capital punishment, and anti-capital
punishment. We do, as you say, much prefer to leave the decision on
what things mean to the viewer to hash out.
<p>
A good story should provoke discussion, debate, argument...and the
occasional bar fight.
<p>
<li>
There's the sense that A, B and sometimes C stories in TV should
intersect. My attitude: sometimes yes, sometimes no. Depends on if
you look at this as a real place or not, as opposed to a thematic
exercise. What I go through in the course of a day has nothing to
do with what happens to Larry DiTillio across town, except and unless
it involves our mutual work. Sometimes, as in "Quality," the stories
feel like they resonate, and can be used to illustrate one another,
and so they're linked. In others, what I'm striving for is a sense
of a "day in thed (the) life" of Babylon 5. The one kind of story is
neither better nor worse than the other, they're simply different.
One may like one more than the other, but to say they're "better"
plots is just silly. There's NO padding in this show, no stories put
in to fill out time; just stories that we want to tell, period.
<p>
<li>
Minbari use base 11, not base 10, so twelve would be eleventy-first
year, and so on.
<p>
<li>
Minbari base eleven includes fingers and head, from which the
principle of mathematics comes.
<p>
<li>
You're also looking at this from a strictly English-speaking
perspective; in German, for instance, 21 is "Ein und Zwanzig" (pardon
any misspellings in there, it's been a while) which is exactly the
same structure, albeit reversed, used for Minbari counting (and, in
fact, is more or less what I based his "statement" on).
<p>
<li>
Eleventy-seven = Eighteen base ten.
<p>
<li>
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven
<p>
Eleventy-one, eleventy-two, eleventy-three, eleventy-four, eleventy-
five, eleventy-six, eleventy-seven, eleventy-eight, eleventy-nine,
eleventy-ten, twelfy
<p>
Twelfty-one, twelfty-two, twelfy-three, twelfty-four, twelfty-five,
twelfty-six, twelfty-seven, twelfty-eight, twelfty-nine, twelfty-ten.
<p>
And so on.
<p>
Who here still has a problem with this?
</ul>

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<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
First Season finale. A dying man leads Garibaldi to a discovery that could
cost him his life. Londo receives help in a dispute with the Narns.
Something begins to happen to Delenn.
</cite>
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Bruton,+Macaulay">Macaulay Bruton</a> as Garibaldi's aide.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Conery,+Edward">Edward Conery</a> as Devereaux.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Wasser,+Ed">Ed Wasser</a> as Morden.
</blockquote>
<pre>
Sub-genre: Intrigue
<a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/022">9.38</a>
Production number: 112
Original air date: October 26, 1994 <a href="#NO:UK">(*)</a>
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Janet Greek
</pre>
<h3>Watch for:</h3>
<ul>
<li> A convenient departure just before an important event.
</ul>
<p>
<hr size=3>
<p>
<h2><a name="BP">Backplot</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Before the Centauri occupation, Narn was a peaceful, agrarian world.
</ul>
<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> What is happening to Delenn?
<li> What does it have to do with Kosh, or with the Vorlons? Why did
seeing Kosh help Delenn make up her mind?
<li> What was the question she had Lennier relay?
<li> What is the function of the triluminary in Delenn's device?
<li> What is the function of the device itself?
<li> Why did Delenn want to tell Sinclair what happened on the Line?
<li> Who's behind the plot to kill President Santiago?
<li> Why were the jammers and triangulation devices being shipped
through Babylon 5?
<li> Why did Garibaldi's aide kill Devereaux?
<li> What are G'Kar's suspicions about the attack on the military base?
<li> What do the Shadows want from Londo once he's in a position of power?
<li> What were the invisible creatures in the room with Morden? If they
were Shadows, why did they come to Babylon 5 themselves, assuming
Morden was still on the station? For that matter, <em>how</em> did
they get onto Babylon 5? On someone else's ship, or is one of theirs
parked outside, invisible to everyone?
<li> How did Morden know that Londo's name was being spoken in the highest
circles of the Centauri government?
<li> How did Kosh know that Sinclair had forgotten something? Does he
know what Delenn was planning to tell Sinclair, and if so, does that
imply he was involved in what happened on the Line?
<li> Was Garibaldi's friend Lianna Kemmer (cf.
<a href="011.html">"Survivors"</a>)
on Earth Force One when it exploded?
</ul>
<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> The fact that Delenn decided to go ahead with the change after Kosh
revealed himself to her implies that there may be a much closer
relationship between the Minbari and the Vorlons than has previously
been suggested. It is even possible that Delenn is turning into a
Vorlon somehow, and that Kosh showed her he resembled a Minbari. On
the other hand, that doesn't explain Kosh's interest in humans, who
he arguably doesn't consider another race (cf.
<a href="007.html#UQ:3">"The War Prayer."</a>)
<li> Morden seems to be more than just a representative for the Shadows;
they seemed to be consulting with him. If he were a mere spokesman,
why would he reassure his masters?
<li> The Vice-President is a prime suspect in the plot to kill President
Santiago. He just happened to leave the President's ship shortly
before the assassination attempt. He also presumably would be able to
arrange for an unregistered weapon for Devereaux -- or perhaps
Devereaux really <em>was</em> an agent working under the
Vice-President, in a capacity so secret Garibaldi couldn't find any
reference to him.
<li> Casting more suspicion on the Vice-President, and adding a darker,
more sinister note, is the newspaper headline from
<a href="008.html#NO:1">"And the Sky Full of Stars"</a> --
"Psi Corps in Election Tangle: Did Psi-Corps Violate its Charter
by Endorsing Vice-President?"
<li> It's still not entirely clear where Garibaldi's aide's loyalty lies.
The killing of Devereaux and his men suggests there may be more than
one level of deception at work. Or perhaps he was simply under orders
to tie up loose ends and wanted to ensure Devereaux could never
blow his cover if apprehended.
<li> The Shadows may have been the force overrunning Garibaldi's position
in the flashforward from
<a href="020.html">"Babylon Squared."</a>
They may also be what the crazed man in that episode was shouting
about when he referred to invisible monsters.
<li> Chrysalis is the third stage in insect development (egg, pupa,
chrysalis, and adult form.) There may be some relation to the third
age of mankind referenced in the opening monologue.
<li> Delenn has obviously seen her change coming for quite some time;
she has been building the crystal device in her quarters almost from
day one. Her compatriots on the Grey Council appear to largely be
in the dark about it, though perhaps not all of them, as one of them
did give her the triluminary (cf.
<a href="020.html">"Babylon Squared."</a>)
<li> Delenn's ability to breathe the atmosphere in Kosh's quarters with
only a single whiff of air from a mask is further evidence of some
connection between Vorlons and Minbari. Or it could just mean the
Minbari don't need much oxygen (or that both Kosh's air and the
normal station air contain whatever they <em>do</em> need.)
<li> She has been disobeying the Council's order about Sinclair, perhaps
ever since
<a href="008.html">"And the Sky Full of Stars."</a>
That suggests she may have intentionally been hiding her upcoming
transformation from them, as well. Otherwise it would presumably
have come up when they considered her for the leadership of the
Council (cf.
<a href="020.html">"Babylon Squared."</a>)
<li> Londo's disgust about the deaths of the Narn suggest he may not be
the iron-fisted leader the Shadows appear to be looking for (cf.
<a href="013.html">"Signs and Portents,"</a>
in which Morden appeared to be looking for someone ruthless and
ambitious.) In the future he may be placed in the position of
deciding whether people live or die, and may have to act against
the Shadows' wishes.
<li> G'Kar may be returning home to try to warn his superiors that a
sixth race exists and is out to get them. Whether he has deduced
that the intent is to cause war between the Narns and the Centauri
(if, indeed, that <em>is</em> what the Shadows are up to) is an
interesting question. It is also not clear what the Narns could do
about the situation even if the leadership was convinced there was
another player in the game; the Shadows appear to have an overwhelming
technological advantage over most of the other races.
<li> On the other hand, the Shadows did dispatch four ships to take care
of the Narn outpost. That suggests that one ship might not have been
enough, in turn implying limits to their power.
<li> "And so it begins," says Kosh. That's the same line spoken by Delenn
during the ceremony in
<a href="005.html">"The Parliament of Dreams,"</a>
after Sinclair eats the fruit. Perhaps Kosh was referring to Delenn's
change rather than the death of President Santiago, and perhaps it
has something to do with the possible marriage of Delenn and Sinclair
in the aforementioned episode. (But see
<a href="#JS:marriage">jms speaks</a>.)
<li> When Kosh emerges from his encounter suit for Delenn (assuming that's
what he was doing,) there's a sound not unlike wings moving through
the air.
<li> In
<a href="014.html">"TKO"</a>
(which was originally going to air much later in the season,
either immediately before or one episode removed from "Chrysalis,")
Walker mentions that Garibaldi was never any good at watching his
back, foreshadowing the events in this episode.
</ul>
<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Shot twelfth out of 22 episodes due to the extensive post-production
work required.
<li> <a name="NO:UK">First broadcast in the UK</a>
on October 3, 1994. PTEN didn't want to show it during August,
traditionally a month of low viewership, in the US, so
it was held back until the week before the first season-two episodes,
becoming, to all appearances, the season-two premiere. In
fact, PTEN even advertised it as such. But, as stated, it was
produced halfway through the first year of shooting, so definitely
qualifies as a season-one episode.
<li> The original satellite feed in the US was missing a special effect.
In the first shot of Londo walking in the hedge maze, the scene was
supposed to show the maze at the bottom of the frame and a view down
the center of the station above that. The actual broadcast showed
the back wall of the soundstage behind the hedges, complete with
"Exit" sign. Oddly, the correct scene was used in the UK broadcast,
which occurred much earlier.
<a href="/lurk/gif/022/goof.jpg">Bad</a>
and
<a href="/lurk/gif/022/real.jpg">good</a>
pictures of the scene are available.
<li> Garibaldi's aide appeared in three previous episodes:
<a href="006.html">"Mind War,"</a>
<a href="008.html">"And the Sky Full of Stars,"</a>
and
<a href="016.html">"Eyes"</a>
(where he's in Ivanova's dream.)
</ul>
<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>
<ul>
<li>
Today, incidentally, I finished the outline for "Chrysalis," which
will be the last episode of this season, though we'll be shooting it
much earlier, about 2/3rds through the run. It's a real corker in
which we absolutely kick over the table and all hell breaks loose
*bigtime*. This one I'm *really* looking forward to writing.
<p>
<li>
I'm in the strange position of writing the season end episode now,
to shoot #12, since it's going to require a lot of post production
work, and it definitely puts one in a very strange state of mind.
I have to be careful to refer to things that've happened in the past
episodes, from the perspective of the last episode of the season, but
which haven't yet been written or filmed in real-time. So I'm
writing the second half of some stories before having written the
first half (though I obviously know where they're all going)...which
really bends your brain around after a while.
<p>
This episode is going to be highly classified; we're going to limit
distribution of scripts, and parts of scripts, put canary traps in
all of the scripts that *are* distributed, and otherwise keep this
one quiet. All I can say is that we're going to kick over every
table we've got. In any season finale, there are maybe 4-5 things
you know when you sit down to watch the show that they'll NEVER ever
do. So we're doing all of them. If this one doesn't keep you glued
to your seats, you've lost your chair.
<p>
<li>
But I'd say that our two *best* so far are still "And the Sky Full of
Stars" and "Chrysalis." I just watched a cut of "Chrysalis" today
which finally had all the CGI in it, and had to scrape my brain off
the opposing wall, it's *that* good.
<p>
<li>
I have just seen the director's cut of "Chrysalis," which will be the
last episode of this season...and I think it has just displaced "Sky"
as the most heavy-weight episode of the season. Even knowing what was
coming, I just sat here, stunned, at the end of it. Seeing dailies,
bits and pieces, doesn't really prepare you for the whole thing.
What I like most about it are two things: one, by about halfway in,
you really begin to understand that anything can happen, to anyone,
and the rules that normally carry you through a television episode no
longer apply. It's a very dangerous, dislocating feeling. Two: you
get the very real feeling that, after this episode, nothing is the
same anymore. The show has taken a very profound and *irrevocable*
turn that will have lasting effects on all of our characters. Of all
the episodes so far, this one has the most feeling of being the
chapter end in a novel.
The really hard part will not avoiding the temptation to show this to
people...because it really can't be allowed to get out prior to
airing. There are too many twists and turns and revelations that spin
one off into another.
One other thing's certain: after you've seen "Chrysalis," you're going
to want to go back and check out three prior episodes...because
something that you will have read/interpreted one way, without question
or hesitation accepting it as what it obviously appears to be, will
suddenly be turned on its head, and a brand new interpretation will
emerge. And it's *real* creepy....
<p>
<li>
"Chrysalis" makes "Mind War" look like a still-life painting by
comparison....
<p>
<li>
We finally delivered "Chrysalis" to Warner/PTEN, and heard back: our
liaison over there was stunned, describes it as the best season-ending
cliffhanger he's ever seen, unlike anything done before. Suffice to
say we're pleased.
<p>
<li>
We have a New Year's celebration in one episode later
this season, and at some point will probably show other
stuff next year.
<p>
<li>
What I like most about it are two things: one, by about halfway in, you
really begin to understand that anything can happen, to anyone, and the rules
that normally carry you through a television episode no longer apply. It's a
very dangerous, dislocating feeling. Two, you get the very real feeling that,
after this episode, nothing is the same anymore. The show has taken a very
profound and *irrevocable* turn that will have lasting effects on all of our
characters. Of all the episodes so far, this one has the most feeling of
being the chapter end in a novel.
<p>
<li>
<em>Someone complains about the characters not staying the same</em>
<p>
Losing the characters she's come to enjoy? No. But the characters
are changing. That's the point, and that's been the intent from day
one. But what's the alternative? I've heard ST fans complain loudly
and bitterly that after 7 years of TNG being on the air, nobody's
really changed, nobody's been promoted into different ships or major
changes in responsibilities...they've had Riker as XO for seven years,
which in the real military would mean his career is *over*.
<p>
Change is the only other option.
<p>
The goal, from the start, was to create an overall story, but which
would also require arcs for every single major character. They're all
going somewhere. In many cases, that "somewhere" plays into the larger
arc; in some cases, not. If a woman is single, then gets married, then
gives birth, and she's your friend, have you "lost her" just because
she's gone through these changes? Of course not. She has changed, in
good or bad ways, but she's still the same person.
<p>
<li>
I just showed "Chrysalis" to a couple of people today, who
didn't know what was in it. And there's one thing that they had
seen over and over in prior episodes of the series which they never
thought twice about, which they just sorta accepted...only to
suddenly have this understanding totally turned on its head.
<p>
The look on their faces was *priceless*.
<p>
This is probably the longest and most extensive setup/payoff
in SF television history. And afterward, once you discover what
that is, if you go back suddenly there's a LOT of different meaning
in prior episodes.
<p>
<li>
"Chrysalis," a cliffhanger of sorts, leads right into "Points
of Departure," which picks up some of the tables kicked over by
"Chrysalis," the balance of which are picked up in the second episode,
"Revelations." By the end of the second new episode, pretty much
everything is now in place for the rest of the second season...though
not everything is in quite the same position as it originally was.
<p>
<li>
Except, of course, that where everyone goes is important to the rest
of the story, and that the purpose of the episode is to introduce
massive change into the story overall; when Sinclair says "Nothing's
the same anymore," he's deadly serious, and so are we. The changes
won't just be transitory or for a season-end hook; these are permanent
and substantial changes in the arc.
<p>
<li>
Now that you've seen this much, now you can begin putting together
the other level of the metaphor that is B5...consider: a war that did not
end satisfactorily for us, not winning or losing, a sort of peace with
honor....the death of a president...the rise of intelligence agencies
and military power...start to sound familiar? Now what we begin to do
is to start moving around the pieces, shifting the mirror of the story
to reveal different aspects of ourselves, as well as tell the other
separate story of B5 itself. Again, the idea is for this story to
function on *many* different levels: future-history, myth, adventure
story, mystery and a metaphor.
<p>
<li>
Re: the staging of Morgan Clark taking the oath of office; I gave
very particular instructions to re-create the staging of the photograph
in which Lyndon Johnson takes over from JFK after the assassination. The
same layout, posture, background, and so on. We even had a photo on set
for reference. The creepy thing is that the day we shot the scene was the
anniversary of the day it actually took place; very weird atmosphere on
set that day.
<p>
<li>
Actually, I was born in 54, so we're about the same age. Oddly, I
don't remember the day of the shooting; what I *do* remember is
watching JFK's funeral, and not entirely understanding the depth of
the event, but fully grasping the emotions around me. That will
linger forever.
<p>
<li>
President Santiago is dead as a doorknob.
<p>
<li>
Re: being fooled into thinking the crystal construct in Delenn's
quarters was nothing more than a meditation thing...in general, it helps
to remember that I subscribe to Anton Chekov's First Rule of Playwriting:
"If there's a gun on the wall in act one, scene one, you must fire the
gun by act three, scene two. If you fire a gun in act three, scene two,
you must see the gun on the wall in act one, scene one."
<p>
Waste nothing.
<p>
<li><a name="marriage"><i>About the marriage ceremony in "Parliament"</i></a>
<p>
The marriage was a red-herring, a bit of misdirection. The key for
any magician is to get the audience to look at your hand so they don't see
the elephant being wheeled onto the stage in full view. The line in
"Parliament" is, "It's a rebirth ceremony all right, and sometimes doubles
for a marriage ceremony." When I wrote that, I knew instantly that
everyone would focus in on the second half (misdirection) and miss the
first half. (Note that Delenn's "And so it begins" is echoed by Kosh in
the last episode.) I put out something that I figured everybody would
latch onto, ignoring the other meaning which is stated twice.
<p>
<li><i>Why did they turn Garibaldi onto his back, where the wound was?</i>
<p>
I was told by our medical technology consultant that after you take
care of the basic external wound, you always turn the body over and go
after the internal damage from the *front*. I was told why three times,
but still can't retain it. I think it involves easier access without
cutting around the spine, and makes breathing less laborious.
<p>
<li>
The teaser of that episode [Chrysalis] is very
much just the sort of thing we've seen before; designed to lull you into
a sense of, "Yeah, yeah, we've seen this." Right down to the tired look
on Sinclair's face. Been there, done that. Then you yank the viewer's
blanket. And structurally, it was designed to somewhat mirror the events
in the first episode; the balance is shifting, things are going in the
reverse of what we saw before.
<p>
<li>
I don't like loose threads hanging around, so all this will get tied
up. In some cases, we'll see flashbacks to stuff that happened "around the
corner," so to speak, and in others we'll have dialogue explanations. We
get the scoop on what question Delenn asked Kosh (via Lennier) before
[season 2] is out.
<p>
<li>
<i>If the Shadows are visible, how did they get onto the station?</i>
<p>
In "Chrysalis," they are distortions visible in the air when they
wish to be...and not when they don't.
<p>
<li>
"There is good reason to believe the Minbari Triluminary device
is an artifact not created by the Minbari."
<p>
DING*DING*DING*DING*DING*DING*DING*DING!
<p>
<li>
<em>About Walker's lines in "TKO"</em>
<p>
Re: "Watch your back," and "You never did know how to watch your
back," yep, that was a bit of deliberate foreshadowing for "Chrysalis." When the episode aired,
I mentioned at the time that there was something in that episode that
would later be seen to be ironic or ominous, but didn't seem so at
first. One or two caught it, but most didn't. This show is layered
very, VERY carefully.
<p>
<li>
Correct; Garibaldi's aide has *always* been a plant. I seeded him
in from the beginning, specifically for that purpose. It was the aide
who got Sinclair out of his quarters in "Sky," was the liaison who got
Benson on line (also in security, you'll remember), and helped dispose
of the body. If you watch his reaction in "Sky," he's the one who
brings info to Garibaldi looking to clear Benson; and when Garibaldi
sees through it, you can see his aide move off looking very worried.
<p>
Originally, it was Laurel Takashima who would have betrayed those
around her, as this character did. When Laurel was transferred, I had
a choice: keep that arc for her replacement (Ivanova), or give this
part of it to someone else. Now, knowing how the folks here on the
nets and elsewhere think, and knowing that they knew about the Laurel-
possible-traitor thread, I figured that everyone would assume that
Ivanova would get that part. (And, sure enough, a lot of people did.)
This became a wonderfully convenient blind behind which to build the
*real* plant.
<p>
And thus far, *nobody's* seen it coming. He was right there in clear
view, we used him many times (also in "By Any Means Necessary," for
instance), and nobody ever paid him the slightest attention.
<p>
It is, in a way, the classic magician's trick of misdirection: you
try to get everyone to look at your hand so they won't look at the
huge elephant being wheeled up onto the stage in plain sight.
<p>
<li>
No, the shooting of Garibaldi was always a very strong
part of the story for the end of first season; that line goes
all the way back to the pilot, and Laurel Takashima.
<p>
<li>
No, after the thread with Laurel was revealed, lots of
people *assumed* that that thread had been passed along to
Ivanova. It had never in fact been intended for her, but
when it was broached, I simply didn't reply, on the theory
that if I said it *wasn't* her, it'd narrow it down to who it
*was*.
<p>
<li>
"I *liked* Laurel!"
<p>
Well, yes, that's rather the point; tragedy is only
tragedy if it happens to someone you care about and like.
<p>
<li>
All the characters are unique; there seems to be this
bone-headed notion, that I frequently run into, of "Well,
Ivanova's just Takashima renamed," or "Sheridan's story is
just the same as Sinclair's, same guy just renamed." They're
*not* and never have been. The story of one does not devlove
automatically upon the other. If you make a change, it's
because you have something better in mind...otherwise why
make it?
<p>
<li>
The Shadowmen stuff was all CGI, no models. Spiffy stuff. And yes,
we'll find out in time what Delenn asked Kosh.
<p>
<li>
"If the Shadows are active on Earth, we need to ask why Psi-Corps
haven't picked them up."
<p>
Yep.
<p>
<li>
The chrysalis is virtually all prop, with some roto work to enhance
the glow in "Chrysalis."
<p>
<li>
<em>Was it credible that President and Vice-President would travel on
the same flight? Their twentieth-century American counterparts don't
fly together on Air Force One.</em>
<p>
You're forgetting several elements.
<p>
1) It would be in the VP's best interests to go along on the trip,
to help defuse any suspicion ("Boy, was I lucky.").
<p>
2) Going a few hours out of the country is one thing; you're not
looking at the aspect that traveling in normal space takes a lot of
time and expense...a ship as massive as EF1 is hideously expensive;
two would be a major waste of government money, and they'd both be
traveling side by side, further wasting money. Also, whereas Air
Force 1 travels nominally alone, EF1 has a full escort of fighters,
with a minimum of four in the "air" at any one time, plus another
batch inside.
<p>
Going between planets is a much different process than going between
here and London; and if both parties are required at the other end,
the only sensible way is to have them go together.
<p>
<li>
Remember when I said there are things you learn midway into a series
that you can learn no other way? Yikes...
<p>
As I've mentioned before, in our season ender, "Chrysalis," we tip
over every table we've got. I'm talking here *major* stuff, that
profoundly and permanently affects many of our primary characters.
Well, you build that as a two parter, and even *try* to resolve all of
that in the second part. It doesn't work, because the repercussions
are so substantial. (What it is, really, is something that'll be felt
throughout the entire second season.)
<p>
You can try to pack all the loose thread-tying into part two, but it's
like trying to pack 10 pounds of potatos into a 5 pound bag. One
other option is making it a six parter, but *that's* really silly. So
what I'm doing, I've decided, is to take the major elements and play
them out over the first five or so episodes. This will give me time
to give each of the threads the necessary time to play out effectively,
rather than rushing things.
<p>
So Chrysalis stands alone as a season ender, and a prelude to the Big
Stuff in season two. Episode 1 of year two, therefore, won't be
"Chrysalis, Part Two," but have its own title, allowing me to spread
the stuff over the next few episodes. (Probable title: "Points of
Departure.")
<p>
I showed "Chrysalis" to some people the other day, and the reaction
was across the board astonishment. Just stunned. Which was pretty
much the desired result. It's an absolute left-turn for the series.
<p>
<li>
Since I mentioned it over on Internet (but not where it belongs), I
give y'all a little gift...Kosh's very last line of the season, in
"Chrysalis."
<p>
"You have...forgotten something."
<p>
It's not nearly as straightforward as it looks, and that one line will
carry with it *major* repercussions. (And no, it doesn't refer to the
24 hours.)
<p>
<li>
Only two Shadowman vessels hit the Narn base at Quadrant 37, not
three.
<p>
<li>
Sometimes it gets wonky. We filmed "Chrysalis" twelfth in shooting
order, to air twenty-second. Part of the setup to "Chrysalis" is
"Signs and Portents," which shot 4 episodes later. Meaning the
actors had to act familiar with elements they hadn't performed yet,
and hadn't seen yet in script form. So in that case, I had to sit
down and explain what the various aspects of "Chrysalis" meant, and
where we were going, for it all to play. Later, when "Signs" was
published in-house, they got to see in more detail how the setup fit
in with the payoff.
<p>
If asked, I would probably try to refrain from telling any of the
actors the full story. Let me rephrase: I simply wouldn't do it. If
they would ask where their individual character is going -- and some
have -- what I do is give them the general arc, but leave out a lot
of specifics. For instance, Peter knows *in general* that his
character is going in a darker direction, but not how he's going to
get there or what it means to the overall story. And that, I think,
is as it should be.
<p>
<li>
Every so often, a screwup takes place that is so breathtakingly stupid
that it defies all logic and reason. I just learned of one this
evening, and I'm still reeling a bit from it. Consequently, this is
address to anyone who watched the satellite uplink of "Chrysalis" or
has seen it in the US in the last day or so.
<p>
Once we deliver an episode, it goes to two places: Modern Video and CVC.
CVC checks an episode of any series prior to uplink to make sure it's
okay. Though they've had it for four months, they only got around to
checking it the day before uplink. During this, they found a couple of
small audio pops. The kind of thing that could be fixed in about five
minutes. But since it was the evening, Modern Video decided to fix it
for us...by *rebuilding the entire episode*.
<p>
Without calling us, notifying us, or checking with us, when we could've
easily had someone on-hand there to supervise at a moment's notice.
<p>
Well, when they rebuilt the episode...they didn't use all the correct
footage. Some of what was used was RAW FOOTAGE. Example: when Londo
goes to meet someone in the Garden, there's supposed to be a great
composite shot there of the interior of the Garden area, and a hedge
maze. (The UK saw this version of it last month.) But when the
episode was rebuilt, they used the raw footage segment showing Londo
and a partial hedge IN THE SOUNDSTAGE, where you can see the stage
wall, and the pipes, and the EXIT sign. No composite. Nada.
<p>
We don't yet know what else has been included incorrectly, because we
won't see a copy until morning. Suffice to say that this is being
taken care of *our* way overnight, and a correct version will be sent
out via satellite in time for the Wednesday first airings in most
markets, and the reruns in those markets where it's already aired.
<p>
At this moment, I am preternaturally calm about all this, having passed
beyond anger earlier this evening into a kind of zen state of
consciousness, utterly unable to wrap my brain around the absolute
stupidity of something like this for more than two minutes at a time.
<p>
By morning, this will have worn off.
<p>
I'm looking forward to it immensely.
<p>
<li>
As it turns out, we discovered that there were TWO comp shots missing
(including one in DownBelow), and that's how the "to be continued" got
added in at the end. We rousted our people out of bed and had them at
the Modern Video facility at 2:30 a.m. fixing other people's mistakes,
rebuilding the entire episode so it could be birded out this afternoon.
<p>
<li>
If you saw TBC at the end of the episode, it was NOT the correct
version.
<p>
<li>
Well, we tracked down more on the screw-up, and that's how the "To be
continued" got in, and there's a second composite shot missing (from
the DownBelow area). We rousted our post production people out of bed
last night, and at 3:30 a.m. had them correcting the mistakes made by
others, reassembling the entire episode. The correct version is going
out on the bird today, tomorrow, and tomorrow night. It will also be
hand-delivered to KCOP here in town to make sure they get it.
<p>
I encourage anyone who saw "Chrysalis" over the last day or so to look
at it again on the rerun; I think you'll find parts of it much better.
<p>
This has been a complete and utter meltdown, and we're all out for
blood at the moment.
<p>
<li>
Yeah, it can make you crazy. Y'know that game, where you have a mallet
and your job is to whack the gophers as they stick their head up out of
the ground? That's as good a description of my job as I've ever seen.
And there are always new gophers....
<p>
<li>
<em>KCOP Channel 13 replaced the *good* version of Chrysalis with the
messed-up version</em>
<p>
I know...I know....
<p>
Hand me my chainsaw, I'm going shopping for dinner.
<p>
<li>
The mistake wasn't made by us. It was broadcast correctly overseas,
in the UK, perfectly. This was done by the video house that supplied
the satellite feed.
<p>
<li>
Here is Londo's arc through the five year storyline:
<p>
Funny and light; then funny and dark; then dark and tragic; then
tragic and light.
<p>
<li>
Yeah, there's hope for Londo...but not in the way I think anybody
will expect, and not in the way Londo would like.
<p>
<li>
Londo is a fascinating character to write; there's layers upon
layers, and every time I sit down to write him, he surprises me with
something else. And it's certainly more interesting to watch someone
you like falling into something terrible than to set up a bad guy
from day one; no complexity or sympathy there. It's kind of like
watching an accident in slow motion. But in the final analysis, all
is not dark for Londo.
<p>
<li>
No, alas, Tech #1, Marianne Robertson has decided that she would
like to travel next year with her husband Dick Robertson, and has
some other personal plans in mind, and thus won't be back next season.
<p>
<li>
Just FYI...Marianne Robertson, Tech #1, was Swedish, not Russian.
<p>
<li>
"JMS has specifically told us that one MAIN character will die in
Chrysalis or Points of Departure (I don't remember which)."
<p>
No I haven't.
<p>
Never said it.
<p>
Sometimes, what happens is that people guess about what's going to
happen in the story...and gradually that becomes the assumption on
the part of some people that this WILL happen...which in time
metamorphoses into "JMS said this would happen."
<p>
This is yet another of those. Never said it.
<p>
While I understand how this happens (and it happens a lot), the only
real complication that I get from it is that suddenly I'm being held
to promises I never made...and if it doesn't happen as I supposedly
said, then it's somehow my fault.
<p>
<li>
The Douglas Adams "homage." Nope. Eric Sevareid once wrote that
"working in television is like being nibbled to death by ducks." I
think it was in his book "Not So Wild A Dream," itself a line
borrowed from a poem by Norman Corwin. It's also a fairly common
phrase.
<p>
<li>
Scenes you should look at differently after "Chrysalis"...one that
comes to mind offhand is "Sky," in the various Garibaldi scenes
(can't be more specific than that right now).
</ul>

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<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
Second season premiere.
As a new commander assumes control of the station, a renegade Minbari
warship arrives, threatening trouble.
</cite>
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Foxworth,+Robert">Robert Foxworth</a> as General Hague.
</blockquote>
(Originally titled "Chrysalis, Part II")
<pre>
Sub-genre: Intrigue
<a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/023">7.92</a>
Production number: 201
Original air date: November 2, 1994
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Janet Greek
</pre>
<p>
<hr size=3>
<p>
<h2><a name="BP">Backplot</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> During the Earth-Minbari War, Captain John Sheridan managed to score
Earth's only real victory, destroying the Minbari flagship Black Star
and several cruisers by mining the asteroid belt between Jupiter and
Mars with fusion bombs. This earned him the name "Starkiller" among
the Minbari warrior caste, as well as their continuing hatred.
<li> The Minbari population has been slowly declining for two millenia.
<li> The Grey Council ordered the end of the war after capturing Sinclair.
He was the first human to have direct contact with the Council.
Their original intent was to interrogate him and find out about
Earth's defenses, but upon scanning him, they found that Minbari
souls were somehow being reborn in human bodies. Since Minbari
religion teaches that all the souls of the Minbari form a greater
whole, continuing the war would mean, in effect, killing part of
themselves. Realizing that the knowledge that this was happening
to Minbari souls would prove destabilizing to society -- presumably
some would blame humans for the shrinking population, not to mention
how the <em>humans</em> would react to the news -- they decided
to keep their discovery a secret, and protect it with lethal force
if necessary.
<li> After the suicide of the warleader Sineval (cf.
<a href="017.html">"Legacies"</a>)
at the end of the war, the crew of his ship, the Trigati, defied the
surrender order and vanished into exile for nearly twelve years.
<li> Before her service on Babylon 5, Ivanova served under Sheridan at the
transfer point on Io.
</ul>
<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> How did a scan reveal that Minbari souls were being reborn in humans?
<li> Will the crew of the Trigati be considered martyrs by the warrior
caste in spite of their death at Minbari hands?
<li> Why did President Clark already know why the war ended? (see
<a href="#JS:clark">jms speaks</a>, and comic
<a href="/lurk/comic/001.html">"In Darkness Find Me"</a>)
</ul>
<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> The presence of the unnamed Grey Council member on Babylon 5 implies
that the Council knew Delenn would disobey its order, and further,
that they know the purpose of the chrysalis. In fact, there seems to
be more division within the Council than they want to admit (cf.
<a href="020.html">"Babylon Squared"</a>)
since one of the Councilmembers gave Delenn the triluminary even
though the council had advised her to wait.
<li> Sinclair was the first human to have contact with the Grey Council,
but there's still ample evidence that that's not the only thing
unique about him. Delenn has hinted that she believes he has a great
destiny (cf.
<a href="015.html">"Grail"</a>
and
<a href="019.html">"A Voice in the Wilderness, part 2"</a>)
and even in this episode, Lennier says, "A change is coming.
Sinclair was the first. There will be others," implying that something
has happened to him that hasn't yet happened to anyone else.
<li> In fact, the Council may have identified a specific Minbari soul in
Sinclair, perhaps the reincarnation of a great figure in their history;
that would explain why they're so interested in him in particular.
<li> It's possible that the information about Minbari souls isn't even known
to all of the Grey Council. When Delenn visited the Council (in
<a href="020.html">"Babylon Squared"</a>)
she spoke of the prophecy as the reason for ending the war, and some
of the other Councilmembers weren't sure that humans were the ones
the prophecy referred to. If they had seen whatever scan results
convinced Delenn that humans had Minbari souls, they presumably would
have argued with her about those results rather than a vague
interpretation of the prophecy.
<li> The only thing that looked remotely like a scan in Sinclair's
recollection of his capture on the Line was when one of the Minbari
held a triluminary up to him. (cf.
<a href="008.html">"And the Sky Full of Stars"</a>)
It's at least plausible that the triluminary was instrumental in
determining that Sinclair had a reincarnated Minbari soul. If its
function is indeed on such a spiritual level, the fact that it was
part of Delenn's machine (cf.
<a href="022.html">"Chrysalis"</a>)
suggests that her transformation may be as much mental as physical.
This interpretation of the triluminary's function is supported by
the comic issue
<a href="/lurk/comic/001.html">"In Darkness Find Me."</a>
<li> Sheridan's comment that he was the <em>late</em> president's choice
to replace Sinclair is odd; why would Santiago want someone who would
be sure to anger the Minbari and increase tensions?
</ul>
<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> The Agamemnon was also a ship in the British fleet, at one point
commanded by Lord Nelson (best known for the Battle of Trafalgar.)
</ul>
<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> As for Chrysalis, there's about 8 to 10 days in "story time" between
it and the events in "Points." The next few shows track in real-time.
<p>
<li> <i>Why do the Minbari have a grudge against Sheridan? It was wartime,
after all.</i><br>
They don't much like the way he did it, which was rather sneaky.
My sense is that the Minbari have something of a superiority
complex; the idea of being beaten, even briefly, by a technically
inferior race is going to grate on them. Also, bear in mind, that
the military caste has not been fully informed about WHY they were
ordered to surrender...so there's a great deal of animosity just
barely submerged there, which is pointed at the only real human
they know from the war...because he cost them.
<p>
<li> Heads definitely rolled (figuratively speaking) in the Minbari
warrior caste after the Black Star incident. They allowed themselves
to get cocky, and didn't do a proper job, which was more than an
embarrassment to them.
<p>
<li> It kinda bothered their sense of superiority; also, their sense of
honor lies more in the direction of one-to-one combat, rather than
mining something as a trap. Consider it the way British troops did
toward American revolutionary fighters who hid behind trees and used
guerilla tactics rather than fighting the way the British *wanted*
them to fight, out in the open, in nice, easily shot-at rows....
<p>
<li> We will be changing the main title sequence after "Revelations"
airs to include the new version of Delenn. Would be silly of us to
include the new version in episodes prior to her unveiling.
<p>
<li> The fact that Minbari believe in souls does not make it so.
<p>
If a story is rigorously SF, but some of the people who inhabit the
story have belief systems, does that automatically invalidate it as SF?
<p>
I don't think it's the position of this show to state whether or not
a belief system is true but rather to explore the actions of those who
THINK it's true; not to resolve arguments, but to start arguments. (See
"Believers" for more on this one.)
<p>
What the characters believe is subjective, and is their business.
Or, as Sheridan says in a later episode, "I'm not saying what I'm
saying. I'm not saying what I'm thinking. For that matter, I'm not
even THINKING what I'm thinking."
<p>
<li> <a name="JS:clark">This is correct.</a>
Sheridan did NOT tell President Clark about the
Minbari soul situation. Clark already knew about it. Sheridan's line
is, "I spoke with the president. He is the only other person who knows
why the Minbari surrendered." Also, in the first issue of the comic,
this prior knowledge on Clark's part is clear as well.
<p>
<li> BTW, and just for the heck of it...the line about paying off karma at
an accellerated rate is something Kathryn has been muttering for ages;
I popped it into the script for fun.
<p>
<li> Sheridan asked what kind of scanners the fighters were using because
he couldn't figure out why they were picking up the Minbari fighters.
He wanted to be sure nobody had snuck by some kind of new tech. Once
he knew they were the same tech as before, he knew something screwy
was up.
<p>
<li> Correct above; Sheridan says, quite specifically, in the conference
room with Ivanova after the Grey Council guy is gone, "they used some
kind of stealth technology WE'VE NEVER BEEN ABLE TO BREAK." It's not
a matter of old or cheaper tech; we just haven't broken their
technology yet.
<p>
<li> And yes, ships can sit in hyperspace (something also mentioned by
Laurel Takashima in the pilot, "If I were the Vorlons, I'd have a
warship standing by in hyperspace just waiting to attack."
<p>
<li> Basically, I decided to name the EA Lounge "Earhart's" because she
is an important figure in aviation history, and I wanted a 40s art
deco style to the place, down to big band music, and it fit perfectly.
There have been more women aviators, civilian and elsewhere, than we
know, particularly during WW II at home, and they deserve recognition.
<p>
<li> The Earthforce lounge (EA personnel only) is Earhart's, named after
the famed aviator.
<p>
(Consequently, as tradition, only swing or big-band music is ever
played in Earhart's.)
<p>
Yes, we brightened things up a notch, but only a notch, because we
discovered that a lot of the good work being done on the sets and the
costumes wasn't being seen because we were too dark. So we went up
about one f-stop, but at the same time began using more shadows,
textures and colors, so the show has a denser look to it.
<p>
<li> As noted elsewhere...we have previously established that the Dome is
periodically on Standby Mode, when the system is performing autmoated
(automated) backups, routine maintenance, that sort of thing. It was
in "Midnight," when Garibaldi informs Ivanova that that's where he
likes to go, when it's on standby, and is quiet. It was in "Sky,"
when Ivanova asks Tech 1 if there are any more ships due in for a
while, is told no, and she puts her feet up on the console, nobody
else around.
<p>
Also, B5 tends to run on human cycles of day and night, something we
try to reflect in the sets and effects, showing the Garden bright
during day times, and dark during night stuff (as around dinner time
in the Fresh Air Restaurant). Maintaining such cycles has been found
to be critical in these kinds of environments.
<p>
The standby mode only happens every 36-48 hours, for about an hour.
Most departments also have their own control areas, using C&C mainly
when command personnel are required. In addition, there are folks
monitoring C&C, and if anything *should* happen, someone could be
there within seconds.
<p>
<li> The Hyperion was built before the EM war, and survived.
<p>
The Agamemnon, a much superior ship, was built afterward. Sheridan
was not commanding the Aggy during the war. It's one of the best
ships we've got, almost the equivilent of an aircraft carrier or
battleship, and it took a lot of seniority and work to get it.
<p>
<li> Yes, you will see the Agamemnon again.
<p>
<li> Nothing has been dumbed down or simplified; in a first season episode
(in other words, the first episode of any given season), you get a lot
of sampling. If the show is obscure, or there's too much prior
knowledge required to get into it...they go away fast. So there was a
bit more straightforward exposition in this episode in order to avoid
scaring off new viewers.
<p>
And I stated, some time ago, that this was a lighter episode because
it's sandwiched between two very intense episodes, "Chrysalis" and
"Revelations," and I think you need some relief there.
<p>
And as Walker noted, there are times when the dome is on standby, as
noted in "Midnight." The systems every 36 hours or so go through a
period of self-repair and maintainance for an hour or two; if anything
comes out of the gate or into local space, someone's there within
seconds.
<p>
<li> I wouldn't look for too much of Garibaldi in the first episode; he
was shot in the back...my feeling is that, TV logic to the contrary,
it takes TIME to recover from that. Consequently, this will take a
few episodes to get even remotely back on track.
<p>
<li> Yes, the quote definitely comes from Lincoln. I hated the old
Babcom logo, so we dumped it.
<p>
<li> Re: yankeecentrism...we always strive for balance. Yes, he quoted
Lincoln, but he also noted that on his 21st birthday, he flew to see
the new Dalai Lama being sworn in.
<p>
<li> Thanks. If you think PoD was a "wham," then I can't wait to see
your reaction to "Revelations."
<p>
Interestingly enough, I figured on giving Sheridan a tie to the
Civil War through his ancestor, General Philip Sheridan (sometimes
called "Little Phil" by Lincoln). Afterward, I discovered that Bruce
is a big civil war buff, so the Lincoln stuff worked very well.
<p>
One of my favorite sequences from this episode is the stuff aboard
the Minbari cruiser during the Battle of the Line; the shots
surrounding Delenn and the other Minbari gives it a very god-like
aspect. Just wonderful.
<p>
<li> Yes, Sheridan is descended from Gen. Philip John Sheridan of the
Union Army.
<p>
<li> Sheridan is a soldier. A soldier is told, in wartime, THIS is your
enemy. You kill the enemy or your enemy kills you. Afterward,
you're in the same position American soldiers were in after the end
of WW II when it came time to reconcile with the Germans and the
Japanese. It can sometimes be very awkward...and sometimes
reconciliation takes a while.
<p>
<li> For what it's worth, Sheridan is neither a "space cowboy" nor a
"gung ho type." This description has nothing to do with the
character, and I'm not quite sure where you got this. Certainly I
never said or implied it.
<p>
Captain John Sheridan is a war hero, of sorts; he squeaked out the
only real victory of the Earth/Minbari War. (Which means the Minbari
don't generally like him a lot.) He did what he did because that's
his job. He's a professional soldier. For the last two years, he's
been commanding the Agamemmnon, a high-visibility Earthforce starship
on deep patrol. As such, he has had to learn to work with a number
of different races and species.
<p>
In some ways, his character is somewhat more well-rounded than was
the case with Sinclair, over whom a general sense of doom often
seemed to hang. Sheridan is often very thoughtful and introspective;
at other times, he can be just a bit eccentric; he leads by
respecting those who work under him, and givingthem room to grow;
like any career officer, he HATES the bureaucracy with a passion, and
this is the one thing that can drive him nuts; he knows that
commanding B5 is a great opportunity, but he also knows that his
presence brings certain complications with it, and he's very
ambivilant about that aspect; he's the son of a diplomatic envoy who
disappeared on his 21st birthday, running off to see (of all things)
the new Dali Lama being installed; he has a very easygoing manner,
and a great sense of humor. He quickly re-forms a friendship with
Ivanova, for whom he has great respect and professional admiration.
(For a time she served under him at Io.)
<p>
He is, actually, a fascinating and intriguing character with a lot
of different shadings...none of which have *anything* to do with
being a "space cowboy" or "gung-ho type."
<p>
Anyway...point being...when it was announced that there was going to
be a new Lieutenant-Commander, a number of folks went ballistic and
said the show would now be ruined. I said, in essence, look...I
created Takashima; I can create an interesting character to replace
her. And I thunk up Ivanova, who according to the rec.arts.b5 poll
is the most popular character on the show. When it was announced
that Sinclair would be STAYING with the show, after the pilot, a
number of folks said this was bad, he was wooden, he stunk, get him
off...and ended up being very enamored of him. My only reply now
about Bruce...give him, and me, a chance. I genuinely think you will
like what you see a *lot*.
<p>
In the course of the first season, Ivanova, Garibaldi, G'Kar, Londo,
Delenn, others...they've exploded into strong characters. You need
an equally strong character designed to hold his own, and be
memorable, in that august company. Sheridan was designed knowing we
had a much elevated playing field around the character.
<p>
Obviously, clearly, and irrefutably, an actor brings a *lot* to any
role. No question. But it tends to begin with what is created.
I've seen it said here, repeatedly, that none of the characters are
uninteresting; they all have lives, and agendas, that make them
fascinating to watch: Londo, Morden, G'Kar, Delenn, Garibaldi,
Ivanova...what those characters are came out of my head, in terms of
who tey are, what they say, what they believe, where they came from
and where they're going. Why would I invent a new character that was
any less involving, or interesting, or multifaceted? Particularly
knowing that he's going to be a central character?
<p>
Speaking as someone who's been in fandom a long, long time, I know
there is always a tendency for panic, to assume the apocalpse is
upon us, that something is never going to be the same again. I heard
this after the Enterprise was destroyed in "The Search for Spock."
I've heard this a lot over the years. It's generally over-reaction
and worry before anyone has even seen a frame of film.
<p>
Bottom line being...wait and see, then judge. I've tried very hard
not to let you down, and I think so far I haven't done so...I have no
intention of starting now. Bruce is doing an absolutely *brilliant*
job as Captain Sheridan, bringing a thoughtfulness and intensity and
charm and intensity to the part that is a joy to behold. Give him a
chance.
<p>
<li> Alas, I wrote my note about Bruce around 1 or 2 in the morning, and
I meant to balance out *intensity* with *intelligence*, but my
brain saw the first letters i-n-t-e, and vapor-locked.
<p>
<li> <em>How important to the Arc is Sheridan?</em><br>
How critical was Aragorn to the storyline of Lord of the Rings?
<p>
<li> The way in which Sheridan comes into the storyline is *absolutely*
consistent with everything that has come before, and everything that
follows.
<p>
<li> Sheridan was never on the original list [to command B5] because at
that time when the EA needed Minbari financing for B5, they knew it'd
piss off the Minbari to have it there, so he was never considered for
the post at that time.
<p>
<li> "Sounds like a formula to really PO the Minbari."
<p>
Yup.
<p>
<li> Just to clarify: in Soul Hunter we set in place the question of what
these things are, and do not resolve that question. Dr. Franklin
offers that with the correct technology, it might be possible to
make (for lack of a better term) a clone of someone's neural patterns,
copy his personality and memories into a storage device...but also
dismisses the notion of soul stealing.
<p>
I traffic in ambiguity.
<p>
<li> In a sense, yes, "Believers" now enters the arc...but so does "Soul
Hunter," in a big way. Replay Lennier's talk to Sheridan and Ivanova,
then play Delenn's conversation with Sinclair and the Soul Hunter in
that episode, and suddenly a lot of elements begin to intersect.
<p>
<li> Re: you're noticing the line, "You talk like a Minbari" from Neroon
to Sinclair in "Legacies"....yup. Sometimes this stuff is in broad
strokes, sometimes in teeny little things like that. Also ties in
even further with where Sinclair goes.
<p>
<li> Note that Lennier says he wishes he could have told them (us) the
*rest* of the prophecy...and there's definitely more to Sinclair, as
will be seen later in the season. Remember, the Grey Council never
tells anyone the whole truth (note how Kalain asks that question
upon being told that Sinclair is just an ambassador).
<p>
<li> There really wasn't/isn't time in PoD to get into the angst everyone
has over Sinclair leaving (though some of that is given to Sheridan,
oddly enough). But it WILL get brought up in subsequent episodes,
especially from Garibaldi.
<p>
<li> Sinclair was the first human the Minbari (or at least the Grey
Council) had ever met, having come this far for the final victory.
The Earth Explorer vessel was part of a military fleet that
encountered a Minbari convoy, there was a miscommunication, a
misperceived threat, and our ships opened fire. There was no
person-to-person contact.
<p>
<li> Sure, you could blind-fire at a Minbari cruiser, but it's pretty
heavily armored. And while you're shooting at it, you're not only
being hit by cruiser blasts, but the several dozen Minbari fighters
coming in behind you. And shooting at a sublight traveling fighter by
eye would absolutely never work. It *has* to be computer guided.
<p>
(BTW, for the sharp of eye...if you go back and sill-step through
some of the cockpit screen shots in "Sky," you'll note that on the tac
screen in Sinclair's cockpit it says something to the effect of
"Unable to lock-onto target.")
<p>
<li> Yes, you can go in and shoot at a Minbari *cruiser* visually...but
the reality is that any long-range weapon will be intercepted by
targeting fire, and if you get up real close and personal...well,
actually, you *can't* get up real close and personal because, as
Mitchell learned in "Sky," you get shot by the fighters.
<p>
What the fighters tend to remain engaged with are the Minbari fighters,
which are *incredibly* fast...much too fast to target visually.
<p>
And believe me, as Sheridan stated, Earth's been *trying* to break
the stealth tech for a while, just hasn't been able to.
<p>
<li> Re: [Robert] Foxworth...he was someone we spoke to in case Bruce turned out not
to be available, and we liked him instantly, and he liked the show.
So for good luck, we had him come in for this role, which may appear
again. He's a terrific actor.
<p>
<li> <em>What were all those ribbons on General Hague's chest awarded
for?</em><br>
I'll have to check, but probably most of those medals are for
actions during the Earth/Minbari War, and during the Dilgar War.
I'll have to check to get anything more specific than that.
<p>
<li> Well, my thought at the time, and I probably should've put this
into dialogue in retrospect, was that there's a window about every 36
hours when the entire C&C system goes through self-maintainance for
about half an hour, backing things up, doing self-repair, filing logs
with Earth Central, that sort of thing. They normally pick a slow
period in docking, and any other routine stuff is handled through the
backup C&C on the other side of the station axis (you can see it
directly above the docking bay when the normal C&C is directly below
it).
<p>
At first I'd considered putting that in Ivanova's mouth when she says
"Of all the time he could've picked," but then the reveal of where
he was and what he was doing fell flat; it needed to be a surprise or
it lost its impact and the humor. Ah, well....
<p>
<li> It has been established, in prior episodes, that there are brief
periods when C&C is in "standby mode," during which time no ships are
due, the station is in "night" cycle, and the operational equipment
in C&C goes through routine backup and maintenance. In "Midnight on
the Firing Line," our first episode, Ivanova is told by Garibaldi
that Sinclair is in C&C when it's in standby mode because he likes
the quiet during those brief periods (usually only about an hour or
so); in "Chrysalis," Ivanova asks Tech 1 if any more ships are due in
for a while, is told no, and she puts her feet up on the console,
watching the news, with the place pretty much deserted.
<p>
This isn't the bridge of a starship; this is mainly a center of
operations for docking and other station activities requiring command
personnel. Every separate department -- environmental, other
resources -- has its own separate control center, with lots of
redundency.
<p>
In addition, there's always somebody monitoring stuff as it comes
through, so if there *were* any kind of problem, there'd be somebody
on site in C&C in thirty seconds. Basically, we're talking an hour
or so once every 36 to 48 hours. I could've explained this in
dialogue, but it would've taken the edge off the revelation and humor,
and I figured we'd done this before enough times that it wouldn't be
an issue.
<p>
<li> Just as an advisory...the woman who spoke up in PoD (the tech who
told Sheridan that Security wanted him) is not a Tech 1 replacement;
she was there just for that one episode. We have a number of folks
floating through that area now, because logically you would have
rotating crews.
<p>
<li> A vibe shower would theoretically use sonic waves (in combination
with other elements, like disinfecting lighting, as seen in "Signs")
to remove dirt and kill bacteria.
<p>
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
<p>
<li> Delenn staying while Sinclair goes is part of WHY Sinclair goes and
Delenn stays. It's absolutely part and parcel.
<p>
<li> It's always interesting, if you have one character upon whom everyone
else leans, even depends, to *remove* that character for a time.
Because then those characters have to *react*...to either stand or
fall on their own. It shakes things up a little...and vastly
intensifies the characters.
<p>
<li> I'm going to test myself, and see how much I can say without saying
too much.
<p>
You have X-number of characters. They're all in the same place.
You're trying to tell a story that has a great deal of scale, and
covers all kinds of worlds, changing politics, alliances, on and on.
The question becomes, how do you *illustrate* that? To use a line
from the original Trek, when a mob guy is brought aboard the
Enterprise, he says later, "All I saw was a room and five guys."
<p>
So now you start saying, "Hmmm...what if I remove Character A from
the chessboard, and move him over *here* for a while? He wasn't going
to be doing much for the next little bit anyway. And we won't just
"deal" with that change, it's part of the story...it broadens out the
story to include Place A *and* Place B. It has repercussions down the
road. It comes up again in the future. Elements from Place B now
become known on Place A. Character A may even make an occasional
reappearance to keep us even more closely connected with Place B,
which is necessary because Place B is very, very important."
<p>
What we have in mind here isn't quite comparable to anything that's
been done before. The character will still be alive. The character
will continue to have an impact on the story. The character will be
spotted from time to time. The character will continue to show up in
the comic and the novels. And through this move, you have the benefit
of substantially opening up the B5 universe, you help create the
realignment of characters and loyalties that was anticipated for this
season, and it helps kick over the tables, as we did in Chrysalis.
<p>
Just a slight refinement on the argument.
<p>
<li> I can probably answer your question a little better after you've seen
the second episode of this season. For now, let's just say this: in
working out the story for year two, Sinclair's main line of connection
was to the Minbari. But the Minbari storyline was diminishing in ways
onnected to the war in year two; obviously we all know what is on the
upswing in year two, certain dark forces. I needed someone who has a
connection to *that* side of the story to personalize it, and Sheridan
brings that connection to the mix, although he doesn't know it yet.
<p>
<li> The Battle of the Line and the hole in Sinclair's mind was always
intended as the entry point or trigger to the story. It's like Frodo
being given the Ring in LoTR. The story isn't about that, that's how
we get INTO it. Frankly, there's no way you can sustain that one
element for five years, nor did we ever intend to do so.
<p>
The only difference in the resolution of that aspect is this: we had
originally intended to resolve the missing 24 hours, and the Battle
of the Line, by episode four, season two. We've simply moved it up
3 eps to the first episode. Because new players are coming onto the
field, in the form of the Shadowmen, and other forces, and we now
have to begin turning our attention to new mysteries.
<p>
<li> "Changes are coming; Sinclair was the first, there will be others."
He was referring to more changes coming.
<p>
<li> Sheridan, or more specifically the need for someone *like* Sheridan
began to get through clearly toward the latter part of last season,
as I began planning out season two's progression, and kept looking at
elements of the story and trying to find ways to get Sinclair into
the heart of them. They felt contrived, for the most part; and the
other characters, like Londo and G'Kar and Delenn, were *really*
moving forward in a big way. The role of Sinclair was becoming
primarily that of a "problem solver," and when that happens, a sort
of glass bell falls down around the character, and you can't do much
with him.
<p>
So what the writer has to do is break that bell in one way or
another; do something totally unexpected to him, and bring in someone
who has a direct, personal connection with the storyline emerging in
season two, so it's not contrived or forced.
<p>
<li> I said, from the very beginning, that once the series got rolling, no
single primary question could be allowed to go more than about one
season before answering it, otherwise you get into a frustrating Twin
Peaks situation where *nothing* is resolved. Basically, the events
begun in "Chrysalis" bleed over into three episodes; the Battle of the
Line answers were initially only a couple of episodes further down in
my outline, about episode #3. Making the change, for one thing,
allowed me to move that storyline forward to episode #1, blow through
it and get the story moving in year two faster, rather than delaying
further with loose threads from season one.
<p>
<li> The idea of a Chrysalis II went by the boards once I really got into
the script, and realized that C1 had tipped over too many tables to
even HOPE to resolve them in one follow-up episode. So the threads
yanked in C1 will be paid off over several episodes, hence no C2; the
first episode of year two is "Points of Departure."
<p>
<li> <em>What about Catherine Sakai?</em>
<p>
This is the one thread that I'm still trying to decide about.
<p>
<li> We're dedicated to improving all of these elements on a regular basis;
CGI, sets, directing, lighting, name it.
<p>
The music will change every year, to get in sync with where the season
is going; the tone and tenor and mood will shift.
<p>
Re: the narration...last year, Michael had the benefit of being able to
see the sequence prior to reading the narration, and reading with the
images. That was when we were shooting in July to air in January. In
this case, shooting in August to air in November, Bruce had to wing it,
without any images for reference, just text. Now that we've got the
opening completed (and we weren't satisfied with it or done tinkering
with it until a few days before delivery), we'll probably let him do
it again with the visuals before him, so he knows what he's reading to,
since it'll have a *big* impact on how he delivers the stuff.
<p>
<li> There's a reason for this: due to time constraints, we have to get
Bruce to do the narration *without* having the images in front of him;
he had no way of knowing where beats would go with the images, or what
would be under it (since we were still putting the new opening
together), so we had to artifically build in pauses when we did the
final transfer (as opposed to year one, where we had the images
assembled long before we had Michael do the narration). What took
forever was that 5 fade/dissolve/wipe, which just killed us time-wise,
but is spiffy to look at.
<p>
Now that it's all together, we plan to have Bruce re-do the narration
with the images in front of him, so he can respond naturally and make
it flow, the way he would've been able to do had we had the material
ready in time.
<p>
<li> Re: the theme music...to me, one is neither worse nor better than the
other. They're *different*, and meant to convey different moods and
themes. Each year it'll change. This year was heavy on strings and
brass; next year it'll be heavy on percussion. The main theme will be
reinterpreted and interpolated in different ways. In the B5 universe,
change is the only constant.
<p>
<li> Promoting Ivanova to running the station would not be logical, since
from a military and diplomatic standpoint she has nowhere *near* the
level of experience required. It wouldn't be done in real life.
</ul>

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<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
G'Kar brings news of a terrible new enemy. The arrival of
Sheridan's sister opens up old wounds for the new commander.
Dr. Franklin employs an unorthodox procedure to try to bring Garibaldi
out of his coma. Delenn's mysterious change is completed.
</cite>
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Leetch,+Beverly">Beverly Leetch</a> as Elizabeth Sheridan.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Bruton,+Macaulay">Macaulay Bruton</a> as Garibaldi's aide.
</blockquote>
<pre>
Sub-genre: Drama
<a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/024">8.40</a>
Production number: 202
Original air date: November 9, 1994
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Jim Johnston
</pre>
<h3>Watch For:</h3>
<ul>
<li> <a href="#gaffe">A magically refilling drink.</a>
</ul>
<p>
<hr size=3>
<p>
<h2><a name="BP">Backplot</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Sheridan's wife Anna was killed two years ago when her ship exploded on
its way to explore the recently discovered ruins of an ancient
civilization on the Rim.
<li> The Book of G'Quan, the holy book of G'Kar's religion (cf.
<a href="012.html">"By Any Means Necessary"</a>) mentions an ancient
enemy that rose to power a thousand years in the past, a power so
great it nearly overwhelmed the stars themselves. And the book
contains drawings suspiciously siimilar to the Shadows' ships.
</ul>
<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Is Delenn's new appearance an outward transformation, a complete
physical rebirth, or something even more fundamental?
<li> What exactly has she become?
<li> Was the result what she thought it would be? She didn't seem to know
what had happened to her when she first emerged from the chrysalis;
clearly she didn't go into the process with detailed knowledge of the
outcome.
<li> How much does G'Kar suspect about Londo's involvement with the
Shadows?
<li> Why did President Clark order Garibaldi's aide returned to Earth? Was
he aware that the clandestine transfer would take place, or did
someone else arrange that to stop the prisoner from being interrogated
by Clark's people?
</ul>
<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> The Book of G'Quan, assuming G'Kar was describing the text itself
rather than his interpretation, says that the ancient enemy came from
the rim of known space, the planet Z'ha'dum.
That implies that the Narns, or some among them, were
technologically advanced at least a thousand years ago; otherwise they
would presumably have had no way of knowing the origin of the enemy,
certainly not well enough to locate its home planet. Given that they
are not particularly advanced compared to the other major races, one
of three things must have happened:
<ol>
<li> Some event, possibly the last great war, reduced their
capabilities enough that they had to start nearly from scratch.
<li> They advanced technologically at a very slow pace, or not at
all, over the past millenium.
<li> Another race used the Narn (or their world) in the war,
departing when it was over and leaving the Narn with only
legends of the great enemy.
</ol>
If the second is true, it's possible that some of the other races
acquired <em>their</em> technology from the Narns, an interesting twist
on the established idea that the Narns are obsessed with obtaining
technology from others (cf. <a href="000.html">"The Gathering"</a>.)
<li> When G'Kar's wingman crashed into the Shadow fighter, the Shadow
ship appeared to writhe in pain. It appears that employing living
technology is a common trait of the very advanced civilizations
(cf. <a href="004.html">"Infection."</a>) The question naturally
arises: are the Shadow ships <em>ships</em> in the traditional sense,
with crews or pilots aboard, or are they autonomous entities?
<li> The fact that a one-man Narn fighter was able to destroy a Shadow
ship implies that the Shadows can be overcome by force, assuming they
aren't so numerous as to overwhelm all their opponents.
<li> Delenn flat-out lied when she said her government approved her
transformation (cf. <a href="023.html">"Points of Departure"</a>.)
Yet they have made no move to replace her as ambassador. Perhaps
they fear the consequences of working against the prophecy more
than they fear what she's doing.
<li> Dr. Franklin hasn't tried the healing machine on anyone, not even
experimentally. Perhaps he hasn't been studying it -- which seems
strange, given its potential to utterly revolutionize the practice
of medicine. Now that he knows it works, he may be more inclined to
use it in the future, possibly in place of hazardous conventional
treatments.
<li> Anna Sheridan's research vessel was destroyed in an apparent accident
on the Rim, on its way to explore an ancient civilization. The
similarities to the destruction of the Narn ship sent by G'Kar are
too great to ignore. She very possibly was killed by the Shadows,
something which won't endear them to Sheridan if he learns about it.
If that's true, the question of how the ruins of the civilization
were discovered in the first place remains unanswered.
</ul>
<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> The poem G'Kar read to Na'Toth is from "The Second Coming" by W. B.
Yeats (quoted sections emphasized):
<blockquote>
Turning and turning in the widening gyre<br>
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;<br>
<em>Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;<br>
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,<br>
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere<br>
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;</em><br>
The best lack all conviction, while the worst<br>
Are full of passionate intensity.<br>
<br>
Surely some revelation is at hand;<br>
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.<br>
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out<br>
When a vast image out of "Spiritus Mundi"<br>
Troubles my sight: somewhere in the sands of the desert<br>
A shape with lion body and the head of a man<br>
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,<br>
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it<br>
Reel shadows of the indigant desert birds.<br>
The darkness drops again; but now I know<br>
That twenty centuries of stony sleep<br>
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,<br>
<em>And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,<br>
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?</em><br>
</blockquote>
<li> Garibaldi's aide is named Jack, though it's easy to miss; Garibaldi
mentions the name once after Talia leaves medlab and he speaks to
Franklin and Ivanova.
<li> The closed captioning spells G'Quan "Sh'Quon," but JMS has used the
shorter spelling on several occasions, so it's the one used here.
<li> <a name="gaffe">Continuity gaffe:</a>
In the scene with Sheridan
and his sister in his quarters, he drains his drink, walks
toward the bar, and before he gets there, the glass refills
and he drains it again.
</ul>
<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Re: the ever-improving CGI...there's an action scene in the teaser
of the second episode, "Revelations," that is particularly amazing. And
there is one shot of a Narn ship in extreme close-up toward the end of
the scene that looks absolutely *solid*, and every bit as real and
detailed as any model, and then some. It cannot be distinguished from
a physical object.
<p>
<li> One aspect of the Yeats quote, and the Lincoln quote, and the
Tennyson quote(s), and the many others, is that I think a lot of folks
at some point tuned out of, or aren't interested in, literature and
poetry because they've never really been exposed to it. So just to be a
little subversive, I work some of it into the show. I choose that which
has meaning to the show, and the characters, in the hopes that (as has
happened here), viewers will dig out the original material and be
exposed
to some *really* nifty writing. Granted that television must entertain
at minimum; it should also elevate and ennoble and educate, and this is
too good an opportunity to waste, provided one does not become didactic
about it.
<p>
<li> Speaking of looking into the abyss...which comes from "Revelations,"
it's a partial quote. Neitzsche: "When you look into the abyss, the
abyss looks also into you."
<p>
<li> Re: inconsistent writing and Narns...please bear in mind that there
are two ways to encounter shadowmen: going out there, and them coming in
to see YOU. The Narns need not be (and were not) spacefaring when they
encountered the shadowmen. Or, more accurately, were encountered BY
them.
<p>
<li> Copies of the evidence were made, but the question is what is the
available evidence to BE copied? Frankly, there isn't much. There are
no witnesses, very little physical evidence. If you tried to make a
case with what they've got, you'd be laughed out of the courtroom.
<p>
<li> Yes, since you've sussed it...the plan was to turn Delenn from
male to female in "Chrysalis," in my original plans, as well as making
her half-human. And yes, it would've had one hell of an impact...but my
concern when I made that decision not do do this back in the pilot was
based on the reality that we couldn't do it well. The "male" voice,
altered by computer-enhancement, just sounded REAL bogus; we couldn't
get it right, and I had to decide between dropping it, and doing
something the people would rightly describe as lame all season, just
for one big payoff. It was a tough call, but it had to be made.
<p>
<li> <em>Why does Delenn's hair go under her bone ridge?</em><br>
When Delenn's structure changed, the epidermal layer on the head
grew thinner; there is now a gap between the skin, and the bone which
has grown out. Hair can be draped through it, or laid over it.
<p>
<li> Correct; the Narn bridge is CGI. Re: the explosion...we shot a
lot of live pyrotechnics for Ron's use; but don't recall offhand which
was used here, live or CGI.
<p>
<li> Anna chose to take Sheridan's last name. Her decision. You have the
option. Some do, some don't. If you start to pass rules that no woman
CAN take her husband's name or she's betraying something, then you're
being just as restrictive as those who insist a woman MUST take her
husband's name. Me, I'm pro-choice on every level. She felt like it.
<p>
(And I note that my own spousal overunit kept her own name. But then,
who in her right mind WOULD take Straczynski...?)
<p>
<li> Another thing that can be now re-interpreted is the look on Jack's
face when Garibaldi didn't go for the whitewash of the security
guard's financial records in "Sky," and how that body managed to get
out of the station without security being aware of it....
<p>
<li> Next week, in "Revelations," you get G'Kar, Londo, Delenn, Lennier,
Na'Toth, Kosh, Garibaldi, Talia and everybody else. Because there
was SO much happening in #1, that got slid back a bit; also, there's
a fair amount of time required for everything to do what they're
supposed to be doing. (Note that we're operating pretty much in
real-time; "Points" is around 8 days after the events of "Chrysalis,"
and "Revelations" is about another week after that.)
<p>
One thing I noted here some time ago, as a large part of the reason
I dropped "to be continued" from "Chrysalis" is that this is more of
a three-parter than a two, and some threads pulled in "Chrysalis"
won't be fully resolved in some ways until the third and fourth
episodes. There is a LOT going on, and if we try to cram it all into
one episode (as I at first tried with "Chrysalis, Part Two") you
don't give ANY of them the proper time to have any impact.
<p>
Finally, we're getting new people sampling the first episode of the
season, as is true of most shows. Thus, you have to put into
dialogue a fair amount of stuff that otherwise you could just imply
or rely on past experience/prior knowledge. So you kind of introduce
the newbies to the situation, and that requires a fair amount of
exposition. This is pretty much localized to "Points," however; with
the next episode, we're up to full speed. Episode 2 deals with as
many issues/plotlines as "Chrysalis," with the main difference being
that here, they're *resolved* rather than left hanging.
<p>
<li> Yes, generally stories are self-contained, but in the case of season
endings like "Chrysalis," it takes time to get everything back up and
running again. The bigger the explosion, the longer it takes to clean
up the mess.
<p>
<li> Re: Lennier, the Grey Council fellow said, "Tell them what we've told
YOU," not someone else. Just to clarify.
<p>
<li> [Talia's] not seeing the shooter from outside Garibaldi's POV. That
shot in particular is *exactly* from Garibaldi's POV. It's a lot
like what is done in hypnosis, going back into somebody's memory and
dragging out details they might have seen but not noted; the eye sees
more than the brain recalls at any given moment. When we shot that
scene, I was on-set, and the camera was put *exactly* where Garibaldi
was standing, so we'd be very careful that it WAS his point of view.
So though I hate to contradict you, it's not "a stupid plot hole from
hell."
<p>
<li> Oh, I'm quite sure there was backup made of the data. But step back
for a moment and ask what that entails, and will any of it stand up
in ANY court of law? There's a difference between that which we knor
or (make that know or) believe, and that which we can prove. Without
the one most important piece of all, Garibaldi's aide, the rest is
speculative, inconclusive, circumstantial and conjectural.
<p>
<li> Yes, if Laurel had stayed with the station, either she would have
pulled the trigger on Garibaldi, or been directly involved in other
ways.
<p>
<li> "Morden is the mongoose."
<p>
So what's needed now is a conveniently placed cobra....
<p>
<li> The platform seen in the opening of "Revelations" is a hazardous
materials platform, which is still cleaning up the radioactive debris
and other stuff from the blown Minbari cruiser in the last ep.
<p>
<li> <em>About Na'Toth's change of actresses</em><br>
The actor wanted to pursue other avenues. She'd primarily worked as
a romantic lead in films, then came in at the last minute to help
with season one. She then wanted to go back to that. The character
stayed because we need the character to have some prior knowledge of
the situation, rather than bringing in somebody new.
<p>
<li> Re: Na'Toth...you have to remember this was not our decision, but
rather Caitlin's, in order to pursue some romantic lead parts. We
made an offer equal to the other cast, but she opted out to pursue
films. We cast the best actor to come in the door to fill Na'Toth's
boots, and we need that character there because of the prior knowledge
she needs to have to fill her role in the story. Mary Kay is, I think,
trying to reinterpret the character. We're nudging in the other
direction. One way or another, this will be made to work.
<p>
<li> Actually, no, it's not a rumor; I'd mentioned this some time ago, but
apparently some didn't see it....
<p>
So to repeat: we'd had to replace Mary Woronov with virtually no
notice after we found that she really had a hard time with the narn
prosthetics (wouldn't wear the contacts, and other stuff). In a
panic, our casting director called in a favor from Caitlin Brown, who
is mainly a leading-lady type actor. She came in and, in fact, for
the first episode (shooting almost immediately afterward) wore a
variation of the Ko'Dath makeup, because there wasn't time to make
one specific to her.
<p>
She came in without being under the 5-year option that generally
exists in these situations. Did one year, about 9 episodes, as
Na'Toth. And had to turn down a couple of leading-female parts.
During the hiatus, she did a romantic lead character in a film with
Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep. And had to ask the hard question:
do I continue to grow as a romantic lead actor in feature films, or
play Na'Toth? She is a VERY gorgeous woman, and felt awkward hiding
behind the mask and cutting herself out of leading female parts in
feature films to do it.
<p>
We went 'round and 'round about this for some time, it was a very
difficult decision for her because she likes the show and everyone
here, but finally opted out. On one level it's a pain in the butt,
but we respect her decision. And it *is* her call, not ours.
<p>
(Quick aside...pfffttthhpplttt to those who, in their theory that
Sinclair/O'Hare quit, said that I'd naturally say it was mutual
because I could never say it was the actors choice because somehow
I'd get in trouble. No, I *would* say it if O'Hare had opted out on
his own. And in this case, that's exactly what happened.)
<p>
We didn't recast Sinclair because that character is going somewhere
from whence he may (and will) return, and because that serves the
story; in this case, we are recasting Na'Toth. By the end of season
one, Na'Toth knows stuff that I need that character, G'Kar's aide,
to know. (Though I was briefly tempted to do the Murphy Brown
Secretary line, with G'Kar getting a new aide every so often due to
terrible airlock accidents...but I went to lay down for a while and
the notion passed.)
<p>
So no, it's not a rumor, it's quite true. In fact, we just finished
up a casting session and found someone who's very right for the part;
and though we weren't confined to this, is actually about the same
height, same build, same attitude as Caitlin, and whose voice is very
similar. I don't think much difference will be noted in the long run,
really.
<p>
<li> The Narn aren't waiting. Or, more accurately, G'Kar isn't. The rest
of the Kha'Ri (Narn inner circle government) are still somewhat
skeptical.
<p>
The Minbari know the shape of what's coming, but they know full well
that if they go to us with this, we won't believe them; there's still
enough residual dislike over the war that they feel we have to find
this out for ourselves (and we will).
<p>
<li> Let's just say for now that about a thousand years ago, Narn was used
as a lay-over and supply spot for a Shadowman group that landed there
for a time, and used it briefly as a base of operations.
<p>
<li> Re: "switching places"...this is *exactly* what I noted early on;
the intent to set up in the very beginning a situation where those
who've seen basic SF before on the tube will go, "Oh, okay, I got it
...this is the Bad Guy, this is the Good Guy, this is the Comic
Relief, this is the Ally," and so on, because that's generally what's
been the case in TV SF; you set up the various sides from day one, and
virtually nobody moves.
<p>
So you get them to rely on their conditioning, then you begin to move
the chairs around, so suddenly what you THOUGHT was the good guy is
maybe something else; and what you THOUGHT was the comic relief is a
tragic and dark figure; and what you THOUGHT was the bad guy is maybe
one of the real heroes of the story. And you try and make the path
that results in those changes as interesting, moving, or scary as
possible.
<p>
<li> Of course Londo realizes he's being...not exactly set up, but that
he's getting into a very bad situation. But on the other hand, he
sees that perhaps this is his last chance to grab for something more
than what he is; he's not a young man anymore, and offers such as
this, even though he knows there will be a price someday (as he
states to Morden), do not come along every day.
<p>
Here is the key to characterization: who is your character, what does
he want, how far will he go to get it, and what is he prepared to
lose in that process?
<p>
<li> Morden is human.
<p>
Morden dat I can't say.
<p>
<li> Actually, G'Kar's makeup wasn't changed this year; the actor put on a
few pounds over hiatus, which shows in the face, which changes how the
prosthetic looks. This was dropped very quickly by Andreas, however,
and the makeup has adjusted itself. (Hell, we all put on a few pounds
during hiatus.)
<p>
<li> Oddly, the new makeup takes *longer* for Mira than the old, which went
on in a couple of fairly straightforward pieces. Now there's a lot
more detail work and more pieces.
<p>
Also, the intent is that G'Kar looked at both Sheridan and Londo, not
sure which of them may have leaked the info, though I think the
editing may have focused too much on Londo in that shot.
<p>
<li> The only time a name is associated with his aide is when Garibaldi
refers to him later, at which time he just says Jack.
<p>
<li> <em>Jack had had contact with the PsiCops in "Mind War"</em><br>
No, Jack wasn't *seduced* at that time ...but he WAS there to meet
them, and escort them to see Sinclair. Why him? Perhaps a contact
there...?
<p>
<li> <em>What would be different if there hadn't been cast changes after
"The Gathering?"</em><br>
The only problem with answering how things would've been different
is that some information might get out by inference about how things
might still *be*. However, to do what I can with the question (never
let it be said I don't try to accommodate....).
<p>
If Lyta had stayed on B5, her arc would be pretty close to that of
Talia, except that she would have begun to form a strong link to Kosh,
first in the form of dreams, then something with implications that
could be read as menacing or benign.
<p>
If Dr. Kyle would have stayed around, he would have moved more into
the position of advisor/paternal figure for Sinclair. He also would
have continued to be more scientist than doctor.
<p>
Takashima would have been revealed as having been in on the Vorlon
assassination attempt by season's end, and would have betrayed
Garibaldi in the events in "Chrysalis," either giving him over to
those involved with the coup, or pulling the trigger herself. While
we would know this, our characters would not, for as much as another
full season.
<p>
Carolyn Sykes would've gotten into major trouble with one of the
major EarthCorps.
<p>
Finally, if Sinclair had stayed with B5 at this juncture, the events
in "Points" (the reveal of the Minbari surrender) would've taken place
in episode 3 instead of 1. Episode 1 would've consisted mainly of the
events in "Revelations," which was mainly as a bystander to the events
around him, since the sister aspect specific to Sheridan obviously
wouldn't be there. Basically, with all the events surrounding Delenn,
Londo, G'Kar and others, he didn't have one whole hell of a lot to *DO*
in the first six to eight episodes, since that segment was set aside
primarily to introduce the Shadowman war and get that cranking, and
Sinclair had no real direct connection to that.
</ul>

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<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
Ivanova is promoted and given a diplomatic assignment. Londo seeks affirmation
from an unusual source.
</cite>
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Ansara,+Michael">Michael Ansara</a> as Elric.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Forward,+William">William Forward</a> as Refa.
</blockquote>
<pre>
Sub-genre: Comedy/intrigue
<a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/025">7.68</a>
Production number: 203
Original air date: November 16, 1994
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Mike Vejar
</pre>
<p>
<hr size=3>
<p>
<h2><a name="BP">Backplot</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Every five years, the Drazi people divide by random selection into
two equal groups, green and purple, and fight for supremacy in a
contest that lasts a full year. The group that wins is the dominant
one until the next battle. Group membership isn't permanent and
has no deeper meaning than the color of cloth one happens to select
randomly from a container.
<li> The only son of the Centauri Emperor recently died, leaving no clear
successor to the throne. This has served to increase the scheming
among the Centauri nobility. At least one group, disgusted with the
decay of the Republic, intends to grab for the throne when the Emperor
dies; Londo has all but pledged to support that group.
</ul>
<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Where were the techno-mages going?
<li> Will they return or otherwise make their influence felt?
<li> How do they know about the upcoming conflict?
<li> <em>What</em> do they know about it? Are they aware of the Shadows,
for instance?
<li> What part do Londo's new partners want him to play in their
machinations?
<li> What repercussions will Ivanova's solution to the Drazi problem have?
<li> Were the winged creatures on Londo's back significant, or just a
meaningless practical joke?
</ul>
<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Londo seems to have made up his mind about following his ambition.
He appeared to be seeking the techno-mages' endorsement for his own
political gain, rather than for the good of the Republic. It remains
to be seen whether he'll have the willpower to follow through with
his newfound assertiveness when lives are at stake, though Elric's
statement about the future indicates he will.
<li> Londo is willing to trust Vir with other people's secrets ("He can
be trusted!") but not with his own (e.g., his reluctance to discuss
Morden in
<a href="022.html">"Chrysalis"</a>.) Vir is gradually becoming more
assertive, more willing to stand up to Londo. Whether this will
cause Londo to respect or trust him more remains to be seen.
<li> The two Drazi leaders were clearly only in charge of the groups on
Babylon 5, as evidenced by the fact that the decision to up the stakes
of the contest came from the Drazi homeworld. What happens if one
group wins in one place and the other wins back home is open to
debate.
<li> Londo's reference to the techno-mages' presence at the founding of the
Republic, and his recognition of the human mages, suggests that the
brotherhood of techno-mages is very old, and crosses species
boundaries. Perhaps they have been around long enough to have
taken part in the great war recorded in the Book of G'Quan (cf.
<a href="024.html">"Revelations"</a>)
and can see signs of the same thing starting again.
<li> The techno-mages seem to have found some technological way to emulate
the prophetic abilities of some of the Centauri, among others (cf.
<a href="013.html">"Signs and Portents"</a>.)
Such abilities are arguably related to time travel; perhaps it is
the techno-mages who supply the technology to bring Babylon 4 forward
in time (cf.
<a href="020.html">"Babylon Squared"</a>.)
<li> When Garibaldi was playing with his weapon, it's plausible that he
was contemplating suicide. He has hit rock bottom. He has been
betrayed by a trusted member of his own staff and shot in the back. The
only person he really trusted (Commander Sinclair) is gone. And, he is
probably feeling that he was somehow responsible for the failure to
prevent the assassination of the EA President. He is a recovering
alcoholic, and he has lost the woman he had fantasized about marrying.
If true, this lends a different meaning to Sheridan's comment, "The
universe doesn't give us points for doing the easy things."
</ul>
<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Ivanova's broken foot in this episode wasn't originally planned;
Claudia Christian broke her foot, and it had to be explained in the
context of the show somehow.
<li> The end credits list Edward Conery as Devereaux (cf.
<a href="022.html">"Chrysalis"</a>)
but he doesn't seem to actually appear in the episode anywhere.
Please <a href="/cgi-bin/uncgi/feedback?what=Devereaux+Appearance&where=/lurk/guide/024.html">Send me mail</a> if you spot him.
Since he did appear in the previous episode,
<a href="024.html">"Revelations,"</a>
and wasn't listed in its credits, he may have been listed here to make
up for the omission.
<li> Elric's warning to Vir is almost verbatim from Tolkien's <cite>Lord
Of the Rings</cite>, in which Gildor, an elf, tells Frodo (speaking
about Gandalf,) "But it is said: Do not meddle in the affairs of
wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger."
<li> Elric's name is from Michael Moorcock's series of fantasy novels.
<li> When Garibaldi turns up to rescue
Ivanova, there is a visual gaffe. The Drazi who starts to
get up to answer the door is the one in a red-accented suit
with epaulettes. When Garibaldi is admitted, it is by the
other Drazi, while the one who had started to get up is
guarding Ivanova.
<li> Michael Ansara, who plays Elric, also played Kang, a Klingon, in the
original Star Trek episode "Day of the Dove" and the Deep Space Nine
episode "Blood Oath."
</ul>
<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>
<ul>
<p>
<li> BTW, having now edited seven episodes, and seen several finished ones,
I think that of the first three, "The Geometry of Shadows" (#3) is my
personal favorite. "Revelations" is certainly a biggie, a staggering
chunk of the arc...but "Geometry" is just an absolute hoot, something
of a breather from the intensity, and largely for fun with some
undertones. If you liked "The Parliament of Dreams," you'll probably
love "Geometry."
<p>
<li> There were *substantial* differences made between the first draft
and the final, based on the fact that a lot of the physical stuff I'd
written for Claudia -- getting herself out of the problem she was in
with the Drazi -- had to be dumped because the actress had a broken
foot. So that aspect has to be remembered. We pushed her to the
limits, and I didn't want to push further.
<p>
<li> You hit on the head *precisely*. When Garibaldi was popping the
energy cap in and out of the PPG, he was on the floor, nominally in the
dark, thinking of killing himself. I didn't want to play it up, didn't
want to make it what the story was about...just show him doing it, over
and
over. And from Sheridan's face, seeing the last of this, it's clear he
got it...and I thought he handled the scene *perfectly*, by his whole
demeanor, but NOT talking about it except indirectly.
<p>
<li> If I told you what the 14 words were, they wouldn't mean anything
anymore.
<p>
<li> I don't feel Sheridan was downplaying her promotion; he was sneaking
it up on her to surprise her, making it more of an unexpected delight.
<p>
<li> The idea behind the title "The Geometry of Shadows" was in a sense
a metaphor for the techno-mages; geometry bespeaking the use of math and
equations, the latter being generally something dark, or mysterious, or
mystical.
<p>
<li> "The Geometry of Shadows" seemed to me a good metaphor for the
technomages; a mix of science with something dark and mysterious.
How do you work out the geometry of something that in one sense
doesn't really exist, but is a projection of something else that
DOES exist? That seemed to me as good a notion of technomagic as
anything else.
<p>
<li> Be assured, Vir's position continues to be important, and he moves a
bit closer to the limelight as he does so...remember, he's the one
who has to watch Londo's actions like a man watching an accident in
slow motion, and try to do what he can to stop it.
<p>
<li> Sheridan wasn't talking to himself, but rather to the tech who just
seconds before asked if they should let the techno-mages go. (I'd
trimmed the first part of his speech which made this a little clearer,
figuring it'd be evident who he was talking to. What can I say...
sometimes you get the bear, sometimes the bear gets you.)
<p>
<li> Excuse me, but has *anyone* here considered that Sheridan just might
still be talking to the same tech he was speaking to not *five
seconds earlier*? He wasn't talking to himself, so much, or the
audience, though the push-in (the only shot we had) worked against
that. He *was* talking to the tech. Honest.
<p>
<li> The technomages are from various races and worlds; there are some who
are Centauri, some who are human, even other races such as the Vree
and the pak'ma'ra, though these in particular happened to be from
Earth. (If they were Centauri, why would Sheridan have been
interfering with their emigration?)
<p>
<li> Re: the Drazi...yeah, they all look different in that episode. Our
prosthetics folks did a great job with that, as did the actors, and I
think this one should earn Optic Nerve another emmy.
<p>
<li> And yeah, Garibaldi's "joke" was supposed to be pretty lame; we even
edited it to widen the awkward pause, to make it more difficult. He's
trying too hard, and his spirit isn't in it.
<p>
<li> No, actually, the technomage symbol (all of them, actually, including
the ones on the wall) are all derivations, specifically altered, of old
runes and the like. In some cases, we removed words and inserted
mathematical symbols. The fiery symbol is all one piece, and is also an
old rune.
<p>
<li> Actually, Londo has two coats, a cloak, several different colored
vests (blue, black, others), often wears just his shirt, we've seen
him in his PJs...he's got a fairly large wardrobe.
<p>
<li> Also, Londo looks for the blessings of the technomages the same way
the witches performed that role in "Macbeth." There are other parallels
one might draw as well, though again they're still two different
stories.
<p>
<li> <em>How was it written before Claudia Christian injured her ankle?</em>
<br>
Mainly it was written with Ivanova solving her problem on her own,
without Garibaldi being there.
<p>
<li> <em>Re: Squaring the account of Ivanova's promotion with Comic #1,
"In Darkness Find Me"</em><br>
The president spoke truthfully; Sheridan could petition for a
promotion for her, but it's up to Earthforce to grant it, so the line
still tracks. (Note also there's no pronoun there; "Giving her a
field promotion." The imperial We still stands, though.) Also,
Sheridan says he put through the paperwork the day after he got there;
which is fairly close to the time frame in the story in which the
President says they'll be giving Ivanova a promotion. There's no
discontinuity here.
<p>
<li> Actually, originally, the plan was for President Clark to indeed
notify Ivanova in "Points of Departure," but introducing a new
character in the General added some changes when we shot the scene.
But by then it was too late to modify the comic [#1, "In Darkness
Find Me"].
<p>
Also, in the comic, Clark doesn't *specify* who's giving Ivanova the
promotion, just that it's being done. (And Sheridan comments that he
put through the paperwork the day after he arrived, which tracks with
this time-wise.)
<p>
<li> Ivanova did NOT take the kerchief off either of the Drazi leaders in
the council chambers; she walked PAST them, and signaled for two of
the regular Drazi to come down out of the cheap seats.
<p>
<li> Nope, that really was Claudia walking on her broken foot in the
council chambers. She's a trooper....
<p>
<li> "A race that speaks in macros" referred to the Drazi constantly
repeating their stance, Green must fight Purple, Purple must fight
Green, over and over...macros.
<p>
<li> Ann Bruice did a great job on the technomage costumes; I agree. She
found ways to implement what was described in the script that were
both creative and wore well, and fulfilled the function. I wanted
black, with fine silver lines, and an almost circuitboard look to the
patterns in places, but not *obviously* that, stylized. She took that
and came back with a true niftyness....
<p>
<li> In order to create more involved alien makeups, and because many
actors have a hard time with prosthetics, we created what we call the
Babylon 5 Alien Rep Group; last year about five, and this year about
12 actors who we have taken full head and (in some cases) body casts,
so we can use them in mid-level speaking roles as aliens and rotate
them in and out. Since we had fewer last year, you saw Mark more than
you'll see him this year. Green Drazi #1 in "Geometry" is one such
rep group alien.
<p>
We keep trying to find interesting solutions to interesting problems.
<p>
<li> The techno-mages were not a homage to ShadowRun games, since I've
never seen the game, and have never heard of it prior to seeing this
message.
<p>
<li> Yes, Ivanova's title in the opening credits *will* be changed to
Commander, to reflect her change in rank. And we'll be adding a rank
for Lt. Keffer. It's kind of funny; we keep treating the opening
title this year as a work in progress, reflecting little changes here
and there...changes in faces, narration, little musical changes that
will come by about episode five or six.....
</ul>

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<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
Disaster strikes an old friend of Captain Sheridan. Dr. Franklin offers
nutritional advice to some reluctant patients.
</cite>
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Tamblyn,+Russ">Russ Tamblyn</a> as Capt. Maynard.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?a31AE69">Miguel A. Nunez, Jr.</a> as Orwell.
</blockquote>
<pre>
Sub-genre: Suspense
<a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/026">7.34</a>
Production number: 204
Original air date: November 23, 1994
Written by D.C. Fontana
Directed by Jim Johnston
</pre>
<h3>Watch For:</h3>
<UL>
<LI> Captain Maynard's footwear.
</UL>
<p>
<hr size=3>
<p>
<h2><a name="BP">Backplot</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Sheridan's first commander, on Earth-Mars patrol duty, was Jack
Maynard, who Sheridan admired greatly. "I thought he knew
everything," Sheridan says. "He <em>did</em>, too."
<li> The Earth Alliance has a small fleet of huge Explorer-class ships that
travel out on the rim of known space, mapping new systems and
installing new jump gates. More specialized scout ships follow later
to perform detailed or specific surveys of these newly opened
systems.
<LI> The Explorer ships, which are considered choice commands, can
also repair jumpgates.
<li> Navigation in hyperspace involves locking onto jumpgate signals.
There seem to be no natural reference points in hyperspace, so
a ship must keep its own internal navigation references or lock
onto the signals of nearby gates or it will become lost. Until this
episode, no ship lost in hyperspace had ever been rescued.
<LI> Minbari society is built upon a strict caste structure and obedience
to superiors within that caste structure. Delenn has challanged
that organization, and the Minbari are beginning to react.
</ul>
<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> <em>Is</em> something living in hyperspace? (This isn't a new
question; it was the subject of a front-page Universe Today story in
<a href="008.html">"And the Sky Full of Stars."</a>)
<li> Why does Delenn feel she is more "one of us" now than she's ever been?
Is it because she views humans and Minbari as joined, and she feels
she's a part of both halves?
<LI> How does hyperspace work in the B5 universe?
</ul>
<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
<ul>
<LI> The appearance of his friend and mentor Jack Maynard suddenly throws
Sheridan's new duties aboard Babylon 5 into contrast with his training
and experience, kindling a strong sense of dissatisfaction with the job.
"I've been beached," he says. This is sure to crop up again in the future.
Despite his newfound energy at the end of the episode, what Captain
Maynard said is still true; being a governor and a diplomat isn't what
Sheridan trained or even wished for. If he's itching for action when a
crisis comes up, that might cause him to look less thoroughly for peaceful
solutions than someone like Sinclair might.
<LI> Delenn's transformation is something that's clearly a mystery to the
general Minbari population, suggesting that it is either unprecedented
or so rare as to be unheard-of. Yet she seemed to know what she was
doing, as did at least some of the Grey Council. The Council is
likely harboring many secrets that aren't simple matters of
religion and spirituality; what other technologies do they possess
that the Minbari public knows nothing about?
<LI> Jumpgates act as locator beacons in hyperspace, providing a three
dimensional homing signal detectable for a thousand kilometers or so
there. To be useful in the featureless and chaotic void of hyperspace
it would have to provide both a relative and an absolute reference much
like a VOR does for aircraft. If the beacon can respond to ship data
requests, then range data and traffic information could also be transmitted
to the approaching (or departing) ship. Just how this works is not explained.
<LI> Hyperspace is a featureless place, yet it has currents and eddies that
corrospond to gravity in normal space. Sheridan says, "We know
there is a drift in hyperspace that can pull a ship down the gravitational
incline." Gravity works in hyperspace, though apparently not in quite
the same way that it works in real space. Electromagnetic waves
also propogate in hyperspace, but become distorted rapidly over
distance in a random and variable way. Jumpgate beacons are, therefore,
very short range -- more like lighthouses in hyperspace -- and communications
with ships in hyperspace is possible only when the vessel is near a jumpgate.
<LI> What looks like a great deal of hand-waving over the Cortez accident
can be explained upon close examination of the circumstances. The
timeline of the accident seems to be:
<P>
<OL>
<LI> Cortez enters the jumpgate.
<LI> Cortez exits the jumppoint in hyperspace and attempts a restart of her
primary power system. The fusion reactor restart fails, and the power
system spikes, producing a powerful electro-magnetic pulse (and presumably
a sizable radiation pulse) which takes out some systems aboard Cortez,
including main propulsion, navigation, and some computer systems. Cortez
is now adrift.
<LI> Many hours later Cortez gets some main power back and systems running.
Captain Maynard, after getting a damage report that tells him that nav won't
be back up for 48 hours, puts up a distress call, which is received (barely) by B5.
At this point Cortez is under power, but without reference points the best they
can do is hold station against the pull of a nearby gravity well.
<LI> B5 receives the distress signal, and Captain Sheridan decides to make a rescue
attempt. Cortez is effectively just "offshore" in hyperspace, and despite Ivonova's
misgivings he feels they stand a chance of recovering her. Five fighters are
launched into hyperspace by B5, and they form up on a line facing down the local
gravity well at 1000km intervals.
<LI> The fighters set up the search pattern, with Cdr. Galus (fighter group commander)
and Lt. Keffer together at the far end. This puts them about 4000km away from B5.
<LI> A shadow ship enters hyperspace almost on top of Galus, colliding with and
destroying his fighter. It also rams Keffer's Star Fury, but only knocks out some
systems (comms, nav, and propulsion).
Keffer begins firing (presumably on internal references) in the direction of Galus's
last position. Cortez figures it out, and at about the same time Keffer's fighter
gets communications back online. Rather than risk losing a good bearing back
to the jumpgate, Keffer tells Captain Maynard to take Cortez directly back to
the gate, leaving him behind in his unmaneuverable Star Fury. He is unable
to keep station and will drift, eventually losing any reference back to B5.
<LI> About 24 hours later (more or less -- it seems like the next night, end of shift
in C&C, about midnight) Keffer is running out of oxygen--but his Star Fury has
succeeded in getting his thruster systems back online. Shortly after that he
spots another shadow ship, and using that as a reference point he navigates
back to the jumpgate and returns to B5.
</OL>
<LI> This <I>may</I> not have been as much of a crisis as it seemed to be. Cortez, given its
stated function of running about on the rim, must carry its own jumppoint
generator. The problem was the lack of main power. Since it has already been
stated that opening a jumppoint takes a great deal of energy, the size of the
Cortez fusion plant would therefore be determined by the power requirements
for creating the jumppoint. With only partial main power, she was unable to do so.
But given the size of the ship and its presumed independence, it is possible that
Cortez could have repaired her main power plant herself, and then opened a
jumpgate of her own. This possibility explains why Captain Maynard didn't broadcast a
mayday immediately following the accident -- he assumed they could get Cortez
out of trouble themselves. It was only after he received the damage report
detailing the slow recovery of main power and the long repair time for navigation
that he decided to call for assistance.
<LI> This episode further delineates the technological capabilities of
the Shadows, though not explicitly. They use the same hyperspace
the major races do. (As opposed to, for example, the Sigma 957
aliens from
<a href="006.html">"Mind War,"</a>
who appeared to use something different.)
<LI> Though the Shadows presumably noticed the Starfuries and the Cortez
and realized they could be seen as well, they took no action against
the human ships. This is somewhat in contrast to their apparent
desire to remain undetected. Several explanations are possible.
Perhaps the Shadow ship was in a hurry; perhaps its weapons aren't
functional in hyperspace; or, most intriguing, perhaps it realized
that the ships were from Earth and chose to leave them alone for
that reason.
</ul>
<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>
<UL>
<LI> Captain Maynard has seen a shadow ship in the past, though he didn't
recognize it as such, and now Lt. Keffer has seen one as well.
<p>
<li> Garibaldi's special dinner:
<p>
Bagna Cauda (from Jeff Smith's -The Frugal Gourmet-)
<p>
1/2 cup olive oil<br>
1/4 lb. butter (1 stick) - not margarine!<br>
5 cloves garlic, finely chopped<br>
6 anchovy fillets, mashed<br>
black pepper
<p>
Heat oil and butter together in top of double boiler. In a small
skillet cook the garlic in a bit of this oil until soft. Add the
anchovies, and cook till the fish turns into a paste, about 5 min. Mix
this paste with the hot oil and butter. Transfer to a chafing dish or
fondue pot to keep warm on the table (it congeals as it cools.)
<p>
<li> The Egyptian blessing: "God be between you and harm, in all the empty
places where you must walk."
<p>
<li> Delenn's speech about "starstuff" is very similar to a section of
Carl Sagan's <cite>Cosmos</cite>, as well as a section of the play
<cite>The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds</cite>.
<p>
<li> (unverified) As the Cortez exits the jumpgate, its hull numbers
can be read, "14286." Later, when Sheridan grants clearance for
it to leave, its number is stated as "C199."
</UL>
<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> To be filed under the heading of, "What I does, I takes the rap for;
what I does not, I doesn't take the rap for," when we discussed the
hyperspace accident in our production meetings, Jim -- our director --
asked if he could so some fratzing and sparking, some fire...I said I
did not *want* huge gouts of flame, just a few small sparks, fine, a
bit of smoke from components burned out, fine...and that day I was
over in the other facility overseeing a mixdown of the audio...and
guess what he did in my absence? Yup.
<p>
<li> So many questions about hyperspace came up over the last year or so
that we figured they should be addressed; be assured, we're staying
as clear of technobabble as ever, despite my Spousal Overunit's
absolute and unshakeable conviction that *everything* is, at its
root, a math problem.
<p>
<li> To get in and out of hyperspace you have to know where you are and
where you're going, otherwise you'll come out even *more* lost,
hundreds of light years from home; you jump in, and you're even
further gone now.
<p>
<li> And the Cortez might've been able to locate some stars, but any fix
on its position would only have been within a few light-years, not
nearly precise enough for their purposes. They'd still be lost.
<p>
<li> <em>Should a ship have been named after Cortez, considering what
effect his arrival had on the native Americans?</em><br>
If Cortez had NOT landed in northern Mexico, do you think it would
have remained undiscovered until now?
<p>
Fact #1: somebody was bound to discover the Americas.
<p>
Fact #2: any sufficiently advanced civilization or culture will
inevitably attempt to exploit any civilization or culture not
sufficiently advanced to fight back on a level playing field.
<p>
Blaming explorers for exploring has always seemed to me really kind
of silly; do people *really* think that if Columbus hadn't landed
here, it'd be 1994 and we still wouldn't know the world was round and
that this continent was here? It doesn't matter who discovered it,
the same result would've come. Somebody had to discover it sooner
or later.
<p>
<li> (He coughs and speaks in his Executive Producer Voice:) "I *LIKE* the
opening title sequence."
<p>
Now...onto other matters.
<p>
We re-mixed the narration and music today in the titles, and it's a LOT
better. I slightly shifted the placement of some of the lines, and
Bruce's rendition is very nice. Really carries the weight. Look for
it to appear starting in episode #4.
<p>
<li> Actually, we just redid the narration with Bruce yesterday, and it's
MUCH better. We'll be able to get it in starting in episode #4.
<p>
While we were at it, btw, we took the opportunity to re-do the
faceplate shot in the main title sequence. It was fine, but it
could've been better. Now it is. Expect it around the same time as
the new VO.
</ul>
<hr>
Originally compiled by Dave Zimmerman
<hr>

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<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
When a cryonic sleeper is awakened, a deadly, evil force is unleashed on
the station.
</cite>
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Johnson,+Anne-Marie">Anne-Marie Johnson</a> as Mariah Cirrus.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Schultz,+Dwight">Dwight Schultz</a> as Amis.
</blockquote>
<pre>
Sub-genre: Horror
<a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/027">7.64</a>
Production number: 205
Original air date: November 30, 1994
Written by Scott Frost
Directed by Mario DiLeo
</pre>
<h3>Watch For:</h3>
<UL>
<LI> An out-of-place cut of Garibaldi searching for Amis
</UL>
<p>
<hr size=3>
<p>
<h2><a name="BP">Backplot</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Earth got jumpgate technology from the Centauri in the mid-22nd
century. Before then, humans were mostly confined to their own
solar system.
<LI> Sometime between the 20th century and the arrival of the Centauri,
signals of <I>possible</I> extraterrestrial and intelligent origin were
detected.
<li> A small number of explorers volunteered for long-term interstellar
missions, so long-term that they had to be cryogenically frozen for
the duration. These missions were launched until the Centauri made
contact with Earth, eliminating the need for sleeper ships. At least
some of these ships were set to home in on any signals they might
encounter.
<li> During the war, Garibaldi was a "gropo" ("ground pounder"), stationed
on an outpost or base rather than a ship. He and some of his companions
barely escaped death in a surprise attack by the Minbari.
<li> Another outpost was attacked by a vicious creature of some kind,
an insidious beast that affected the minds of the soldiers stationed
there, then killed them one by one, ripping their internal organs
completely out of their bodies.
<li> The Markab, like the Narn, believe there was a great darkness in the
past, something that was defeated only after a painful struggle.
At least some among them suspect that the darkness is rising again.
</ul>
<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> What was the creature? Was it really one of the Shadows?
<li> How did it detect and board the Copernicus, which was travelling at
a significant fraction of lightspeed?
<li> What did it want with people's internal organs?
<LI> Is it really dead? (We suspect so, but without a body....)
<li> What was the substance hanging off Amis when he was suspended in
midair? Garibaldi makes a face as he tears it off Amis.
<LI> What happened to Amis afterward?
<li> Garibaldi says to Amis, "You were just about to accuse the Centauri
ambassador of being in league with the devil... which might not be
too far from the truth." Just a meaningless offhand remark, or does
Garibaldi somehow know what Londo is up to?
</ul>
<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> The fact that the Copernicus was headed for Z'ha'dum indicates that
the Shadows have been gathering their forces for some time, at least
10 years, leading to the possibility that they've been meddling in the
affairs of the major races before their recent involvement with Londo.
<li> Contempt for the Lurkers seems to be pervasive, if not almost
universal. Even Dr. Franklin, normally a level-headed person, was
ready to dismiss a claim made by a Lurker out of hand, and one of
the security officers said, "Damn lurkers, we should space 'em all."
<li> No mention was made of any attempt to retrieve the sleeper ships after
first contact with the Centauri. Presumably such a task would have
been easily accomplished. One explanation might be that the first
contact threw Earth into such turmoil that retrieving frozen
astronauts became an insignificant priority. Perhaps an attempt
was made but was unsuccessful; if the Copernicus had locked onto
any signals along the way and changed course, it might be nearly
impossible to track down in the vastness of space.
<LI> The Copernicus timeline seems to be:
<OL>
<LI> Before the Centauri contact : Signals of extraterrestrial origin were detected.
<LI> 100+ years ago: Sleeper ships were launched on long voyages,
Copernicus among them.
<LI> 12+ years ago: Copernicus detects signals from the Minbari CP in
an obscure system and homes in on them. (Presumably the signals stop,
and Copernicus doesn't revive the crew.)
<LI> About 12 years ago: Amis has his encounter with the creature. The
EarthForce listening post is essentially destroyed by it. Amis is kept
alive. For some reason the creature does not interfere when he is rescued.
<LI> Less than 12 years ago: Copernicus passes through the system. The
creature boards, changes course, and kills Mariah's husband before settling
into the "life tube" with her.
<LI> 4+ years ago: Copernicus detects signals from the region of space where
the Babylon stations are under construction. In keeping with its underlying
directive to seek out such signals, the vessel changes course.
<LI> A year or less ago: Copernicus begins decelerating, and apparently uses
up all its remaining fuel to do so. At some point it begins transmitting
a greeting signal.
<LI> Now: Copernicus arrives, unpowered and without even any thruster fuel
remaining (it's tumbling when first spotted).
</OL>
<LI> 10% of the air supply aboard Copernicus was lost when the creature boarded,
presumably vented into space. This implies that for some reason the creature
came in through the door (there was no airlock) or penetrated the hull physically
to gain entry. This is only odd because Amis insists that it could pass through walls.
<LI> Why wasn't Copernicus detected earlier? There could be a few reasons. First,
the ship apparently used up all of its hydrogen fuel and all of its thruster fuel
on approach to B5. This leaves unanswered the question of what it was doing
for power afterward, but apparently it had enough to keep transmitting its
greeting message and keep internal systems going. But tumbling, it may have
been unable to keep a high gain antenna pointed in-system. Add to this the
fact that nobody was listening for it (Ivonova says it's on an unusual frequency)
and it becomes fairly reasonable that it came all the way insystem without being
detected.
<LI> How fast and far did Copernicus travel? This one is more difficult. The minimum
answer is 25 LY and .25C. The distance between the Sol System and B5 seems to
be about 25 light years, and this is the minimum distance Copernicus had to cover.
To cover 25 LY in 100+ years, Copernicus had to travel at 1/4 C (on average).
Typical predictions for nuclear engines driving ships to low-reletivistic speeds say
that it takes between 10 and 40 tons of reaction mass/fuel per ton of dry weight
to accelerate a ship to low-C (1/10C to 1/4C more or less) and decelerate it again.
So either the ship we saw was the core of a much larger ship and all the empty tanks
were ejected, or it's made of very lightweight materials, or both.
<li> 100 years seems like a reasonable time for a slower-than-light
interstellar journey, yet Mariah was surprised to learn that much
time had passed. Her reaction could just be due to the disorientation
she was probably experiencing, or perhaps the mission was planned
to be less than 100 years long due to limitations of the cryogenic
units or some other shipboard system.
<li> The name Amis seems to be a pun, as in something is
amiss with Amis. The name Amis is pronounces as "AMOS,"
the name of an Old Testament prophet. Prophets like
Amos spent lots of time warning folks about dire and
immediate events, much like what Amis did in the Zoccalo.
</ul>
<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Writer Scott Frost was also on the writing staff of
<a href="http://pogo.wright.edu/TwinPeaks/TPHome.html"><cite>Twin
Peaks</cite></a>,
a show whose atmosphere was often similar to that of this episode.
<li> When Garibaldi is in the Zocalo, the Drazi sitting next to him is
not wearing a colored sash. Since the ritual combat in
<a href="025.html">"The Geometry of Shadows"</a>
was supposed to last 1.2 earth years, shouldn't he have been
wearing a purple sash, per Ivanova's solution to the problem?
A possible explanation is that once she did what she did, the
combat was over on Babylon 5 and sashes were no longer required.
<li> A possible reference to Douglas Adams' "The Hitch Hiker's Guide to
the Galaxy" takes place as Amis leaves his cell. With a towel around
his neck, he claims, "I've got everything a man needs."
<li> Franklin administers a drug to a catatonic patient called
DeValera. Eammon DeValera was an Irish politician and
poet, with a real gift for rabble-rousing.
</ul>
<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> To follow up on your (Dianne's) other point...yes, from time to time,
as we push ourselves to the limit, we're going to crash and burn.
That's part of the risk if you really want to try and do something
different. We push the envelope...and sometimes get a papercut. I
had, for instance, MUCH more in mind for the EFX in the final
confrontation in "The Long Dark." But we were, alas, about this
&gt; &lt; much ahead of the technology to pull off what I wanted.
<p>
<li> The shadows have their servants, which are being
recalled to their places of power. That was one of their
lower-level types.
<p>
<li> RE: Londo looking "more wicked," we're doing some very small,
subtle things to his appearance, his wardrobe, pulling him into a
darker range of fabrics. (Honest to god, you wouldn't believe how
careful and detailed we are in setting this stuff up.) He'll even
be getting a new, slightly darker coat, straighter lines, closer in
style to Refa's, before the season's out. It's really interesting
when you know where you're going....
<p>
<li> <em>What was the race of that ambassador?</em><br>
I believe that was a Markab.
<p>
<li> Tom: the quibble you raise is one of the points I'm trying to make.
You say someone from 1890 would go crazy. I vehemently don't agree.
Go back and read letters from the 1890s. Heck, go read letters from
1776; the language, the emotions, they're all very much the same. The
chrome of technology has changed, some social styles and attitudes
have changed, but people still go through school (usually), get married,
raise kids, hold jobs, and look to a better future one day.
<p>
Mariah was also a scientist, sent forth expecting and prepared to see
new things; this isn't the same thing as an average person just plucked
out of time.
<p>
I think people -- Americans in particular -- over-emphasize how much
things change with time, in large measure because in a country that's
only 200+ years old, we *really* don't understand what time IS here.
The Romans who left grafitti all over parts of England are only one
step removed from the South Central taggers of today....
<p>
<li> Re: Ivanova and Sheridan going into the Cortez upon it being pulled
into B5...this was an Earth vessel, remember, stating it's on a mission
of peace, with a cryogenic suspension chamber in use. There was zero
perceived danger. Also, if I were the captain of a naval vessel today,
and I came across an intact sailing vessel that went missing in the
1890s, you'd have to hold a gun at my head to KEEP me out of that ship.
People are, by nature, curious...and this would be a fascinating puzzle
to solve. <em>(Editor's note: the Cortez was the ship in "A Distant
Star." JMS meant the Copernicus.)</em>
<p>
<li> A couple of thoughts on Sheridan, btw...triggered by messages I've seen
or had alluded to in which he's gigged for smiling too much, unlike
Sinclair...just checked back in some of my archives, and for the first
four or five episodes, the number one complaint about Sinclair was that
he either smiled or smirked too much....
<p>
Meanwhile, just a little something for the folks on-line to
contemplate...remember the first rule of Babylon 5: nobody is what they
appear. Not entirely, anyway. There's always something going on,
something that somebody's not telling. Some folks are making the error
of looking at Sheridan -- as they looked at Sinclair, or Londo, or Vir,
or G'Kar -- and thinking "this is all that he is." Except, of course,
that they weren't and he's not. I would not create a character that is
just what you're seeing.
<p>
Aside from that, and this is a separate issue...there are really two
ways to deepen a character and give him a dark side. One is to do
something to him *before* you meet him, which he's still recovering
from (Sinclair). The other is to meet him, and THEN drop him down a
well. In a way, Londo is illustrative of the latter; you get to know
him, and he's funny, colorful...and then you start to move him.
<p>
So suffice to say that Sheridan is going to end up getting more and
more conflicts, and getting booted to the head, and as someone noted
above, caught in the conflict between being a good officer and being a
patriot...which can sometimes be the same, and sometimes VERY different
things.
</ul>

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<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
Talia is caught in a treacherous web of intrigue after she witnesses a murder.
</cite>
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Barbeau,+Adrienne">Adrienne Barbeau</a> as Amanda Carter.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Beck,+Michael">Michael Beck</a> as Abel Horn.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Walter,+Jessica">Jessica Walter</a> as Senator Voudreau.
</blockquote>
(Originally titled "A Trick of the Mind")
<pre>
Sub-genre: Mystery
<a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/028">8.04</a>
Production number: 206
Original air date: December 7, 1994
Written by Lawrence G. DiTillio
Directed by Kevin Cremins
</pre>
<h3>Watch For:</h3>
<ul>
<li> Sheridan's drink.
<LI> San Diego.
<LI> Shattering glass.
<LI> "Erronium."
</ul>
<p>
<hr size=3>
<p>
<h2><a name="BP">Backplot</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Talia's first assignment was on Mars Colony, where she scanned several
members of the radical group Free Mars (cf.
<a href="/lurk/guide/018.html">"A Voice in the Wilderness."</a>)
<li> Sheridan is a conspiracy buff; he collects information about all sorts
of black projects and secret organizations.
<li> After the last rebellion, the Mars Conglomerate, a powerful group of
business interests, nearly pulled out of Mars.
<li> In the 2230s, the Earth Alliance began experimenting with electronic
brain implants. The experiments were unsuccessful because the
machines couldn't operate in conjunction with conscious thought.
Later, after the project was officially closed down, a group within
the Earth Alliance began trying a different approach. They took people
who were nearly dead and, with telepathic deep scans by one or more
members of Psi Corps, fixated the subjects' minds on the moments of
their deaths, blocking out all other conscious thought. That allowed
the implants to operate as long as the subjects remained fixated.
<li> A secret group within the Earth government called Bureau 13 is
deeply involved in, if not responsible for, the continuation of the
experiments. Bureau 13 has at least one officially deceased PsiCop
in its employ, possibly even its head.
</ul>
<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
<UL>
<LI> Who is the Bureau 13 "Control" Officer on B5?
<LI> If the cyber-experiments failed, what is Abbut, the "vicker" from
<a href="009.html">"Deathwalker?"</a>
<LI> Is "Abbey", Talia's mentor from her first year in Psi Corps, the
Bureau 13 PsiCop?
<li> The station's computer system has a secret override built in which
Bureau 13 has access to. What, if any, other subversions are in place
on Babylon 5?
<li> What role, if any, will the T'Kar play in the future, assuming they
decide to come to Babylon 5? What's so special about them?
<li> What did Sheridan learn when he was on the T'Kar ship?
</UL>
<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Since Talia scanned Free Mars members, it's reasonable to assume that
Psi-Corps is still doing so. Why, then, were they apparently caught
unawares by the rebellion in
<a href="/lurk/guide/018.html">"A Voice in the Wilderness?"</a>
In that episode, the Psi-Corps representative expressed surprise at
the size and well-equipped nature of Free Mars, something that
presumably would have been discovered during the course of scans.
Either some within Psi-Corps are actively hiding such information
from the rest of the Corps (and from Earth) or Free Mars is run very
tightly and almost no members know enough to compromise the
organization as a whole.
<li> Sheridan's interest in secret organizations and conspiracies may
explain why he was so ready to believe in an assassination plot
against the President (cf.
<a href="024.html">"Revelations."</a>)
Most other people seem to believe the accident cover story (cf. comic
<a href="/lurk/comic/001.html">"In Darkness Find Me."</a>)
<LI> What about Abbut, the "Vicker" or "VCR" from
<a href="009.html">"Deathwalker?"</a> He was quite clearly
human, and also clearly carrying a brain implant. (Indeed, his
brain was exposed, surrounded and penetrated by what looked like
quite extensive implants. The exact quote by Garibaldi was, "Most of
the cyber experiments were a bust." Abbut could have been one of
those few that worked. In principle implants recording and
monitoring what Abbut experiences are fundimentally different from
an implanted AI that controls your actions.
<LI> In a related but more tenuous vein, what about the Technomages?
Some aspects of thier abilities (all based on technology, remember)
seem to imply non-vocal, non-manipulatory control over their gear.
The production of an orange blossom while walking, talking and
gesturing. Sleight of hand is one explanation, (sidestepping the
issue of how the orange blossom was produced,) but an alternative one
is that they have some kind of control device implanted someplace --
not necessarily their brains. This would also explain their
preternatural knowledge. Elric always seemed to know more than anyone
else, and some of that could have come from a built in data system or
an implanted link to one. Add to this Elrics ability to pull up
holograms literally in the palm of his hand, and the arguement seems
strong for such an implant. But again, it could be nothing but an
IO path, not an AI, and so again different from the cyber experiments'
failures.
<LI> B5's computer system is compromised. At the very least, communications
are insecure and under the control of the Bureau 13 AI, including both
local and interstellar channels. This is supported by the way the
public computer console is quickly taken over by the AI, and the
quickness with which it handled the exchange between the Bureau 13
Psicop in San Diego and the control officer on site at B5. The extent
of the problem isn't known, but the AI isn't omnipresent. It doesn't
prevent Captain Sheridan from modifying the environmental sensors, for
instance.
<LI> Is Bureau 13 set up in a cell structure, like an organized underground
or revolutionary movement? We know of two Bureau 13 members, and we
saw them interacting via the Bureau 13 computer. They never saw each
other, and never refered to one another by name. This hints that Bureau
13 is indeed set up this way, which points to an an explanation for
the episode title. The cell structure of an underground, with its
singular links between cells, is indeed a web. And at the center of
such a web would be a central directing authority -- A Spider in the
Web.
</ul>
<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> The title shown onscreen is "Spider in the Web," but all previous
references to the episode by JMS and others have called it
"A Spider in the Web," so that's the title listed here. The
longer title was also listed on the title page before the
original satellite uplink.
<li> The name "Bureau 13" may be a role-playing game reference; it is the
name of the US paranormal investigations branch in the game
"Stalking the Night Fantastic." (Of course, that could just be a
coincidence; another theory is that it refers to P13-level telepaths.)
<li> The ship that fired on Abel Horn was the Earth Forces Cruiser
Pournelle, according to the computer readout on his history.
<li> Sheridan orders a Jovian Sunspot; the only other time that drink has
been referenced is in
<a href="009.html">"Deathwalker,"</a>
which also involved Talia and a cyborg of sorts. Probably just
a coincidence.
<li> According to Isogi, Ms. Carter's great-grandfather John
piloted the first colony ship to Mars. "John Carter of
Mars" is a classic SF story by Edgar Rice Burroughs; the
character also appears in other Burroughs stories such as
<a href="ftp://mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu/pub/etext/etext93/pmars10.txt">
"Princess of Mars."</a>
See the
<a href="http://jg.cso.uiuc.edu/PG/welcome.html">Project Gutenberg
home page.</a>
<LI> The animation of the destruction of Abel Horn's ship by an EarthForce
cruiser over Phobos is quite detailed. When his ship is hit, the
window Abel Horn was looking through shatters, and the air
rushes out carrying odd bits and debris with it.
</ul>
<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Having lived in San Diego from 1974-81, it's just my way of giving
a wink to the old home town. Though there are some important things
going on underground, in areas no one goes...the choice of SD is just
a bit of fun.
<li> San Diego was nuked by terrorists some time earlier; but if you dig
deep enough, you could probably build something with enough money; and
who knows how bad it *really* is.
<li> The San Diego wastelands was a physical model, yes.
<li> Local in-house joke: Abby's last name...Normal.
<li> If you're a telepath, Psi Corps IS your family. (And no, that wasn't
Abby, too young; also not a case of programming/rebuilding...the
DECEASED is a cover to get her out.)
<li> Actually, the age on Abby is fairly straightforward...Talia came to the
Psi Corps as a young child; she was assigned to an adult Psi Corps
member to help her adjust. So Abby would be anywhere from 15-20 years
older than Talia. Or more.
<li> No, the Bureau 13 rpg precedes our show; we weren't aware of it at
the time we did the episode.
<li> The security guard didn't trigger the detonation; he picked up some
energy buildup on his scanner the moment Horn's heart stopped.
<li> Basically, Garibaldi's third favorite thing...is whatever the member
of the opposite sex is having....
</ul>
<hr>
Originally compiled by Dave Zimmerman
<hr>

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<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
Londo summons his three wives to Babylon 5. A mysterious man from Talia's
past reappears.
</cite>
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Carr,+Jane">Jane Carr</a> as Timov.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Nettleton,+Lois">Lois Nettleton</a> as Daggair.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Valk,+Blair">Blair Valk</a> as Mariel.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Szarabajka,+Keith">Keith Szarabajka</a> as Matthew Stoner.
</blockquote>
(Originally titled "Pestilence, Famine and Death.")
<pre>
Sub-genre: Comedy
<a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/029">7.68</a>
Production number: 208
Original air date: December 14, 1994
Written by Peter David
Directed by John C. Flinn, III
</pre>
<h3>Watch For:</h3>
<ul>
<li> G'Kar tossing something to someone at a party.
<li> Daffy Duck.
</ul>
<p>
<hr size=3>
<p>
<h2><a name="BP">Backplot</a></h2>
<P>
Centauri culture is built largely on family stature, and virtually all of an
individual's position and influence derive from the relative standing of
the family. Links between families can be very important, and marriages
are the primary way of forging these links. Marriages are almost always
arranged by the families for the benefit of the families, regardless of the
wishes (if any) of the Centauri being married. Londo's marriages are
notoriously bad. Indeed, he calls his three wives Pestilance, Famine and
Death, and it's been hinted that he took a post to Babylon V, a post where
he knew he'd be forced to concede defeat after defeat to the hated Narn,
simply to escape the three of them.
<P>
The control Psi-Corps maintains over its members is quite pervasive,
extending to all levels of their personal lives. In one respect they are
similar to the Centauri -- they arrange marriages between their members.
This, coupled with the fact that all persons showing any psi talent at all
are pressed into the Corps or nullified, makes them a budding closed
society. Most importantly, once in Psi-Corps you are theirs forever, and
they can do anything with you they want.
<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Why do G'Kar and Mariel know each other? What's been going on in
the past with the two of them?
<li> Why did Psi-Corps dissolve the marriage between Stoner and Talia?
</ul>
<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Stoner is a puzzle. Did he really ever leave Psi-Corps? He is a strong projective
empath. He may be a receptive empath as well--but since he treats
people rather poorly this doesn't seem very likely...at best it's unproven.
Given his talent he could have manipulated the people around him from
the very beginning, up to and including letting him leave. His claim that he
lost his talent altogether is disproven rather quickly by a group of amateurs.
Psi-Corps scientists working on modifying psi talents would have been very
difficult to fool. On the whole, it's most likely that Sheridan is right, and
Stoner was actively working for Psi-Corps all along.
<li> At first glance, one might wonder why on Earth Stoner would be in
on a plot to kill Londo. G'Kar notes to Mariel that Stoner just happened
to bring the artifact onboard on the eve of Londo's ascension
anniversary, which would be too staggering a coincidence, <em>if</em>
it had been booby-trapped from the start. However:
<li> G'Kar may have been behind the plot to kill Londo. In the
scene where Mariel notices his boots, just before he walks off,
G'Kar tosses something small to her. Perhaps it's just a grape,
since he was picking them from the table. Or it could be a set of
poison darts to load into the statue. If so, Stoner is even more
innocent than he claims to Sheridan and Garibaldi; the statue really
was completely harmless when he brought it aboard. However:
<li> G'Kar later says to Mariel, "Mysteries give me a pain." And the only
way that he can ease the pain is to decipher the mystery. He
then goes on to describe the situation with Mariel and Londo as
the mystery that he had to solve. If so, then he was uninvolved
in the attempt on Londo -- which again raises the question: What
did G'Kar toss to Mariel?
<li> If G'Kar was involved, perhaps G'Kar knows what Londo is up to with
the Shadows and wants to assassinate him for that reason, or perhaps
it's just the general enmity between the two. Or maybe the whole thing
was Mariel's idea and G'Kar merely gave her the means.
<li> Whatever the answer to "who knew what, and when?" the relationships
remain. G'Kar knows Mariel well enough to have a private and
informal discussion with her, and he may have been involved in the
plot to kill Londo. Stoner (and by extension Psi-Corps) may know
Mariel, and may also have been involved in the plot to kill Londo --
at least insofar as Stoner delivered the instrument of his (near) death.
<li> Talia's relationship to Psi-Corps is called into question here on both
ends. First, it's clear that she is completely disillusioned with the
corps. She confesses to Garibaldi that Psi-Corps frightens her. She
is presumably deeply conditioned, but her loyalties are wavering
despite this. On the other side of the equation, if Stoner is still
Corps then his offer to her is also on the behest of Psi-Corps. Did
her actions during
<a href="028.html">"A Spider in the Web"</a>
bring her to the attention of Bureau 13? And if so, are they trying to
unofficially take her out of the picture?
<li> Though it at first glance might appear to be a comedic throwaway line,
Delenn's final complaint may actually be the most important revelation
of the entire episode. It implies that her transformation has given
her a human reproductive system. Possibly that was even the point
of the transformation; if indeed the change was made to bring humans
and Minbari closer together, a child born of a human father and a
Minbari mother might be considered a powerful link by some.
<li> Which, of course, begs the question: who does she intend the father
to be, if this is what she has in mind? Sinclair seems an obvious
choice, given the evidence that she believes him to be the
reincarnation of a great Minbari soul (cf.
<a href="002.html">"Soul Hunter,"</a>
among others.)
<li> Psi Corps seems to be big on assigning companions. In addition to
Stoner, Talia was assigned a support officer, Abby, during her first
year at the Psi Corps center when she was a girl
(<a href="028.html">"A Spider in the Web."</a>)
</ul>
<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> The name of Timov's father, "Alghul," means "The Demon" in Arabic.
It may also be connected to the comic book character Ras Al-Ghul
("Head of the Demon") from the Batman series, debatably the Batman's
most dangerous foe. Ras' daughter, Talia, has been the Batman's
lover, and is the mother of his child. In any case, Londo has
remained married to the daughter of "The Demon," appropriate
given his recent acquaintances.
</ul>
<h2><a name="JS">Peter David speaks</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Y'know...for the past five years I've been writing Trek novels, and
fans kept asking, "When are you going to start doing Trek TV
episodes?"
<p>
So here comes B5, I do an episode...and what do the fans keep asking?
When am I going to do a B5 novel.
<p>
NYAAAARRRRRRRGGGHHHH!!!
<p>
<li> [Re: Talia] My feeling was that it was something that had been
building slowly within her ever since the Ironheart episode. That
although she had been *saying* she was devoted, well...the difference
between the reality of a B5 and the frequent unreality of STTNG is
that folks don't always say exactly what's on their mind (kind of like
the real world.) As it turned out, my own thoughts on Talia
dovetailed with future plans for her.
<p>
Daggair was Pestilence. Timov was Famine. Mariel was Death.
Originally I was going to have each of their names reflect their
respective "incarnations," but decided that was too cutesy. The
only holdover from that idea is Timov's name which is, of course,
Vomit spelled backwards.
<p>
<li> Daggair is Pestilence, Timov is Famine, and Mariel is Death.
<p>
At first I was going to have all their names be reflections of the
titles "assigned" them by Londo, but I decided that would be too
cutesy. The only holdover from that idea is Timov, whose name
backwards is, of course, Vomit. (I'll never forget Jane Carr coming
over to me the fifth day of shooting and saying in that accented
voice of hers, "Peter...did you *know* that my character's name is
vomit spelled backwards?" Uhhhh...well, yeah...)
<p>
You all realize, of course, that Londo is--by process of elimination--
War.
<p>
<li> <cite>In response to someone who thought JMS wanted a line of
dialogue inserted</cite>
<br>
This is a total misinterpretation of a statement I made, and yet another
example of how the information age can also be the misinformation age.
Incorrect "facts" can make the rounds at light speed and stay there.
<p>
I did *not* say that Joe wanted one particular line put into the script.
What I *said* (in response to a question some time ago of "How much
did JMS tell you to put into the script? How much of the events were
dictated) was that all I was given was one line of *description* (much
like a log line you'd see in TV Guide). The line was something to the
effect of, "Londo's wives show up on B5 and, in the way that Londo
handles the difficulties that ensue, we learn something about the type
of man that he is." I explained this in order to make clear how much
latitude JMS gives writers on the show, as opposed to the omnipresent
smothering hands-on attitude of other programs.
<p>
And somehow this became mutated into "JMS has a line of dialogue that
he wanted inserted."
<p>
<li> How funny. Other people who stated flatly that they likewise knew
Londo loudly proclaimed (over on Usenet) that he would have chosen
Daggair. Maybe he's a kind of tough guy to know.
<p>
<li> <em>Poster had no trouble guessing; the actress playing Timov "was the
most well-known actress of them all"</em><br>
Oh, I don't know. Lois Nettleton's career goes way further back than
Jane Carr's does. Although Jane *is* from the Royal Shakespeare
Company (and yes, she did work with Patrick Stewart. She's so pleased
that now she too has portrayed a bald SF icon.)
<p>
<li> *I* didn't get "bitch" past the censors. I just put it in the
script.
<p>
(What I loved was Daggair's expression on that line. It's the only
time she let her facade slip and she looked like she was ready to
slug Timov.)
<p>
<li> <em>The second scene between Garibaldi and Stoner was intense</em><br>
Tension really crackled between the two of them, didn't it? In one
of the takes, it was so intense that at the end, the director forgot
to yell "Cut." Instead he shouted, "God, that was great!"
<p>
<li> <em>Thanks for showing us another side of Garibaldi</em><br>
Oh, the side was already there, in my opinion. I think back to
previous episodes where Garibaldi was all for spacing that serial
killer. When he encounters people he doesn't like, or have done dirt
to people who are Garibaldi's friends, he can be pretty ruthless.
<p>
<li> As we've seen, Garibaldi doesn't exactly have the easiest time being
demonstrative in his feelings for women.
</ul>
<h2>jms speaks</h2>
<ul>
<p>
<li> Originally, "Soul Mates" was intended to be broadcast after "A Race
Through Dark Places." ARTDP required a rather substantial amount of
post production work and audio design; "Mates" did not. Rather than
rush "Race," we decided it was okay to air those two in reverse order.
If they have aired with "Race" first in the UK, then yes, it's
different than the US order, but it *is* the correct production and
story order.
<p>
<li> All things considered, the episode went through fairly cleanly, script-
wise, not much in the way of revision. Peter has a good ear for
dialog (not surprising). So for the most part it was little stuff; for
example...Peter came up with, "Either I'm in hell or in medlab," to
which I appended, "...either way, the decor needs work." Which is kind
of the fun in getting an outside script; you can hear the first part of
a line you'd never considered, and knowing the character, you can take
it just a little further.
<p>
<li> Timov's "WHO IS THIS?!" in that high-pitched voice would also be a
great one for an answering machine.
<p>
<li> What I love best about this is that given the time of year [of its
North American premiere], "Soul Mates" is basically our Christmas
episode.
<p>
I mean, are we perverse or what...?
<p>
<li> . . . when you say "why wasn't Mariel arrested on the spot by
Garibaldi and her quarters searched," you omit both legal procedure
and evidentiary law.
<p>
You arrest someone AFTER you have reasonable cause and sufficent
evidence to justify it. You don't need enough evidence to convict,
just to arrest or indict. So the order is reversed for starters.
<p>
Second, what evidence *was* there to be found if he HAD searched her
quarters? She neither brought nor had ANYthing of an incriminating
nature. She bought the figurine in the bazaar...and that's all she
had, and all she used. There WAS no evidence in her quarters to find.
<p>
(Believe me, I spent 2 years on MURDER, SHE WROTE, and we learned a
lot about how this stuff works. You can't just go around arresting
people willy nilly, and the evidence must exist, and be sufficient,
and locatable.)
<p>
<li> Peter's having the time of his life. He loves where his character
is going, loves the range of emotions he gets to play...I saw him for
a bit on the set today, shooting "Soul Mates," and he's just tickled
(particularly since he's acting opposite Lois Nettleton, Jane Carr
and Blair Valk as his three wives).
</ul>
<hr>
Compiled by Steven Grimm and Dave Zimmerman
<hr>

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<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
Bester asks Talia to investigate an "underground railroad" of unregistered
telepaths.
</cite>
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Koenig,+Walter">Walter Koenig</a> as Bester.
</blockquote>
<pre>
Sub-genre: Intrigue
<a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/030">8.38</a>
Production number: 207
Original air date: January 25, 1995
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Jim Johnston
</pre>
<h3>Watch For</h3>
A minor character from a previous episode, who turns out not to be so
minor after all.
<p>
<hr size=3>
<h2><a name="BP">Backplot</a></h2>
Michael Garibaldi says, "The Corps got started because of our own fears." The
sudden appearance of real psi abilities in otherwise unremarkable people
caused so much concern among the general population that those showing such
talents were gathered together into a group that could be more easily
controlled -- and Psi-Corps was born. Its members are deeply conditioned to
prevent any psi from using his or her talents to dominate normal people or
disrupt society. But this conditioning isn't absolute, and attitudes molded
early in life can still evolve over a persons lifetime.
<P>
Given that psis were forced into this essentially closed society, shunned by
the rest of humanity, it isn't surprising that the loyalties of the telepaths
turned to the Corps itself. Soon Psi-Corps gained control of itself, and
eventually the organization began pursuing its own goals. The leadership
began to exert ever greater control over the lives of the members, in an
effort to enhance the abilities of their people.
<P>
The level of control exerted by the Corps over its members grew as they
began seeking to enhance the abilities of their people, extending even to
marriage and reproduction. Eventually the onus became too great and too
pervasive for newly awakened psis to tolerate, and they began seeking ways
to escape. The Psi-Cops exist to counter this, to search for and either
capture or eliminate psi talented people who escaped early detection or who
fled Psi-Corps.
<P>
Now the Corps has become a power in its own right. Though the organization
was intended to keep psis under control, it has itself come under the control
of those very people. As a group, they <em>must</em> feel
seperate and different if not outright superior to the rest of society, and
who have long been held in a position of subservience. They are
organized, ruthless, and determined to pursue their own agenda.
<P>
"We created our own monster." -- John Sheridan
<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
<UL>
<LI> Where have all the unregistered psis been going?
<LI> How long has this "underground railroad" been running?
<LI> We see Ivanova giving Sheridan his morning briefing, and in it she says
that B5 has been running in the red for a while because, "there's been
a lot of Earth Force military transports coming through." Where were
they going?
<li> Has Talia turned completely against the Corps?
<li> Why, and by whom, was Bester told that Sheridan would be sympathetic
to the Psi-Corps?
<li> How much did Talia tell Ivanova about the situation, and about
what's happened to her?
<li> "What am I?" "The future." What does that mean? The future of
telepaths? Of humans in general? Does it refer to Talia's new
powers, to the fact that she's now likely to work against Psi-Corps
from within, or something else? Is there even more to Ironheart's
gift?
<li> Will Bester notice that his gun was never actually fired?
</UL>
<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
<UL>
<P>
<LI>The core of Psi-Corps indoctrination was summed up by Bester.
<blockquote>
You were raised by the Corps,<br>
Clothed by the Corps.<br>
We are your father,<br>
And your mother.<br>
</blockquote>
<P>
What Psi-Corps has become was also demonstrated by Bester. Standing
with another Psi-Cop, he looks down at a captured rogue telepath who
he has just forcibly mind-scanned. "He's dead," the other Psi-Cop
says. "It doesn't matter," Bester replies, apparently assuming she
was concerned he wouldn't be able to read the man any more. Talia
doesn't see
this, since it happened on Mars Colony, but she does meet a stream of
rogues who are on B5, in transit through the "underground railroad".
From them she learns, first hand and with undeniable truth, that the
experience she has had with the Corps is far from unique. Indeed,
her experiences were mild compared to the stories she hears.
Abductions. Experiments. Breeding programs that don't rely on
volunteers for subjects. And as a telepath speaking <I>to</I>
telepaths, she can't avoid the full truth and force of the events
she hears.
<P>
<LI>How can a Psi-Corps operative turn against the Corps? The impossibility
of it is clear: The highest rated, strongest telepaths are "turned
into" Psi-Cops. When the guardians are stronger than everyone else,
how do you turn against them? Unless you are truly exceptional like
Matthew Stoner in <a href="029.html">"Soul Mates"</a> you can only
flee, immediately, before someone else scans you and reads your
intention. Matthew Stoner may or may not have eluded the clutches
of Psi-Corps for a time, but in the end he was firmly returned to
them. Talia Winters' whole life experience tells her that she
<STRONG>cannot</STRONG> turn against the Corps, no matter what her
opinions may be about the integrity or intentions of the organization.
<P>
But several events changed her mind about this -- and it was not the
tales of woe told by the folks in the underground railroad, though
they undoubtedly inclined her toward rebellion. What allowed her to
rebel was the realization that her shields were much stronger than
she thought they were. A year ago Jason Ironheart, a victim of
Psi-Corps experimentation, visited the station (cf.
<a href="006.html">"Mind War."</a>)
He became something
vastly powerful, and departed. But before he left, he gave his onetime
love Talia Winters a gift, the very thing that Psi-Corps was
trying to induce in him: telekinesis. And the strength to keep
that gift secret.
<p>
<li> Talia's telekinetic powers are at least somewhat stronger than
suggested at the end of
<a href="006.html">"Mind War."</a>
She can not only move her penny with her thoughts -- she can cause
it to fly across the room with enough force to embed itself in the
wall.
<p>
<li> Telepaths can combine their powers through physical contact. What
are the limits to such unions? Would a hundred linked telepaths
begin to approach some of Ironheart's power, or perhaps become
greater than just a collection of individuals? Does this perhaps
have something to do with the Minbari prophecy suggesting that
humans are destined to walk among the stars? (cf.
<a href="020.html">"Babylon Squared"</a>)
<p>
Or it could simply be that by touching, the telepaths were able to
help each other focus their individual energies; that's supported by
the railroad leader's comment that what they did shouldn't have
worked.
<P>
<LI> The "Underground Railroad". The timeline of the underground railroad
stretches back to before B5. There is a group of people that have
actively been working to keep people with psi ability out of
Psi-Corps. Dr. Franklin implied that it was mostly doctors, and it
makes sense that their ability to alter or manipulate medical and
genetic records would make them logical and necessary members. But
there is no reason to assume that the organization is comprised
solely of doctors.
<P>
Dr. Franklin was a member before he came to Babylon 5. When Jason
Ironheart came to B5 he brought with him another rogue, who disappeared
into downbelow while Jason went through his spectacular confrontation
with Bester and his subsequent transformation. This unnamed telepath
(who we've met before, in
<a href="022.html">"Chrysalis"</a>)
apparently contacted Dr. Franklin. Between them, they extended the
underground railroad through B5 -- though where the rogues were going
<EM>after</EM> B5 is unclear. Nor is it clear that Dr. Franklin will
actually put a stop to the railroad. Dr. Franklin's answers to Captain
Sheridan's demand that he put a stop to it were quite evasive. The
telepaths actually at the station agreed to leave, which they intended
to do anyway. Dr. Franklin admitted that his part in it was over,
and that others would have to take over -- but he never actually said
it would stop.
<P>
Ironically, the person Garibaldi first suspected was aiding the
railroad was Ivanova. He was wrong. She wasn't connected to it.
But neither was Talia at the time. Now Talia is talking to Ivanova.
What did they discuss, alone and late at night in Ivanova's quarters?
<p>
<li> Did Ironheart's unnamed friend have ulterior motives when he put
Garibaldi onto Devereaux' trail in
<a href="022.html">"Chrysalis?"</a>
There's evidence the Corps was involved in Santiago's death (cf.
<a href="024.html">"Revelations"</a>)
so it's plausible the man knew something of the plot, and wanted to
foil it without revealing himself.
<p>
<li> Along similar lines, Bester's request to Talia that she keep an eye
on Sheridan and the others for their reactions to President Santiago's
death implies that he knows something other than an accident occurs,
even that he (or people he's associated with) were involved. His
offhand comment that he'd been told Sheridan would be sympathetic
to the Psi-Corps also implies that there may be more to Sheridan's
appointment as head of Babylon 5 than meets the eye.
<P>
<LI>"Who'd have thought?" John Sheridan asks Ambassador Delenn. He was
speaking at the time about the common trait of laughter, shared by
humans and Minbari, but he could equally have been speaking of the
whole scene. A human ship captain, commanding a giant station
on the fringe of human controlled space, having a quiet dinner with
the Minbari ambassador -- who also happens to be a member of their
ruling body and who is also, to some degree "half-human." Moreover,
she has apparently chosen him to teach her about humanity on a
personal level. How personal this can get... who can say?
<p>
<LI> Finally, there is a telepath who can
operate on the side of the "good guys." True, there are all the
telepaths who have passed through the "underground railroad", but
they are untrained or at best, trained but fleeing. Talia is fully
trained and Psi-Corps doesn't know that she has turned--and she is
strong enough to maintain her independence. It's likely she will be
a very important player now, and her personality may develop in new
directions now that she isn't under the heavy hand of Psi-Corps.
</UL>
<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>
<UL>
<LI> This episode takes place in March, 2259, three months into
Sheridan's tour of duty with B5.
<LI> There is a subthread in this episode about lack of sleep. Bester gets
Talia out of bed, Talia gets Ivanova out of bed, and Ivanova and
Sheridan spend a night sacked out in his office (he in his chair, she
on the couch). Coincidence?
<LI> "Knock Knock" (who's there) "Kosh" (Kosh who?) "Gesundheit!"
-- Sheridan
<li> Production gaffe: In the scene outside Earhart's, when Delenn is asking
Sheridan to dinner, a boom microphone is visible for an instant at the
top of the screen.
</UL>
<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Favorite line in the next new episode, from Sheridan: "I'm not saying
what I'm saying. I'm not saying what I'm *thinking*. For that matter,
I'm not even *thinking* what I'm thinking."
<li> BTW, just to note a little something you might not notice in the
show...we've adopted the tradition of putting the symbol for a given
ship onto the bar in Earhart's, as many real contemporary officers'
clubs and airforce/naval base clubs put the logos or markings of big
planes or ships that come through there. The Cortez symbol is the
most visible among the various emblems you can see in a shot of the
bar in "A Race Through Dark Places." It comes at the moment we follow
*another* old military tradition.
<li> Yes, originally, "Soul Mates" was to air after "Race." At that
time, PTEN was initially going to show just 6 new episodes, and we would
have come in after the rerun break with "Race," then "Soul." When the
ratings came in and looked good, they didn't want to interfere with
the growth, and indicated they wanted to show 7 new eps in the first
batch. "Race," as you can see, was a very complex episode visually, and
the only way to get it ready to run #7 in the first batch would've been
to compromise the integrity of the show, and we simply won't do that for
ANY reason. "Soul Mates," on the other hand, required very little in
the way of post production, so that was moved forward into the #7 slot.
<li> Q: How many telepaths does it take to screw in a lightbulb?<br>
A:
<li> I always have to have a title before I begin writing, since the
title always influences the feel of the show. I try to design one
that is literary, or refers to a literary influence; it should have a
certain rhythm, and avoid coming at the subject of the episode too
dead-on. For instance, one could call the recent Psi Cop episode with
Bester, "Capture" or "Chase." But I wanted it to be evocative, to
conjure up the image of people slipping through the shadows, pursued by
others, and to continue this season's trend toward titles that indicate
a coming night. Hence, "A Race Through Dark Places."
<li> <em>No repeat of Bester's salute from "Mind War"</em><br>
Also, bear in mind that Bester's parting shot in "Mind War" was
exactly that, in essence an "Up yours" but subtle. There was no
reason for that to be given to anyone in "Race."
<li> <em>Where did Ivanova's outfit in the last scene come from?</em><br>
I think it came out of the Victoria's Secrets catalog....
</ul>
<hr>
Originally compiled by Dave Zimmerman
<hr>

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<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
When the Centauri emperor visits the station, Sheridan tries to keep G'Kar
from going after him. Londo and Refa plot to expand their power.
A mysterious man seeks out Garibaldi.
</cite>
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Bey,+Turhan">Turhan Bey</a> as the Centauri Emperor.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Throne,+Malachi">Malachi Throne</a> as the Centauri Prime Minister.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Forward,+William">William Forward</a> as Refa.
</blockquote>
<pre><a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/031">9.59</a>
Production number: 209
Original air date: February 1, 1995
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Janet Greek
Nominated for a Hugo Award, 1996.</pre>
<strong>Note: this episode is more momentous than most. Think twice before
proceeding to the spoilers; it's worth seeing unawares at least once.</strong>
<p>
<hr size=3>
<p>
<h2><a name="BP">Backplot</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Sheridan joined the Earth military a few years before the
Earth-Minbari War. A planetary draft was established during the war.
<li> The Centauri have sent many ships into Vorlon space; none have
returned, but strange stories about the Vorlons have found their
way back to the Centauri homeworld.
<li> Sinclair's duties on the Minbari homeworld extend far beyond normal
ambassadorial functions. He is taking part in the preparation for
the fight against the great darkness that many of the Minbari
believe is approaching. To that end, he is in command of a small
army of "rangers" -- individuals, Minbari and human, who roam the
frontier, gathering information too sensitive to report back via
normal channels.
<li> The Centauri Emperor employs four telepaths, linked since birth;
when he leaves the royal court, two accompany him and two stay
behind, so he and his representatives at the court are constantly
aware of each other's circumstances.
</ul>
<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> What is the meaning of Londo's dream? (see
<a href="#AN:dream">Analysis</a>)
<li> Why is Sinclair in charge of the rangers? Is he the only one in
control, or is he a piece of a much larger chain of command?
<li> How did the rangers get started? How are they expanding? What
or who is drawing them to Minbar, and how?
<li> Why does Sinclair think Garibaldi should stay close to the Vorlon?
How much does he know, and how long has he known it? (Recall that in
<a href="000.html">"The Gathering"</a>
Delenn gave Sinclair information about the Vorlons, though it's not
clear how complete or accurate it was.)
<li> Will Londo become emperor some day?
<li> What will the Narn's first move against the Centauri be?
<li> What did the Emperor know about Vorlons that caused him to want to
ask Kosh his question? What does the question mean? (see
<a href="#AN:question">Analysis</a>)
</ul>
<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> When the two telepaths on Centauri Prime entered the throne room,
a human and two Minbari were talking to the prime minister. Most
likely they were there on unrelated business, but it's possible they
were rangers, there to gather information. (See
<a href="#JS:throne">jms speaks</a>)
<p>
<li> As soon as Londo lied about what the Emperor told him, the two
veiled telepaths exchanged a look and left the room hastily. It
may be that they knew he was lying; whether they'll tell anyone,
and if so what impact that will have, remains to be seen.
<p>
<li> Kosh seems to have a perception that extends into the future; or
perhaps he is simply basing his comment on the results of the last
great war against the Shadows.
<p>
<li> <a name="AN:dream">Londo's dream,</a> which has been foreshadowed from
day one
(<a href="001.html">"Midnight on the Firing Line"</a>)
contains a lot of information, if it's to be taken literally.
<ul>
<li> The hand seems a clear reference to the "great hand, reaching
out across the stars" as seen by Elric in
<a href="025.html">"The Geometry of Shadows."</a>
If so, the hand is Londo's. Presumably it is a metaphor
for his expanding power and influence.
<li> Londo stands in the middle of fine sand, a desert (or
perhaps decimated ruins; witness the dead vegitation and
patterns in the sand) and watches several Shadow ships fly
overhead. This appears to be on Centauri Prime. He is
dressed in his ambassadorial uniform and appears to be
roughly the same age as in the present. One implication is
that the Shadows will either attack Centauri Prime or (more
likely) come to its defense. It should also be noted that
Londo has never seen a Shadow ship in the present.
One reader suggests that Londo's expression can be interpreted
as Londo looking on, helpless, as a great evil is done; for
the first time realizing who's really the pawn in his
relationship with the Shadows.
<li> When Londo receives the crown, he is again not much older
than in the present, possibly slightly older than when he's
observing the Shadow ships. Perhaps he is crowned after
calling in the Shadows to help defend Centauri Prime. (Of
course, the new Emperor would have to be dead first.)
The person crowning him appears to be fairly old.
<li> Much later -- twenty years, give or take -- Londo, in white
Imperial attire, sits in the throne and looks around,
face filled with regret or resignation. Nobody else is
visible, and the throne room seems bare compared to the
scene at the beginning of the episode. It's as if everything
has been lost; he is Emperor, but Emperor of nothing, perhaps
of a dead world.
<li> Then he sees G'Kar, also aged 20 years, face half-covered
by a strip of black cloth. The two try to strangle each other.
Londo appears to go limp as the dream ends; presumably he is
dying. The cloth across G'Kar's face appears to cover an
injury; he may be missing his left eye.
</ul>
<p>
Londo's old age in the last scene suggests that it takes place around
the same time as the attempt to snatch Babylon 4 through time (cf.
<a href="020.html">"Babylon Squared."</a>)
Sinclair seemed to have aged about the same amount, though of course
humans and Centauri may age at different rates, and something may have
caused Sinclair to age prematurely. But barring those two factors, it
suggests that the war is still raging at the time of Londo's
strangulation, and that it will last at least twenty years.
<p>
It's also worth noting that the dream contained only one spoken line,
from
<a href="022.html">"Chrysalis"</a>:
"Keep this up, G'Kar, and soon you won't have a planet to protect."
(It was spoken over a scene from
<a href="001.html">"Midnight on the Firing Line."</a>)
<p>
<li> Londo may well be serious when he tells Vir he has no wish to become
emperor; his premonition may have convinced him that it'd be bad
to seek the position. But the vision remains; he may find himself
taking the throne in spite of himself down the road.
<p>
<li> "It's a small price to pay for immortality," says Refa. A reference
to everlasting fame? The Centauri propensity for elevating emperors
to godhood? (cf.
<a href="022.html">"Chrysalis"</a>)
Or might it have something to do with the apparent escape of
Deathwalker, (cf.
<a href="009.html#AN:escape">"Deathwalker"</a>)
who had a means to achieve literal immortality?
<p>
<li> <a name="AN:question">The emperor's question</a> implies that he was
in on something that isn't general knowledge, possibly something about
the Vorlons. One explanation may lie in dreams; perhaps the emperor's
death dream (according to Londo in
<a href="001.html">"Midnight on the Firing Line,"</a>
such dreams are commonplace among the Centauri) told him that a war
would begin after his death. Why he thought Kosh would know how the
war would end -- assuming the war is what the question referred to --
is still an open question, though. (See
<a href="#JS:vision">jms speaks</a>)
<p>
<li> Along similar lines, why did the emperor speak his dying words to
Londo, rather than Refa? Did he know what Londo was really up to,
or was he simply guessing that Londo was likely the catalyst who
would bring his empire into war, based on Londo's handling of Quadrant
37 in
<a href="022.html">"Chrysalis"</a>?
<p>
<li> The Narn government apparently approved of G'Kar's would-be
assassination attempt, even though he lied about it in his will;
presumably he wanted to protect his people from revenge attacks
by the Centauri.
</ul>
<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>
<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>
<ul>
<p>
<li> I love "The Coming of Shadows." It's one of those episodes that just
knocks the breath out of you. You know those moments when you're in the
passenger seat of a car, and the person driving is doing something
crazy, and your foot automatically keeps searching for a brake pedal
that isn't there because you know something awful's going to happen?
That's the feeling you get all through that script. This episode,
like "Sky," "Signs," "Chrysalis" and "Revelations" again changes the
direction and ratchets everything one notch tighter. It's also a
very visual script, and I like that, since I sometimes do rely too
much on dialogue from time to time, and it's good to go in a different
direction.
<p>
<li> Kosh's brevity is one of the things I like best about him; in the
year two episode "The Coming of Shadows," he has just two words in the
whole episode...but they're guaranteed to give just about anyone the
willies.
<p>
<li> I generally don't let the actors know what's coming unless it's
important to the current performance. Otherwise you risk having the
actor play the *result* instead of the *process*. Had to make one
divergence from this recently, so that Peter could understand better
a sequence in "The Coming of Shadows," which you'll understand when
you see it.
<p>
<li> We're also taking advantage of some of the recent Hubble photographs
to scan them and use them as backgrounds in some far-space shots;
there's one in "The Coming of Shadows," for instance. Real space is
*very* nice looking in places.
<p>
<li> I may not have been clear in my meaning when I said "accellerating
the arc." This doesn't mean doing anything ahead of schedule; it just
means that now we begin cranking the story into a higher intensity
level. We've been kind of floating toward our destination...now we
begin the process of accellerating. If you recall Literary Structure
from English Lit 101, there's the Introduction, the Rising Action, the
Complication, the Climax, and the Denouement. Year one up through
about the first eight episodes of year two are Introduction; we are now
in Rising Action stage. Remember that this is structured like a novel,
and you'll generally have some idea of where you stand in the
progression.
<p>
<li> I ended up giving Peter info on "Signs" prior to shooting "Chrysalis"
last season; that was the biggie there. For "CoS" in order for the
scene to match what's going to happen several years down the road in
the series, I had to kinda give him the context of the dream, and what
was really happening in that scene, and what caused it, and how he got
to that place with G'Kar's hands around his throat.
<p>
He seemed quite...astonished.
<p>
<li> Yeah, on several levels, writing "The Coming of Shadows" was hard;
there were times I felt as though I'd just jumped onto the back of a
runaway dynamite truck. Halfway through that story you can feel the arc
kinda moving underneath you, like some huge, dark fish about to break
surface.
<p>
The only way to make a viewer feel a character's pain is if you feel
it in the writing, and a lot of that came through. I live with these
characters running around in my head 24 hours a day...and when I'd
finally finished "Shadows," it was as if they all sorta stopped and
looked at each other, and at me, and said, "Gee, thank you EVER so
fucking much, jeezus, why don't you just go pluck somebody's eye out
while you're at it?"
<p>
To which the only reply is, "Now that you mention it...."
<p>
<li> Not all Centauri dreams come true; however, the ones in which they
see their deaths tend to be pretty accurate.
<p>
<li> Turhan originally came in to audition for Elric in "Geometry;" we
wanted someone with more menace (Ansara), but we were all just blown
away by how wonderful and sweet and nice a person he was, and as he
left, I told John Copeland, "I'm gonna write a part just for him."
<p>
So I did, and we cast him, and everyone on the set loved him...to
the point that, at the end of the shoot, they were saying, "You BASTARD,
how could you bring this WONDERFUL man in here and then KILL HIM OFF SO
WE CAN'T HAVE HIM BACK?!"
<p>
<li> For me, the concept of the Rangers isn't tied to Norris; that isn't
the reference I was talking about. Being on that show, I kinda had to
look into the history of the Texas rangers in general, and being the
curious kind of guy I am, I widened out into the Army Rangers, and other
sorts. I'd been looking for a kind of name to attach to this group, and
the more I thought about it, the more it fit.
<p>
As far as the costume is concerned...it's not medeival based; if you
look at the ranger's outfit, than go look at a Minbari warrior outfit,
you will discover a LOT of points of comparison. It was *designed* to
echo Minbari warrior caste clothes, to reflect the fact that these two
sides are working together. Go fire up "Legacies" and look at his
uniform, then look at the ranger. You'll see the similarities in
silhouette and line in various places.
<p>
Of course I've read and enjoyed Tolkein. But as I've said, I have
no interest in doing LoTR with the serial numbers filed off. I've
dropped references to it in dialogue, but the structure of the story has
nothing whatsoever to do with LoTR. Basically, a lot of people have
come up and said, "Oh, this is the same as Foundation," or "This is
the same as LoTR," or "This echoes a lot of Dune," or "This is
obviously a Homeric tale," or "There's a lot of Star Wars here." It
uses the same tools as all mythic structure fiction uses. Hence it
resonates. But I didn't sit there and think, "Hmm...Gandalf left, so
I'll have Sinclair leave." That's just plain silly.
<p>
It's really a matter of what you bring to the table, that affects
what you see in the story.
<p>
The roots of the symbolism and structure of B5 go back a hell of a
lot longer than this. Here...I'll give you one free.
<p>
G'Kar is in many ways my Cassandra figure, who in the Greek tales
was granted the gift of prophecy...all the disasterous things she
predicted would come true...but she was cursed by the gods that NO ONE
would ever believe her. And later, when the war was at its height,
she ended up in the service of.....
<p>
<li> Londo, in his vision, sees the shadow vessels, but he does not know
(in his present tense version) that that's what they are. He's had this
particular dream for years now, long before meeting Morden.
<p>
<li> <a name="JS:vision">It didn't show up in the script,</a> and probably
won't, but the Emperor probably did have a vision of his death, and the
Vorlon.
<p>
<li> Re: your question...at this juncture, I think I'd have to choose "The
Coming of Shadows" as the one episode I'd use to represent the series.
That one episode came out so close to perfect, so close to what I saw in
my head when I wrote it, that the difference is no difference at all.
It has all the elements I'd feature in a B5 discussion...the CGI, the
characterization, the complexity, the politics, the language, the
performances.
<p>
<li> The handclasp used in "Coming of Shadows" was a traditional clasp
used by Romans, usually in order to check if the other person was
carrying a knife.
<p>
<li> One could certainly argue the position that those who become Rangers
are drawn to Minbar for that purpose, and speculate about what might be
propelling that.
<p>
<li> There's a difference between what I believe dreams mean, what the
Centauri believe dreams mean, and what dreams mean to the Centauri,
in that universe, and what they mean to me in our universe.
<p>
I suspect the truth lay somewhere between Shroedinger and Jung.
<p>
<li> Thanks. That scene [the attack on the Narn outpost] in "Coming of
Shadows" is one of my favorites; it does, as you say, convey that
sense of wonder which is one of my main goals with this show.
<p>
<li> Re: parallel visuals between MotFL and CoS...yes, precisely. In some
ways, they were set up as mirror-image parallels of one another, to
show how the wheel turns, to quote G'Kar. The opening council
meeting, the attacks, the determination to kill the other, alternately
Garibaldi or Sheridan having to stop them by calling on the question
of consequences if followed up on...it shows CoS as sort of the "dark
mirror" of the first episode. Everything we saw when we first thought
we knew what the series was has now totally reversed and been turned
on its head.
<p>
They also focus on one of the main questions that B5 addreses itself
to: what is important to you? what are you willing to sacrifice? how
far are you willing to go to get what you want? For me, a large
measure of defining WHO we are is by WHAT we are willing to do, and
what we want, and the means by which we pursue those goals. The other
theme of course is sacrifice, which recurs throughout the show in one
form or another.
<p>
Sometimes, I think, people get so caught up in what's happening and
why that they miss what it's *about* on a more cellular level. And
that's the question of who we are. Identity. The importance of *one
single person* and the ability of that person to act as a fulcrum,
intentionally or otherwise, upon which vast events can turn. Choices.
What you value most. Those, to me, are the issues most worth
exploring. We're told every day, beaten down with the notion that
we're powerless, that we can't change things, you can't fight city
hall...and of course it's not true. You can fight. And sometimes,
you can even win.
<p>
<li> Sinclair didn't send the same letter. Same greeting, to keep the
recipient secret.
<p>
Only the Ranger knew who got what.
<p>
<li> The emperor falling scene, as with those around it, were shot as
written, down to the slow-motion notation, the close on his head
hitting the floor, the women clutching one another...all in the
script. But it takes someone as skilled as Janet to take what
somebody else might screw up and elevate it into something truly
nifty.
<p>
<li> Slow-motion (or camera overcranked) is almost always indicated in
scripts. I like slow-mo. It can add a dreamlike quality to a shot, and
prolong a sense of imminent trouble.
<p>
<li> You left out my favorite quote from the show, from the Emperor: "The
past tempts us, the present confuses us, and the future frightens us
...and our lives slip away, moment by moment, lost in that vast,
terrible in-between."
<p>
<li> The centauri veiled telepaths are mainly wired into one another.
<p>
<li> The emperor said exactly what, in the hallway, Londo said he said.
<p>
<li> The emperor was referring to Londo and Refa. And if the Centauri
telepaths suspected or picked up anything, to tell anyone would almost
certainly lead to a quick demise. When you're that high up in the royal
court, you learn to keep your mouth shut.
<p>
<li> [Emperor] Turhan's death was exactly as stated, natural causes. If
it were anything else, we'd have at least nodded in that direction at
some point. It's not fair to do so otherwise.
<p>
<li> <em>Didn't the Narn behind Londo and Refa hear them?</em><br>
The Narn was just passing quickly through scene, in a hurry, and
couldn't have heard what Londo and Refa were quietly discussing.
<p>
<li> Because to some extent the roman civilization is one of the sources
for constructing the Centauri, I adapted their handshake (checking
for knives) as their greeting; "I offer the hands of friendship."
<p>
<li> Your feelings about the war starting are exactly what they should be,
and what I wanted to achieve with "Shadows." In SF TV, very often, as
you state, it's "Yeah, let's get a war on! Blow stuff up!" But to
hear of a *real* war...it's very, very sobering. When we hear that
Gulf troops were being sent into the Mideast, when we heard of soviet
troops sent into Prague...your heart stops for a moment. When Kennedy
put American ships in a Cuban blockade and the world held its breath
...THAT is what it feels like to step into possible or real war. All
you can think of is, "How the HELL did we get into this, and how the
hell do we get OUT of it?" And that was at the emotional core of
"Shadows."
<p>
<li> The broach worn by the Rangers was designed by me and Ann Bruice,
our costumer. I sketched (dopily and badly) what I had in mind, which
was a stylized human and minbari on either side of a gemstone, both
wokred (worked) into the same metal, and holding the gemstone.
<p>
She then took this drawing that looked like it had been drawn by a
drunk five year old and translated it into a striking piece.
<p>
<li> <em>Why not use the healing device from "Quality of Mercy?"</em><br>
The alien healing device was specifically used in treatment of
illness; the Emperor suffered massive damage to his heart and othe
internal organs, which simply restoring some life energy wouldn't help.
<p>
<li> Not a contradiction. I don't believe in omniscient or all powerful
devices that function like literal deus ex machinas and heal everybody
all the time. It was stated *plainly and clearly* that the device was
used in healing terminally ill patients. They cannot undo physical
damage from gunshots (the regen packs and other devices were used to
heal Garibaldi's wound, and the alien device was used to raise his life
energy level enough to bring him out of the coma). The emperor
suffered a massive attack that destroyed parts of his heart. Can't be
fixed by this device.
<p>
<li> You may tell your friend that the city hit in "CoS" was CGI, not
a model.
<p>
<li> The Sanctuary is where Sheridan and the Emperor had their lengthy
conversation; it's *all* a virtual set except the floor.
<p>
<li> The Sanctuary is entirely a virtual set. It's all blue-screen, no
walls, no windows, no stars, no nothing. I made sure to ask
Foundation and Mitch to blur the walls a bit in close up to give it
the correct depth of field. (Much of the CGI/background work is done
by Mitch, our effects guy, who works independent of Foundation, who
was also the main EFX guy on Predator, ET and others.) Because that
was a LONG scene, the rendering time was just hideous.
<p>
<li> The Sanctuary set has ALWAYS been entirely virtual, except for a small
grating on the floor as a marker. The walls, the windows, all of it.
Virtual. We've actually done this a number of times. I haven't said
anything before because whenever I mention there's a virtual set, and
where it is, people look at it and say, "Oh, yeah, I could tell it was
virtual." Because they knew ahead of time. So I stopped mentioning it.
<p>
We're sneaky that way. You've seen, and will continue to see, sets
that don't exist ANYwhere. Hell, you know that bazaar shot in the
main title sequence? The second floor? Doesn't exist. Digital
compositing and virtual set melding.
<p>
<li> The area where the reception was being held is the Rotunda.
<p>
<li> On the chance that the datacrystal might fall into the wrong hands, I
had Sinclair deliberately avoid using Garibaldi's last name, and
avoid Delenn's altogether (since she has only the one). The Ranger
was told to deliver the crystals at the cost of his own life if
necessary...but sometimes such orders don't end well for the messenger.
So both messages began the same way.
<p>
<li> The Rangers actually owe more to the Lone Ranger and the Texas Rangers
in general.
<p>
FYI, Sinclair called Delenn "old friend" as far back as the 2-hour
pilot.
<p>
<li> I'm very happy at the reaction. I was telling John Copeland a bit
ago, when we finished the episode, "Maybe we ought to superimpose a
crawl before the first frame of the teaser saying, "JUST IN CASE YOU
THOUGHT WE WERE KIDDING.""
<p>
An aside on the jms/kosh discussion, for whatever interest it may
have....when Ardwight comes in to do Kosh, they call me in to direct
his performance so that it matches what the intent is now, and how it
will be interpreted later. From where I sit in the control room, I
can't see him, I can only hear his voice. So it's kinda like talking
with Kosh there, and me saying, "Okay, can you try 'In Fire' hitting
the second word harder, and with a sense of some anger behind it?"
And between takes, he's still in Kosh-speak mode, muttering, "How will
this end, how do I know talk to my agent...go on, get out, buzz off
...."
<p>
<li> There are some episodes coming that are about as intense as this,
though not as much *happens*, in the sense of a bunch of events
affecting lots of people in different places.
<p>
Yes, intentional parallel structure to "Midnight," which is why I
included the shot from that episode in Londo's dream. I like irony.
<p>
<li> Yes, "CoS" is a deliberate mirror-image of "Midnight," partly to
illustrate the notion that "the wheel turns," as G'Kar says...yes, it
does, and if you forget that it eventually turns on *you*, you'll be
ground beneath it.
<p>
<li> I will tell you a true and secret thing, re: Londo's dream, and looking
up into a blue sky to see the ships passing overhead.
<p>
Ever since I was a kid, I've had that image in my dreams, of standing
out in the open and looking up as strange dark ships pass overhead.
It's always been an unnerving image, and I really wanted to use it
here to see if it would have the same effect on others.
<p>
The other single most recurring image is to be standing at the bottom
of a long set of stairs, in a basement, and the door at the top of the
stairs is thrown open, and there's gunfire, and guards, and flares in
the night beyond, and more ships firing down.
<p>
Don't be surprised if this shows up as well, someday....
<p>
<li> We nailed a piece with Michael before he left for New York; when we
shot "Points," he had long since returned to NY and was in the
process of pursuing other things.
<p>
<li> <a name="JS:throne"><em>What was with the human and Minbari in the
throne room?</em></a><br>
They were discussing possible use of a world on the fringe of
Centauri space for something of, they hoped, benign use.
</ul>

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<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
Dr. Franklin's father arrives, leading 25,000
ground pounding soldiers on the station. The troops' arrival elicits fear from
both humans and non-humans that the troops may be going on a secret mission
that will involve the station becoming an armed camp.
</cite>
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Winfield,+Paul">Paul Winfield</a> as Gen. Richard Franklin.
</blockquote>
<pre>
Sub-genre: Drama
<a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/032">7.49</a>
Production number: 210
Original air date: February 8, 1995
Written by Larry DiTillio
Directed by Jim Johnston
</pre>
<p>
<hr size=3>
<h2><a name="BP">Backplot</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Dr. Franklin's father is an Earth Alliance military hero, a veteran
of the Dilgar war and several internal conflicts on Earth. He was
rarely around for his children when they were growing up; when he
<em>was</em> around, he tried to run the family like a boot camp.
<li> With the advent of the Narn-Centauri war, the Earth Alliance is
trying to solidify its hold on several strategic sectors near both,
in anticipation of the day when Earth will have to choose sides.
<li> Sheridan served a tour of duty on the planet Akdor, in a system
bordering on both Narn and Centauri space.
<li> Garibaldi's father, Alfredo, served under General Franklin in the
Dilgar war, and was a well-regarded soldier.
</ul>
<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Babylon 5 is now heavily armed, ready to take on a warship. Which
raises the question: why wasn't it <em>before</em>? Mere
shortsightedness on the part of the designers -- a station like
Babylon 5 seems a natural target -- or something else? Even if
there originally didn't seem any need to heavily arm the station,
the attacks on the station in
<a href="013.html">"Signs and Portents"</a>
and
<a href="019.html">"A Voice in the Wilderness, part 2"</a>
should have demonstrated that B5 <em>will</em> come under attack
from time to time.
<p>
On the other hand, Franklin did say that the station was being
upgraded with the latest from Earth Force R&D, so maybe its previous
weapons were simply the best the previous generation of technology
had to offer. Budget constraints may have also played a role.
<p>
<li> The tail end of the news broadcast mentions that more divisions
of Earth troops will join the 356th on Akdor. That implies some
sort of permanent presence on the planet itself, as opposed to
just "in the system" as General Franklin mentioned.
<p>
<li> Delenn's transformation doesn't appear to be getting the widespread
publicity one might expect; the troops didn't seem to recognize her
at all. Perhaps they simply don't follow the news.
</ul>
<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> "GROPOS" stands for "ground pounders" and refers to the Earth
Alliance's equivalent of the U.S. Marines. In fact, the term
"Earth Force Marine Corps" was contained in the Gropos' marching
song.
</ul>
<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Everything in the battle sequence at the end of Gropos is CGI; no
models, despite the shadows. Real fire was sampled for the flames,
though.
</ul>

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<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
Sheridan is kidnapped and taken to an alien ship. The Grey Council decides
Delenn's fate. General Hague makes an unofficial visit to the station.
</cite>
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Foxworth,+Robert">Robert Foxworth</a> as General Hague.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Teague,+Marshall">Marshall Teague</a> as the Narn.
</blockquote>
<pre>
Sub-genre: Action/intrigue
<a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/033">8.33</a>
Production number: 211
Original air date: February 15, 1995
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Mario DiLeo
</pre>
<h3><a name="WF">Watch For</a></h3>
<ul>
<li> A momentary change of clothes.
</ul>
<p>
<hr size=3>
<h2><a name="BP">Backplot</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> The Minbari have installed a new leader.
<li> Sheridan's appointment to Babylon 5 was more than a coincidence. He
was picked by Santiago, who knew that his record made him look like a
hard-nosed military man, just the sort Santiago suspected Clark would
want to replace Sinclair with. But Santiago also knew that Sheridan
was a patriot who would stand against the forces seeking to undermine
the Earth government. In his first months on the station, Sheridan's
real assignment was to evaluate the crew, find out who could be
trusted.
<li> General Hague, and others, are working to expose the machinations
behind Santiago's death and other recent events. They suspect the
Psi-Corps is behind the conspiracy, but so far have been unable to
prove anything.
<li> Alit Neroon (head of the Star Riders clan, cf.
<a href="017.html">"Legacies"</a>)
has replaced Delenn on the Grey Council.
</ul>
<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Sheridan's dream is a big unanswered question, lent weight by Kosh's
comment after Sheridan's return. See <a href="#AN:dream">Analysis.</a>
<li> Why was Neroon appointed to the Council?
<li> What does Delenn think is about to happen? Why does she believe she
is about to descend into darkness and fire?
<li> Is the foray by the Streibs related to what the Shadows are doing,
or is it just coincidental timing?
<li> How did the Narn know so much about the Streibs and their ship?
<li> What was done to Sheridan? He was left with three scars on his
face, one of them on his forehead. Might he be carrying an implant
of some sort now?
</ul>
<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Neroon's appointment to the council is troublesome. Presumably new
members are approved by majority vote. The three warrior-caste
members probably voted for him; that means one or two of the remaining
five members must have voted for him as well, probably from the
worker caste. Valen's wishes seem to be held in less than the highest
regard by some Minbari.
<li> With four members, the warrior caste now effectively controls the
Grey Council. On any issue they need only win over one other member
to have a majority. It is unclear how far the Council's power
extends now that a new leader has been installed, and that leader
conceivably sides with the religious caste, but it looks like hard
times have arrived for Delenn's compatriots.
<li> That being the case, how does this mesh with Sinclair's gathering of
rangers? (cf.
<a href="031.html">"The Coming of Shadows"</a>)
Some of them, recall, are Minbari. Are they primarily religious
caste? Is there enough difference of opinion within the warrior
caste about humans that he's able to attract warriors?
<li> We never actually hear Sheridan's answer to Hague, though it is
probably "yes." If it isn't, Sheridan's meeting with the
rest of the command staff may be a ruse to draw Hague's people out
into the open -- on the assumption that Hague will try to work
via one of the others -- and expose the counterconspiracy. Sheridan's
possible link with Psi-Corps (see below and
<a href="030.html">"A Race Through Dark Places"</a>)
makes this at least a plausible scenario, if an unlikely one.
<li> <a name="AN:dream">There's more to the dream sequence</a>
than is apparent at first glance,
and it's chock full of ambiguities. A shot-by-shot rundown with
analysis (another, simpler, possible interpretation follows the
rundown):
<ol>
<li><b>Sheridan is in his quarters, in uniform. The lights are out.
</b>
<li><b>Ivanova is in the quarters with him, in uniform, hair draped
over her left shoulder. The door is open. She raises her
fingers to her lips and says, "Shh."
</b><br>
<em>Analysis:</em> Someone or something has entered Sheridan's
mind to give him a message, and is warning him to watch and
listen, not try to participate. The "something" might also
simply be part of Sheridan's own subconscious. This probably
relates to Kosh's answer to Sheridan's first question.
<li><b>Sheridan looks confused.</b>
<li><b>Ivanova, now with a raven perched on her right shoulder,
says, "Do you know who I am?"
</b><br>
<em>Analysis:</em> The raven is typically symbolic of death;
Ivanova may represent destruction, perhaps eventually siding
with the forces of darkness. In older literature, the raven
was often a thief, rather than a harbinger of death.
<li><b>Sheridan looks to his right, and finds himself in a Babylon 5
corridor. He looks up.
</b>
<li><b>On a catwalk, in harsh lighting, gripping the railing, is
another Sheridan. He looks to his right.
</b><br>
<em>Analysis:</em> It's unclear what kind
of uniform the Sheridan on the catwalk is wearing; possibly
a Psi-Cop uniform. The angle of the shot is similar to
Sinclair's first view of Knight Two in
<a href="008.html">"And the Sky Full of Stars."</a> This
Sheridan perhaps represents another side of Sheridan's
personality (more on that below.)
<li><img align=left width=128 height=96 hspace=4
src="/lurk/gif/033/dove.gif">
<b>Garibaldi, also apparently on the catwalk, is in uniform and
has a dove(?) on his left shoulder. "The man in between is
searching for you," he says.
</b><br>
<em>Analysis:</em> "The man in between" may refer to the
Sheridan on the catwalk, a part of Sheridan that isn't sure
which side it should be on.
Of course, it could be a reference to someone else
entirely: someone between light and darkness, for instance.
(Sinclair?)
As for Garibaldi's dove, the dove is traditionally a symbol
of peace, perhaps implying that Garibaldi will work to stop
the Great War.
<a href="020.html">"Babylon Squared"</a>
strongly suggests that Garibaldi will ally himself with the
side of light.
<li><b>Ivanova, in a veil and black dress, is standing behind
Sheridan, who is now wearing a turtleneck and a jacket.
</b><br>
<em>Analysis:</em> This funereal garb lends some weight to
the idea that Ivanova represents death. (It really is
Ivanova, though some readers have disagreed; see
<a href="#JS:veil">jms speaks</a>.)
<li><img align=left width=128 height=96 hspace=4
src="/lurk/gif/033/psicop.gif">
<b>As he turns, we get a brief glimpse of a metal pin on the
left breast of his jacket: a Psi-Corps badge. And in fact,
his jacket appears to be the uniform of a Psi-Cop, with the
leather strap down the right side in front.
</b><br>
<em>Analysis:</em> Sheridan's change of clothes is perhaps the
most ominous part of the entire sequence. Combined with
Bester's comment in
<a href="030.html">"A Race Through Dark Places"</a>
that he was told to expect Sheridan to be sympathetic to
the Psi-Corps, it suggests some yet-to-be-revealed connection
between Sheridan and the Corps, something that may cause
a conflict of interest as he works with Hague's people.
<li><b>Ivanova, still veiled, says, "You are the hand."
</b><br>
<em>Analysis:</em> Hands abound in <cite>Babylon 5</cite>,
from Kosh's hand in
<a href="000.html">"The Gathering"</a>
to Londo's dream hand in
<a href="031.html">"The Coming of Shadows."</a>
Presumably Ivanova isn't referring to Kosh's hand. If she
is referring to the hand from Londo's dream, it suggests that
Sheridan will become a pawn in Londo's machinations; recall
Elric's comment in
<a href="025.html">"The Geometry of Shadows"</a> --
the hand reaching out across the stars is Londo's.
Alternately, if Sheridan's Psi-Cop uniform is taken to mean
that he's symbolic of Psi-Corps as a whole, perhaps she means
that Psi-Corps, not Sheridan, is the hand. Or, more sinister,
that Sheridan is unknowingly acting on behalf of the Psi-Corps,
perhaps as the result of some mental conditioning (which
would explain Bester's comment at the end of
<a href="030.html">"A Race Through Dark Places."</a>)
<li><b>Kosh is standing behind Sheridan in the corridor; Sheridan is
back in his normal uniform. Sheridan starts to turn toward
him.
</b>
<li><b>In what seems like a simple switch of camera angles, Sheridan
now appears to be sitting down in front of a backlit wall
with an organic look not unlike that of the Streib ship's
interior. "Why are you here?" he asks.
</b><br>
<em>Analysis:</em> The change of scenery suggests that "here"
refers to a different place or time or context than the rest
of the sequence. Perhaps the question means, "Why are the
Vorlons involving themselves with the other races?" Of
course, it could mean what it looks like: "Why are you in
my dream?"
<li><b><a name="AN:weme">"We were never away,"</a>
Kosh answers from the corridor. "For
the first time your mind is quiet enough to hear me."
</b><br>
<em>Analysis:</em> Depending on the meaning of Sheridan's
question, the answer says different things. If the former
refers to the Vorlons in general, the answer can be taken to
mean, "We've only just allowed you to notice us." The second
part of the answer suggests that Sheridan's question refers
to the dream, though. See below for a possible explanation
of this question and the rest of the dream. Also note that
Kosh uses both "we" and "me" -- see
<a href="#JS:kosh">jms speaks.</a>
<li><b>Sheridan is back in the corridor, standing. "Why am I here?"
he asks, in a tone that makes the question sound unconnected
to the previous one.
</b><br>
<em>Analysis:</em> Again, it's unclear what "here" means.
Babylon 5? The dream? His circumstances?
<li><b>"You have always been here," answers Kosh.
</b><br>
<em>Analysis:</em> Kosh's repetition of this statement after
Sheridan's return may mean it is very important; or perhaps
Kosh was indirectly telling Sheridan that the dream wasn't
a simple construct of his subconscious. (Of course, Kosh
might have read Sheridan's mind outside medlab and pulled the
line from Sheridan's memory of the dream.) As for the meaning
of the line itself, only time will tell. "You" might refer
to Sheridan himself, or to some group (e.g. the human race)
of which Sheridan is a part.
</ol>
<li> Another way of looking at the dream sequence, more metaphysical,
is that Sheridan entered a psychic continuum, an astral plane, for
lack of a better term. That makes many of the comments less ambiguous:
<ul>
<li> "We were never away. For the first time your mind is quiet
enough to hear me." This is the first time Sheridan has
been in a mental state to consciously recognize the plane;
Kosh and everyone else have always been there to some degree.
<li> "You have always been here." Sheridan has always had some
presence in this psychic world; he just hasn't been able to
consciously recognize it.
<li> "The man in between" refers to someone between the physical
and spiritual worlds. Perhaps the Sheridan in the sequence
is Sheridan's spiritual side, and "the man in between" is
Sheridan, searching for his higher soul.
<li> Ivanova and Garibaldi, as shown in the sequence, are either
the projections into this other world of the real people,
or are abstractions for something else (darkness and
light?)
<li> Sheridan's Psi-Cop uniform may mean that the Corps plays
a part in bridging the physical and astral worlds.
</ul>
</ul>
<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> The Streibs are probably a reference to Whitley Strieber, whose popular
book "Communion" dealt with alien abduction.
<p>
<li> Marshall Teague, the Narn, also played Nelson Drake, the assistant
turned living weapon, in
<a href="004.html">"Infection."</a>
<p>
<li> Ravens and doves, from the King James Bible:
<ul>
<p>
<li> And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened
the window of the ark which he had made; and he sent forth a
raven, which went forth to and fro, until the waters were dried
up from off the earth. Also he sent forth a dove from him, to
see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground;
but the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she
returned unto him into the ark, for the waters were on the face
of the whole earth; and then he put forth his hand, and took her,
and pulled her in unto him into the ark. And he stayed yet
another seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the
ark; and the dove came in to him in the evening; and lo, in her
mouth was an olive leaf pluckt off; so Noah knew that the waters
were abated from off the earth. And he stayed yet another seven
days, and sent forth the dove, which returned not again unto him
any more. --Genesis 8:6-12
<p>
<li> And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead,
said unto Ahab, As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom
I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but
according to my word. And the word of the Lord came unto him,
saying, Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide
thyself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. And it
shall be, that thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have
commanded the ravens to feed thee there.
<p>
So he went and did according to the word of the Lord; for
he went and dwelt by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan.
And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and
bread and flesh in the evening; and he drank of the brook.
--1 Kings 17:1-6
</ul>
<p>
<li> Some raven references in various other mythologies:
<ul>
<li> Hugin and Munin: Odin's two ravens (thought and memory)
<li> Kurkil: Mongol creator god who flew to create the Earth and
mankind
<li> Mictla or Mictlantecuhtli: Aztec god who rules the underworld
<li> Moragga: Celtic. The incarnation of the Goddess as war.
<li> Raven: Amerindian creator and trickster god. Created all living
creatures out of wood and clay. Similar to Coyote.
<li> Yangwu: Chinese. The sun-crow.
<li> Yetl: Amerindian. The thunder-raven who dragged the flooded
earth above the water.
<li> In Japanese culture, the dove symbolizes war because doves
were used as messengers during battles.
</ul>
</ul>
<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> One episode will look very much unconnected to the arc until the
last five minutes, at which point there's a revelation that will likely
astonish some and confirm suspcions for some other viewers.
<li> Streibs, actually. Similar to, but not quite the same as the
<a href="015.html">Grail</a>
bunch.
<li> Delenn's flyer is called Zhalen.
<li> <a href="#AN:weme" name="JS:kosh">Re: we/I...</a>
yes, it's interesting, isn't it? You'd almost think it
was contradictory or something.
<li> And of course there's the story of the man who dreamed he was a
butterfly, and when he awoke, wondered if he was actually a human
who dreamed he had been a butterfly, or a butterfly who was dreaming he
was a human....
<li> <a name="JS:veil"><em>Who was the woman in the veil?</em></a><br>
It's Ivanova.
<li> In a way, there are several Sheridans in that dream, signifying
changes currently in the works, changes yet to come, messages
forthcoming or unrecognized. It's a very reflective dream, which will
grow clearer the deeper one gets into the show.
<li> Certainly there are some archetypes that always creep into a work
of this sort; for all we all not Jung at heart...?
<li> You'll see at least one piece of Sheridan's vision decoded before
season's end.
<li> Remember, Kosh was the one who sent those images into Sheridan's
brain, not anybody else; he was communicating useful information that
may come up down the road, but in rather symbological form.
<li> Yes, Sheridan was speaking in the Drazi's native language, trying
(without success) to get through; they're a cranky species to start
with, and this didn't help.
<li> Sheridan learned a smattering of various languages while on patrol on
the Agamemnon.
<li> The aliens from Grail are similar to, and distant relatives of, the
streibs, but not the same, no. A closer shot would've revealed red
slitted eyes instead of the black eyes of the one in Grail.
<li> Pledging oneself to someone's side is not common, and carries great
significance. From that point onward, you are bound to that person
until your death, and you must defend that person at the cost of your
own life.
<li> Some tie-ins...remember Sheridan in "A Distant Star" saying that he
was feeling beached, abandoned? His unsureness in taking on this post,
what if it was a mistake? A number of his actions come into a clearer
light once you know he was in essence checking them all out, and putting
on a hard "I'm a nice guy" attitude.
<li> <em>Wasn't attacking the Streibs an act of war?</em><br>
The Streib saw an alliance between Earth and Minbar at that moment,
which is the LAST thing they wanted to go up against. Also, you don't
go to war at the drop of a hat just because somebody sinks or shoots
down one of your ships. This is one of the cliches in storytelling.
And what the Streibs were doing was totally unjustifiable in any event.
Do you gear up for the massive hassle of total war -- supply lines,
fleets, all the rest -- because of this incident? Remember, the purpose
of the ship was to find races weak enough for them to attack with
impunity; they don't want to go up against a force that can strike
back.
<li> I doubt we'll be seeing these guys again for a long time, if ever.
So I don't consider them on the level of certain shadows or stuff.
They came, they grabbed, we whomped.
<li> By the way, in addition to the re-appearance of Neroon, you may have
noticed that the first Grey Council member Delenn addresses is the
same one we saw in "Points of Departure."
<li> Membership in the Grey Council is usually for life; a person
can choose to leave but only under truly extraordinary circumstances
(kind of like being appointed to the Supreme Court). In Delenn's case,
though, remember that she didn't quit, she was booted out.
<li> Sheridan and the other fighters flew at a slight angle right past
the window in C&C. I don't see where the problem is in this. The
window wasn't used as a monitor, it was used as a window. The
starfuries came out of the cobra bays as the station rotated them
planet-side, they banked, and headed toward the gate, passing C&C.
<li> Ejecting would not have purchased Ramirez's life because when the
system came back on line with its analysis, it announced that the
radiation was "already at terminal levels." From the instant he
heard that, he was a dead man waiting to stop moving. He could've
sent the ship back, risking a faulty autopilot...and might've died
for nothing if it encountered the *slightest* glitch en route.
<li> One of the themes in this show is how you face life...and how you
face death. Ramirez faced his honorably. In the end, honor and
dignity are all we have left.
<li> If you trust Sheridan, there's no need for a lengthy report; plus,
a written report, no matter how well encrypted, can be broken or fall
into the wrong hands. The best record of a secret meeting that could
get you fired or killed is no record at ALL.
<li> Re: Kosh's voice carrying some emotion...starting at about "All Alone
in the Night," or maybe one before (memory fades), I took on the job
of directing the voice sessions for Kosh. He was moving from a neutral
delivery to things that had to carry specific emotions and implications
for the future, and nobody else knows what all this stuff means, so it
fell to me.
<li> Also, I noted somewhere in a preview for upcoming episodes, among the
things coming, "conspiracies of light as well as dark." Perhaps that
is now clearer.
</ul>

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<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
G'Kar asks Sheridan to intervene militarily on behalf of the Narns; Ivanova
tries to institute an ambassadorship with a visiting alien.
</cite>
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Williams,+Paul">Paul Williams</a> as Taq.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Abercrombie,+Ian">Ian Abercrombie</a> as Correlilmerzon.
</blockquote>
<pre>
Sub-genre: Drama
<a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/034">7.97</a>
Production number: 212
Original air date: February 22, 1995
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Jim Johnston
</pre>
<p>
<hr size=3>
<h2><a name="BP">Backplot</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> The Narn pushed the Centauri off their world through a war of
attrition, so it was no longer worth the Centauri's effort to
stay -- open, direct warfare is new to them.
</ul>
<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> What <em>was</em> that gift?
<li> Will the Lumati's alliance with Earth be significant?
</ul>
<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> The situation between the Narn and the Centauri on Babylon 5 seems
destined to explode sooner or later, even if things were quelled
the first time. If one side begins to lose badly, revenge will
be a natural reaction. Perhaps it will be just such an incident
that pushes Earth into taking sides, assuming that's going to happen.
<li> It also seems like only a matter of time before the Minbari smuggling
operation is discovered; eventually it's plausible that the Centauri
will get sick of the Minbari nosing around in the middle of war zones,
though they may decide they don't want to risk fighting them.
How much trouble Sheridan will be in if his plan is discovered
remains to be seen.
<li> Given the Lumati's feelings about natural selection, it's unclear how
desirable they'll be as allies. If Earth needs help, they might
well decide that that means humans are inferior, and withhold their aid.
</ul>
<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> In keeping with his newfound importance, Londo's outfit has changed
slightly; it is crisper, darker, with a slightly more military look.
<li> On a more editorial note, this episode is arguably the first to drive
home how different the situation is now than it's been in the past.
The dark undercurrents that have always been present in the series
begin to surface here, in the form of G'Kar's desperation, Londo's
casual lack of concern over the killing and his calm assurance that
the Centauri will defeat the Narn, Sheridan's loss of composure with
G'Kar, and the general sense of hostility around the station.
<li> The Lumati's arrogant attitude toward other species bears some
resemblance to Star Trek's Prime Directive.
</ul>
<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> On an unrelated note...just finished another script tonight, "Acts of
Sacrifice," which despite its rather ominous title is more a slice of
life episode...and contains probably the funkiest, weirdest sequence
that I have ever written. Full tilt whacko.
<p>
<li> [Londo is] a fascinating character to explore, and the most careful
balancing act of the bunch; part of the character's appeal is that on
a very fundamental level, you *like* him, and you don't want to see
him on this terrible slide downward. So every so often, you have to
pull him back, go in a different direction, remind us of his basic
humanity and potential for heroism. He is, really, any of us caught
in a web of events spinning more and more out of control every day.
<p>
<li> As it happens, I made it a point to be on-set the day we shot what we
ended up calling "the Ivanova dance." Wanted to make sure it was done
correctly. We only had to shoot it about three times, only in the
master, no coverage. The crew was absolutely breathless after the
first take, from keeping from laughing. It was very funny.
<p>
<li> Actually, not to split hairs, the idea of sex sealing deals goes
back a heck of a lot longer than Larry Niven. It's been part of treaty
signing and stuff going back to ancient Egypt, other parts of the middle
east, even parts of medeival europe.
<p>
<li> To the question raised: yes, if Sheridan had shown the Lumati around,
the request would have been made to him, as it was to Ivanova.
<p>
<li> <em>Is Zathras (cf.
<a href="020.html">"Babylon Squared"</a>)
a Lumati?</em><br>
Zathras is not part of the Lumati species.
<p>
<li> <em>What's the deal with all the fans behind Sheridan's superior?</em>
<br>
I will only say that I was as surprised by those fans as anyone
else (I was in editing all day when that was shot).
<p>
Well, we're always saying around here, the more fans the better....
<p>
<li> <em>Was G'Kar laughing or crying?</em>
<br>
It's both; laughing at the absurdity, and crying...about as close as
we've seen to a nervous breakdown.
<p>
<li> I think one need look no further than the latest communiques from
Dole and Newt to get some idea on the progenitors of the Lumati.
<p>
<li> <em>Was Katsulas actually fighting, or was it a stuntman?</em><br>
It was a little of both, yes.
<p>
<li> Given that the Narns were agrarian prior to the arrival of the
Centauri, and were under their heel, and got most of their tech FROM
the Centauri leftovers, no, they're not more advanced. It's a lot
like the Russian situation, seemingly this tremendous power, but once
you look deep, not as well off as they'd like you to think.
<p>
Claudia loved the scene when I first described it to her, prior to
finishing the script. She was dying to do it, and kept sort of
"doing" it around people for some time prior to filming.
<p>
<li> The Narn were not out in space prior to the Centauri arriving.
<p>
While Paul Williams was on set for this ep, I had him sign my two
CDs of the "Phantom of the Paradise" soundtrack. Ah, power....
</ul>

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<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
A fugitive with sensitive information about the Earth government flees
to Babylon 5.
</cite>
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Steedman,+Tony">Tony Steedman</a> as Dr. Everett Jacobs.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Casey,+Bernie">Bernie Casey</a> as Derek Cranston.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Moll,+Richard">Richard Moll</a> as Max.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+De+Jesus,+Wanda">Wanda De Jesus</a> as Sarah.
</blockquote>
<pre>
Sub-genre: Intrigue
<a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/035">8.20</a>
Production number: 213
Original air date: March 1, 1995
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Menachem Binetski
</pre>
<h3><a name="WF">Watch For</a></h3>
<ul>
<li> <a href="#AN:outfit">A man in a familiar outfit.</a>
</ul>
<p>
<hr size=3>
<h2><a name="BP">Backplot</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> After the victory over the Dilgar, the Earth Alliance experienced a
period of rapid expansion bolstered by a general sense of optimism,
a sense that the future was bright. Somewhere along the way, that
was lost -- Dr. Franklin says the future was like waiting for that special
toy for Christmas, and when you get it you find that the reality doesn't
measure up to your expectations.
<li> Dr. Franklin studied medicine at Harvard. One of his teachers, Dr.
Everett Jacobs, went on to become then-Vice President Clark's personal
physician. Dr Franklin says, "A lot of us looked up to him as a role model.
He's the best there is."
<li> Dr. Jacobs examined Clark before and after the "accident" on Earth
Force One that killed President Santiago -- and found no evidence of
the viral infection Clark used as an excuse to leave the ship
shortly before it was destroyed.
</ul>
<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> How and when will Dr. Jacobs' data be used?
<li> What did Kosh and his ship say to each other after Sheridan and the
others left the docking bay?
<li> What did Kosh teach Sheridan?
<li> How did Sheridan convince Kosh to allow his ship to be used to save
Dr. Jacobs?
<li> What did the ship "sing" to Dr. Jacobs?
</ul>
<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
<ul>
<p>
<li> Why was the fact that Kosh's ship is alive such a surprising thing
to have confirmed, when a simple "scan for life forms" was able to
detect it? In all their surface probes while the ship sat in the
docking bay, it seems odd that nobody
thought to scan for life, especially since it was already known or at
least suspected that Vorlons use organic technology (cf.
<a href="004.html">"Infection."</a>)
<p>
<li> Sheridan mentions to Kosh that there's a council meeting to discuss
the Narn refugee problem. That might be related to the smuggling
operation started in
<a href="034.html">"Acts of Sacrifice"</a>
-- has it been revealed already? (Not necessarily, of course; there
are probably thousands, if not millions, of refugees who have nothing
to do with that operation.)
<p>
<a href="/lurk/gif/035/writing.jpg"><img
align=right width=128 height=96 src="/lurk/gif/035/writing.gif"></a>
<li> Kosh speaks to his ship, and it displays some text in an unknown
script, presumably the Vorlon written language. That implies that
Kosh and his ship are not in telepathic contact, or at least not
when he's not on board -- somewhat remarkable, considering that Kosh
and the ship have both demonstrated telepathy or something like it
(Kosh in
<a href="033.html">"All Alone in the Night"</a>
and the ship in this episode, both with Dr. Jacobs and, more
importantly, the maintenance workers referred to by Ivanova.)<br clear>
<p>
<li> <a name="AN:outfit">There may be a Ranger</a> (cf.
<a href="031.html">"The Coming of Shadows"</a>)
in this episode, though it's very subtle. As Sheridan and Garibaldi
reach the bottom of the stairs, just before Sheridan sees the red
ribbon, a man walks by the two of them, wearing the same outfit as
the Ranger from the aforementioned episode. Which might be
coincidence, except that Garibaldi notices the man, even turns and
watches him climb the stairs, before looking back at Sheridan, who
is meanwhile occupied with the ribbon.
<p>
<li> A couple viewers have commented that Sheridan looks a bit <em>too</em>
smug as he gives the data crystal to his co-conspirator at the end,
almost as if that isn't the real crystal. Is it? Does he trust
her? Is he up to something other than what the General thinks he is?
(Recall that we never heard his answer in
<a href="033.html">"All Alone in the Night."</a>)
Also, he doesn't give her Dr. Jacobs' code to unlock the data, though
of course he could simply be giving her an unencrypted copy.
<p>
<li> On a related note, did Sheridan keep a copy of the crystal for himself?
<p>
<li> Sheridan confronts Kosh twice. The first time a bit tentatively, the second time
directly. Amazingly, he engages Kosh's interest and actually begins what may
develop into a dialog (or at least a monologue) with Kosh.
<p>
Also of note, the first time Sheridan confronts Kosh he says that Kosh "called to
him." This is a reference to the dream sequence in <a href="033.html">"All Alone in the Night"</a>.
Kosh replies, "I sought understanding. I listened to the song. Your
thoughts became the song." Sheridan asks, "Has this ever happenned before?"
and Kosh says, "Once." <em>When was that?</em> One possibility is
Talia Winters (cf.
<a href="009.html">"Deathwalker"</a>)
-- Kosh told her to "listen to the music, not the song."
<p>
<li> Kosh's second conversation with Sheridan, of course, bears close analysis,
especially given its relation to Sheridan's dream in
<a href="033.html">"All Alone in the Night."</a>
<ol>
<li><b>Sheridan: "You wanted to see me?"</b>
<li><b>Kosh: "<em>You</em> wanted to see <em>me.</em>"</b>
<li><b>"Well, I guess everybody does. See what you really are,
inside that encounter suit."</b>
<li><b>"They are not ready. They would not understand."</b><br>
<em>Analysis:</em> It's not obvious exactly who he means by
"they." At least <em>one</em> person was ready to
see Kosh, namely Delenn (cf.
<a href="022.html">"Chrysalis."</a>)
Of course, it begs the question once again:
what <em>is</em> Kosh, that one might not "understand" when
one saw him? (And why does he care whether people understand?)
<li><b>"Am I ready?"</b>
<li><b>"No. You do not even understand yourself."</b><br>
<em>Analysis:</em> Is Kosh speaking in a general sense here --
"You aren't self-actualized" -- or is there something specific
about Sheridan that Kosh knows and Sheridan doesn't?
<li><b>"Could you help me to understand you?"</b>
<li><b>"Can you help me to understand <em>you?</em>"</b>
<li><b>"Well, I can try. Is that what you want? An exchange of
information? I tell you something about me, you tell me
something about you?"</b>
<li><b>"No. You do not understand. Go." Kosh turns away.</b>
<li><b>"Dammit, what do you want? What do you want from me? You
know, ever since I got here I've had the feeling that... that
you've been watching me. The records show you hardly ever
went to council meetings until I showed up. When I was
captured... it was you who reached out and touched my mind.
Now you call me here... why? Just to throw me out? Are we
just toys to you? Huh? What do you want?"</b>
<li><b>Kosh spins around to face Sheridan again. "Never ask that
question."</b><br>
<em>Analysis:</em> Almost undoubtedly a reference to Morden's
question in
<a href="013.html">"Signs and Portents"</a>
-- but it raises another question of its own, namely, why does
that question mean anything special to Kosh? How does Kosh
know what Morden asked of the various ambassadors? Perhaps
it's what the Shadows always ask, since Kosh seems to know
about them. Perhaps the Vorlons were, themselves, asked that
question a thousand years ago.
<li><b>"At least I got a response out of you. So what'll it be,
Ambassador?"</b>
<li><b>"I will teach you."</b>
<li><b>"About yourself?"</b>
<li><b>"About <em>you.</em> Until you are ready."</b>
<li><b>"For what?"</b>
<li><b>"To fight legends."</b><br>
<em>Analysis:</em> Two interpretations are immediately
apparent: "to fight the Shadows" (who are legendary to the
Narn and probably others) or "to dispel myths." The first
seems <em>too</em> obvious, given Kosh's tendency to be
cryptic. The second interpretation suggests that the Vorlons
aren't revealing themselves because they feel they'll be
associated with something from mythology. Once Sheridan
learns to combat those preconceptions, he will be ready.
(See <a href="#NO:cend">Notes.</a>) Alternately, it could
refer to Sheridan himself; he's a legend of sorts to the
Minbari, possibly an obstacle to the joining of humans and
Minbari as envisioned by Delenn (cf.
<a href="033.html">"All Alone in the Night."</a>)
</ol>
<p>
<li> Do we now have a clue to the telepathic abilities of the Vorlons?
This reference to "the song" and Sheridan's thoughts "becoming" the
song during his dream sequence hint rather strongly that telepathy
is the Vorlon's primary means of communication. If so, then this
confirms that Sheridan's dream wasn't altogether a dream, and that
he may have some latent/budding psi skills himself.
<p>
Further note: The constant jabber that occurs when Kosh speaks. It sounds like
there are...many "voices" in it. If telepathy is common to
Vorlons, then they may have some equivalent to a "hive mind", or at least constant
and unbounded access to each other. If so, then why does Kosh periodically return
to the Vorlon homeworld? Further, does the same physical "Kosh" return? Still
further, if each Vorlon is to a greater or lesser extent <em>all</em> Vorlons, does it
matter which physical Vorlon is present? Taken to the extreme, the tag "Kosh" is
simply a convenient referent supplied by the Vorlon hive-mind to the folks at B5.
(Of course, it may well be the <em>ship</em> that needs to return
home, not Kosh at all.)
<p>
<li> In this episode we see that the ship is an independent entity, in essence a
living creature. It shows up as a non-human life form, even though we are shown
that Kosh himself was not on board. Further, Doctor Jacobs says that the ship
"sang to him" while he was unconcious and aboard. This hints strongly that the
ship shares, "the song", which means that it's part of the Vorlon community mind.
<p>
If the ship is part of the Vorlon super-entity, and if the ship is itself, "organic
technology" then this implies that the Vorlons can create any kind of physical
creature they want, with that creature sharing the community mind. That means
that the ship is nearly as much or as much a Vorlon as Kosh.
<p>
<li> A number of readers have speculated that the ship is actually Kosh,
and the encounter suit just a remote probe or a servant. That seems
unlikely, though, given the events of
<a href="000.html">"The Gathering,"</a>
in which the Vorlons were ready to start shooting over an attack on
what was in the encounter suit. But it's worthy of mention.
<p>
<li> A Biblical reference that might be relevant, or might just be a
coincidence: During Sheridan's secret meeting,
Sarah tells him "Whatever you do, I suggest that you do it quickly."
This is the same thing Jesus Christ said to Judas Iscariot
immediately before Judas went out to betray Jesus to the Sanhedron.
If this isn't a simple coincidence, the implication is that Sheridan
will eventually betray someone. The victim isn't clear, though.
His cadre on B5 are obvious
candidates, as is the cabal he and Hague are members of. But for that
matter, it might be the Psi-Corps (though his betrayal could be
<em>for</em>
the Psi-Corps (cf.
<a href="033.html">"All Alone in the Night"</a>
and Bester's comment at the end of
<a href="030.html">"A Race Through Dark Places."</a>)
<p>
A more whimsical connection is that the actress speaking the line
is named Wanda de Jesus.
</ul>
<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> <a name="#NO:cend">A relevant reference</a> might be "Childhood's
End" by Arthur C. Clarke (though the shape of the Vorlon encounter
suit suggests the opposite association from the one in the book.)
<li> When Franklin and Garibaldi stop to eat, it appears they're actually
munching on Kellogg's NutriGrain Breakfast Bars (though the scene
doesn't provide a close enough look at the bars to tell for sure,
so it probably doesn't count as product placement.)
<li> During Sheridan's meeting with Sarah, they are in what looks like an
equipment room. She sets up two devices, presumably to defeat any
bugs or scans. The problem is that she leaves them there when she
leaves. During their next meeting they are not in evidence at all,
and again she isn't shown retrieving them before she leaves. Of
course, Sheridan could have taken them. (See
<a href="#JS:light">jms speaks.</a>)
<li> In addition to its ants (cf.
<a href="006.html">"Mind War"</a>)
B5 has roaches.
<li> Sheridan has what he considers very good shielding on his office. He
talks to Ivanova quite openly there immediately after Agent Cranston leaves.
<li> Kosh's comments to Sheridan bear some resemblance to the Dalai
Lama's observation (cf.
<a href="023.html">"Points of Departure,"</a>)
namely, "It will be even better when you begin to understand what
you do not understand."
</ul>
<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> There was no intended reference to Anne McCaffrey's story; Kosh tends
to speak naturally through a series of musical/tonal/atonal chords,
and I figured his ship would communicate in the same way, which to
another would sound a little like singing.
<li> <a name="JS:light"><em>What did Sarah leave behind at the
meeting?</em></a><br>
It's a flashlight, and he's also holding one. You caught
a very small glitch. Originally, he came out, flashed twice with
his flashlight, giving the code; then she did the same, and
THEN stepped out of the shadows, putting her flashlight down on
the ledge beside her. It took too long, though, interminably,
so when we edited it, we cut out that sequence...and
hoped nobody'd notice the flashlight sitting there.
<li> From "Infection," the visiting Doctor points out that, regarding
organic technology, "some even say the Vorlons have got it." All
this stuff gets set up somewhere.
</ul>
<p>
<hr>
Compiled by Dave Zimmerman
and Steven Grimm.
<hr>

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<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
Sheridan is in hot water when he kills a Minbari warrior in self-defense.
</cite>
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Brown,+Caitlin">Caitlin Brown</a> as Guinevere Corey.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Sullivan,+Sean+Gregory">Sean Gregory Sullivan</a> as Ashan.
</blockquote>
<pre>
Sub-genre: Mystery
<a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/036">7.75</a>
Production number: 215
Original air date: April 26, 1995
Written by Peter David
Directed by Mike Vejar
</pre>
<p>
<hr size=3>
<h2><a name="BP">Backplot</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Minbari clans are like close-knit families. One surrenders some of
one's identity to the clan, and in return the clan is expected to
shoulder the responsibility for one's actions. Despite this, clan
leaders sometimes engage in secret plots without the knowledge of
the clan members at large.
<li> Sheridan's tactics in the Earth-Minbari War (cf.
<a href="023.html">"Points of Departure"</a>)
are considered completely without honor by many Minbari; he used a
fake distress signal to lure the Black Star into a minefield.
<li> Vir was considered a failure by his family. He was sent to Babylon 5
at their behest, mostly to get him out of their hair. There was little
competition for the post, which was thought to be something of a joke.
</ul>
<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> What was Sheridan supposed to learn from Kosh's lesson? (see
<a href="#lesson">Analysis</a>)
<li> How did Kosh know what Sheridan would find in the chamber?
<li> Who were the people living there?
<li> Will Vir's family take him up on Londo's offer?
<li> What fate awaits the teddy bear?
<li> Who was the human who stole Sheridan's link? Did he have an ulterior
motive for helping with the setup, or was he simply doing it for
money?
</ul>
<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Considering her dramatic entrance, Sheridan's lawyer didn't actually
do much of anything. Who sent her, and what was she supposed to
be doing for Sheridan?
<p>
<li> <a name="lesson">One interpretation of Kosh's lesson</a>
is that he was teaching Sheridan to give humanity the benefit of the
doubt. Even in what Sheridan considered the most dangerous, nasty
place on the station, one can find beauty. If Kosh's pledge in
<a href="035.html">"Hunter, Prey"</a>
to teach Sheridan "about <em>you</em>" is taken broadly to mean
"about your kind," this is at least a plausible scenario.
<p>
<li> Another possible interpretation:
Going to the darkest, dingiest, "worst part" of B5 was an analogy to
Sheridan's current very "bad" situation. This is partly confirmed by
Kosh's statement that having a "bad day" was perfectly appropriate for
the lesson he had planned. What Sheridan saw there was "beauty... in
the dark", which was exactly what he needed. He was obviously relaxed
and feeling much better after the experience, and he thanked Kosh for
helping him.
<p>
The lesson? When things are at their absolute worst, don't simply
satisfy your basic needs (eating, sleeping), take time out to enjoy
something that will make you feel better despite the conditions. It
will help you deal with adversity. Alternatively, the lesson is that
even in some of the worst places/situations, there can still be beauty
if you allow yourself to look for it.
<p>
<li> Why the monastic chant? Sheridan said in
<a href="023.html">"Points of Departure"</a>
that he had met the Dalai Lama in Tibet. The chant wasn't Tibetan --
it is a Gregorian chant, part of the Christmas Mass.
The entire incident may have been projected into Sheridan's mind
by Kosh or by someone else. The fact that Sheridan could see it
might also be related to his dream in
<a href="033.html">"All Alone in the Night."</a>
<p>
The Latin lyrics:
<blockquote>
Puer natus est nobis et filius datus est nobis;<br>
cujus imperium super humerum ejus;<br>
et vocabitur nomen ejus,<br>
consilii Angelus.<br>
<br>
Cantate Domino canticum novum;<br>
quia mirabilia fecit.
</blockquote>
<p>
One English translation of which is:
<blockquote>
Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given;<br>
on whose shoulders the world's dominion rests;<br>
whose name is;<br>
He who was sent to us from the great Heavenly Wonder-Counselor.<br>
<br>
Sing unto the Lord a new song. He has made wonders.
</blockquote>
<p>
There are two quotes here, one from Isaiah 9:6, the other from Psalm
98:1:
<blockquote>
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government
shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful,
Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
</blockquote>
<p>
<blockquote>
O sing unto the Lord a new song; for he hath done marvellous things:
his right hand, and his holy arm, hath gotten him the victory.
</blockquote>
<p>
Whether this particular chant has any bearing on the story, or was
just selected because it sounds good, is an interesting question, but
a couple rather tenuous connections can be made:
<p>
The second verse mentions a "hand" being
victorious; recall that Sheridan was told, "You are the hand," in
<a href="033.html">"All Alone in the Night."</a>
<p>
The fourth issue of the
<a href="/lurk/comic/index.html">comic series,</a>
dealing with Sinclair's appointment to the Minbari homeworld, is titled
"The Price of Peace," one letter removed from the description of Jesus
above. (That one is probably just a coincidence.)
<p>
<li> It's also worth comparing Kosh's lessons to his encounter with Talia in
<a href="009.html">"Deathwalker."</a>
When she asked what his negotiations meant, he advised her to "listen
to the music, not the words" -- advice that might apply to Sheridan's
lesson as well.
<p>
<li> The plight of the teddy bear mirrors the story Sheridan told to
Delenn; if the bear is really supposed to represent Sheridan, is its
fate perhaps a foreshadowing of Sheridan's?
</ul>
<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Londo's mention of "a certain Minbari" lying is probably a reference
to Lennier's lie in
<a href="021.html">"The Quality of Mercy."</a>
<p>
<li> The Centauri expect their dolls to be anatomically correct.
<p>
<li> "Honour and shame from no condition rise;<br>
Act well your part, there all the honour lies."<br>
- Alexander Pope, "An Essay on Man" Epistle IV, 1733-34
<p>
<li> Possible Ranger sighting: When Vir and Londo are talking in the
Zocalo, a man in what looks like a Ranger uniform walks by twice.
Once as Vir says, "Centauri Prime is sending a replacement," and
again as he says, "It's my problem, not yours."
<p>
<li> The bear is from the
<a href="http://193.118.187.101/help/bear/info">Vermont Teddy-Bear Company.</a>
It's a "twenty inch" with "JS" embroidered on the front and
"Bear-ba-lon 5" on the back. Peter David says:
<blockquote>
Specifically, on page 13 of their 1994 Winter Collection Catalogue,
they have the Custom Embroidered Bears. Ordered with a baseball shirt
and hat (NOT jacket), he's 20 inches high and his
fur color is 'Pockets (thick milk chocolate)'...
<p>
I should point out that ordering the bear for Joe was my wife's idea.
She's a big bear fan. At present she's hard at work on a
Min<em>bear</em>i...
</blockquote>
</ul>
<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> So after I'd read Peter's script, and decided to go with it, he
asked about Ivanova's line, "This isn't some kind of Deep Space
franchise, this place is ABOUT something."
<p>
"Are you really going to use that?" he asked.
<p>
"Absolutely," I said. "It's fall-down funny."
<p>
Long pause. "You people really ARE dangerous over there, aren't you?"
<p>
<li> No, the scene in the dark with the robed figures was not enhanced
with CGI or any other device.
<p>
<li> Everything featured in the Babylon Emporium was just made up by us.
Insofar as I know, none of it is real merchandise. (Everyone,
including the crew, are so starved for B5 stuff that when we finished
filming the ep, we sold off the stuff, at cost, to those in the crew
who wanted them. Two guesses who wound up with the Londo and G'Kar
dolls....)
<p>
<li> The B5 model in the gift shop in "Honor" is now in Sheridan's office,
bronzed, as is his right as captain.
<p>
Once the show is finally off the air, be assured that the model will
end up in THIS captain's office.
<p>
<li> Here's the story of the bear.
<p>
I hate cute. Everybody knows me, knows that. So after buying Peter
David's script #2, Peter sends me a gift. A bear. A teddy bear. With
my initials JS in front, and Bear-ba-lon 5 in the back. I call Peter
back. I say that I must now get him for this. He asks what I had in
mind. I said wait and see.
<p>
So I wrote the entire bear thing at the end of the show, and inserted
it into his script.
<p>
Never send me something cute.
<p>
Best part was during filming, we shot the bear against blue-screen
to be composited into the CGI. And there's our EFX supervisor, standing
there on film, against blue-screen, with this long rod up the teddy
bear's ass, spinning it round and round and round....
<p>
Whilst doing that, I also wrote and inserted the Kosh/Perfect Beauty
scenes, since I was already in it at that point anyway, and I figured
it'd be cool.
<p>
It also keeps the Sheridan Learning Stuff thread going, and works in
a nice balance to the rest of the episode. Here he's going nuts, being
harrassed, and his command is on the line...so he has to learn to bend
his knee, accept silence, give up his command symbolically by giving up
the stat bar, and finding one perfect moment of peace.
<p>
<li> Yes, Kosh asking Sheridan "what is this place?" was more for
his benefit than Kosh's, to underline where they were, and what he was
about to experience even in such a place. Also, in psychotheraputic
terms, specifically dream analysis, when you travel to your cellar in
your dream, it's in part to confront something in your subconscious, to
learn something that may not be expressable in words.
<p>
<li> Yes, he did send a fake distress call, and took out the Black Star
when it came in to (they thought) wipe out a disabled ship. He's never
denied this to anybody.
<p>
<li> Sheridan sent an EA distress
signal; the Minbari were in genocidal mode, so it didn't matter to them
the condition of their enemy.
</ul>

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<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
Babylon 5 is embroiled in a deadly conflict between the Narn and Centauri;
an ISN reporter covers the story and tours the station.
</cite>
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Zimmer,+Kim">Kim Zimmer</a> as Cynthia Torqueman.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Curry,+Christopher">Christopher Curry</a> as Senator Quantrell.
</blockquote>
<pre>
Sub-genre: Introduction/Intrigue
<a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/037">8.43</a>
Production number: 214
Original air date: May 3, 1995
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Mario DiLeo
</pre>
<h3>Watch For</h3>
<ul>
<li> <a href="#NO:pine">A spring-fresh fragrance.</a>
</ul>
<p>
<hr size=3>
<h2><a name="BP">Backplot</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> The Narn homeworld was invaded by the Centauri around 2110. The
occupation lasted for approximately 100 years.
<li> G'Kar joined the resistance after his father was executed by the
Centauri.
<li> 41% of Earth Alliance citizens feel that Babylon 5 isn't worth the
time and expense.
<li> The Centauri have been using the space around the station as a
transfer point for weapons for the war effort.
<li> Over 250,000 humans died during the Earth-Minbari War.
<li> Back on Earth, the Clark government has formed the Office of Public
Information and the Ministry for Public Morale -- both very Orwellian
names. (see
<a href="#JS:gov">jms speaks</a>)
<li> Senator Hidoshi, Sinclair's main Senate contact in season one, is no
longer in office.
<li> Sheridan received the EarthForce Silver Star for valor
during the Earth-Minbari war.
</ul>
<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> How long have the Centauri been using Babylon 5's space to move
weapons?
<li> Will the news report affect the public's perception of Babylon 5,
and if so, will the station become more popular or less?
</ul>
<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Delenn's emotions seem to come to the surface much more readily now
than they did before her change. (see
<a href="#JS:delenn">jms speaks</a>)
<p>
<li> The Earth-Minbari War wasn't very devestating at all in terms of
loss of life. 250,000 dead is tiny compared to, for example, the
tens of millions killed in World War II. Since most of the war
was probably fought in space, in ships with relatively small crews,
that's understandable -- in fact, that many dead probably means
that Earth's combat fleets were nearly eliminated in their
entirety -- but the war seems to have had an impact on
Earth far greater than warranted by human losses. Human pride may
ultimately have been the bigger casualty.
<p>
<li> The fact that the Narn cruiser destroyed a similarly-sized Centauri
ship in a one-on-one battle suggests that the two are fairly evenly
matched technologically. If the Centauri are indeed crushing the
Narn military, as denied by G'Kar, they must have far superior
numbers, or frequent help from the Shadows.
<p>
<li> One reason for keeping Babylon 5 around was conspicuously absent
from Senator Quantrell's list: the planet below the station is one
of the most strategically valuable places in the known galaxy,
considering what lies beneath its surface (cf.
<a href="018.html">"A Voice in the Wilderness."</a>)
Given that the planet's contents were entrusted to the Babylon 5
Advisory Council, it's in everyone's best interest to keep the
station up and running.
<p>
Earth would probably prefer to keep the planet a secret to keep people
from trying to take it (and Babylon 5), so it makes
some sense that Quantrell didn't mention it; but given the battle
that took place over control of the planet, it must be a poorly-kept
secret at best.
</ul>
<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> <a name="NO:sub">"Subliminal"</a> text during the Psi Corps ad: "The
Psi Corps is your friend. Trust the Corps."
<p>
<li> When present-day fighter pilots kill targets with weapons, they say
"Fox one" over their tactical radio frequency when they
use radar-guided missiles, "Fox two" when they
use heat-seeking missiles,
"Fox three" for smart missiles, and "Fox four" (or
"Guns, guns, guns") for a kill with guns.
<p>
Someone during the battle said "Fox five," suggesting
a kill with some other sort of weapon. ("Fox five" is also used
for lighthearted remarks about midair collisions during dogfights!)
<p>
<li> Interplanetary Expeditions, which has a brief ad at the beginning of
the episode, is the same firm that financed Dr. Hendricks' dig on
Ikara 7 in
<a href="004.html">"Infection"</a>
-- in which it was discovered to be a front for a bio-weapons supplier.
<p>
<li> <a name="NO:pine">Note the pine-tree air freshener</a> on the bridge
of the Heyerdahl during the teaser.
<p>
<li> The Heyerdahl is probably named for Thor Heyerdahl, whose Kon-Tiki
expedition attempted to prove that South American natives could have
populated some South Pacific islands.
</ul>
<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> <a name="JS:about">"And Now for a Word,"</a> will, I
think, be very popular, and to my knowledge does something that has
never been done in SF television before.
<p>
<li> Speaking of which...on Monday I turned in a script called "And Now For a
Word." It's probably the most unusual episode to date...so much so
that I was very concerned about Warners approving it, and indicated in
my letter (which explained why it was done, and why it should be
produced) that I wouldn't be putting in for a script payment until I
knew they would accept it and let us make it. Finally heard back
today that they've approved it. This will be shot as episode 214, and
what you've just read is ALL I intend to say about this script between
now and shortly before it airs in May. (Though when we cast the guest
star, which we're in the process of selecting now, that I'll be able to
announce.) It's not controversial per se, but does take our entire
show and put it on its head for the entire hour. (I also had to make
sure we *could* physically produce the darned thing prior to turning
in the script.) No speculation, please; just let it be what it is, and
see it cold.
<p>
<li> For those who've been nudging other folks to try out B5, you may want
to tell them that this coming batch of eps is probably the best time to
dive in. In particular, our second new show (airing the first week of
May) is designed in part to help new viewers coming to the show to catch
up on background. (No, not a clip show, or anything like that...I think
you'll like it.) I also *strongly* recommend that you videotape this
episode, entitled "And Now For a Word." There's something in there just
(or primarily) for the videotapers. Consider this a heads-up from the
inside. You'll know what it is when you sorta see it. (See
<a href="#NO:sub">Notes</a>)
<p>
<li> There's a thing you do in theater training where you're told to talk
about a subject, never use the word "I" ...but in the end wind up
telling us more about *you* than the subject you're speaking about. So
I began to wonder if I could apply this exercise, in a limited way, to
an episode of the show. I can't say more than that without spoiling
things, but suffice to say you learn a lot about all kinds of people,
and the way you learn it says a lot about those involved. It's a
*very* subversive and tricky episode, and I *very* much suggest taping
it, so you can go back and check something out later. You'll know
what. If you don't, you'll kick yourself later.
<p>
<li> RE: the FCC...what we did in the commercial was totally legit. We
researched and found that the FCC considers a subliminal to be 2 frames
per second (out of the standard 24). So we made the blip 4 frames
total.
<p>
<li> <a name="JS:gov">The device of using a reporter's appearance</a>
to go to another POV is
not new to either B5 or MASH (though B5 is first to use it in SF).
Where I would draw the distinction is in the sense that "Word" is
actually very subtly subervsive. It's ostensibly about B5 (the
broadcast itself) but you learn a LOT about Earth in the process...how
the government wants the Mars situation interpreted ("an Earth-loyal
population held hostage by a violent minority"), the government
changing back home (suddenly we have an Office of Public Information
and a Ministry for Public Morale), how they see the end of the Minbari
war, and so on. It's designed to show more than just who's being
interviewed; you reflect home as well.
<p>
<li> <em>The battle shouldn't have been audible in the station, right?</em>
<br>
Except, of course, that you have a space batttle going on right
outside B5, and explosions barely feet from the hull, plus debris
hitting the shell of the station and making it ring, so you're going to
hear stuff. When the oxygen tank outside the main living area in
Apollo 13 blew, it sounded like a bomb going off. It happens.
<p>
<li> Jeffrey Smith: your analysis of Delenn is dead-on...I don't quite
think she really understood what was required of her, and what would
happen; I think she believed it would go somewhat other than it has,
which has given her pause, she's rattled, alone and realizing the
magnitude of what is before her, and her choice to undergo the
chrysalis. And that is EXACTLY the core of a huge Delenn episode in
the last part of this season.
<p>
<li> <em>Why did the battleships keep missing each other?</em>
<br>
Actually, all sides in battle use ECM (Electronic Counter Measures)
to throw off the targeting systems on the "enemy" vessels. But usually
it only takes a couple of quick firings to compensate (which is what
we've done).
<p>
<li> New Vegas is on Mars.
<p>
<li> The reporter didn't talk to Talia because the story wasn't about
what it's like to be a telepath. That's a different story. This was
about B5 and those who run it. Talia doesn't directly work for B5,
she's employed by the Psi Corps.
<p>
<li> The Torque- part of her name came from Torquemada, that's correct.
Just seemed appropriate since we were shortly doing an episode with an
inquisitor.
<p>
<li> After we made initial contact with aliens, first being the Centauri,
there were a lot of disruptions to the social and religious and
political paradigms, many of which are whole stories unto themselves.
There was also a lot of paranoia running around. Earthdome was
constructed in Geneva to be more or less impervious to an initial
assault from other races, should any come. (It was really something
of a fiction, the way the star wars defense program might not have
been really effective, but the theory was to protect the seat of
Earth government.) So it dates back about a hundred years. (And
it's NOT in the middle of a blasted heath; that was done in the comic
by the inker, who should've colored it a nice green.)
<p>
<li> "Whoever thought up the idea of *security cams* for FX shots...."
<br>
That's how it was scripted.
<p>
<li> G'Khamazad.
<p>
And G'Quon's primary follower/co-prophet was G'Lan.
<p>
Remember that name.
<p>
<li> It's also worth noting that this was likely Delenn's first real
encounter with Earth media/reporters on this level. She's never been
put into such a situation before, being challenged on-screen, which
would be the height of disrespect back home. (We refer to her desire,
after this, to learn more about the press in a later episode this
season.)
<p>
<li> Very few have noted the play on the title. The usual complete phrase
is, "And now for a word from our sponsor." So what was the only
sponsored commercial shown (in the 2259 version)...?
<p>
<li> <em>Interplanetary Expeditions was the bogus company from
"Infection." Is it more than just a throwaway here?</em><br>
Yeah, I'd say it's fair to say that you haven't heard the last of
Interplanetary Expeditions. Remember the rule: before you use the gun,
you show it on the mantle. You play fair. And create the context in
which the payoff later works.
<p>
<li> How can "Word" be a commentary on current allegations of bias (which
I think are out of all proportion) since the media is now supposedly
anti-government (nonsense), and the newscast in "Word" was more than
just a bit spoon-fed government propaganda?
<p>
<li> "Z'ha'dum" has only been seen by a few people at this early stage, but
folks like it. The big one, though, is really "And Now for a Word,"
which has gotten more responses from crew, cast and others than any
other script to date. From top to bottom, everyone is absolutely
excited about it. It's going to be a very challenging shoot, but the
result, I think,will be worth it.
</ul>

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<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
Sheridan discovers a connection between Morden and the death of his wife.
The station is inundated by Narn refugees. A new Earth Alliance agency
tries to recruit station personnel.
</cite>
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Wasser,+Ed">Ed Wasser</a> as Morden.
</blockquote>
<pre>
Sub-genre: Drama
<a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/038">9.30</a>
Production number: 217
Original air date: May 10, 1995
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by David Eagle
</pre>
<strong>Note: this episode is more momentous than most. Think twice before
proceeding to the spoilers; it's worth seeing unawares.</strong>
<p>
<hr size=3>
<h2><a name="BP">Backplot</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Delenn and Kosh tell Sheridan about the Shadows and the Vorlons:<br>
<dl compact>
<dt><b>D:</b>
<dd>
There are beings in the universe billions of years older than either of
our races. Once, long ago, they walked among the stars like giants.
Vast, timeless... they taught the younger races, explored beyond the
Rim, created great empires. But to all things, there is an end.
Slowly, over a million years, the First Ones went away. Some passed
beyond the stars, never to return. Some simply disappeared.
<dt><b>S:</b>
<dd>
I'm sure this is all very interesting, but what does any of this
have to do with Morden?
<dt><b>D:</b>
<dd>
Not all of the First Ones have gone away. A few stayed behind. Hidden
or asleep, waiting for the day when they may be needed. When the
Shadows come again.
<dt><b>S:</b>
<dd>
Shadows?
<dt><b>D:</b>
<dd>
We have no other name for them. The Shadows were old when even the
ancients were young. They battled one another over and over across a
million years. The last Great War against the Shadows was ten thousand
years ago. It was the last time the ancients walked openly among us.
The Shadows were only defeated, not destroyed. A thousand years ago,
the Shadows returned to their places of power, rebuilt them, and began
to stretch forth their hand. Before they could strike, they were
defeated by an alliance of worlds, including the Minbari and the few
remaining First Ones who had not yet passed beyond the veil. When
they had finished, the First Ones went away. All but one.
<dt><b>S:</b>
<dd>
There's still one of them left. Where?
<dt><b>D:</b>
<dd>
(indicates Kosh, to Sheridan's great surprise) That is why Kosh cannot
leave his encounter suit. He would be recognized.
<dt><b>S:</b>
<dd>
Recognized? By who?
<dt><b>K:</b>
<dd>
Everyone.
<dt><b>D:</b>
<dd>
For centuries the Vorlons stood alone, the last remaining guardians.
Watching and waiting.
</dl>
<p>
<li> Delenn's question to Kosh (cf.
<a href="022.html">"Chrysalis"</a>)
was, "Have the Shadows returned to Z'ha'dum?"
<p>
<li> The Icarus, an Earth exploration vessel carrying Anna Sheridan, arrived
at Z'ha'dum in late 2256 (see
<a href="#AN:dates">Analysis.</a>)
A landing party, exploring a cave, inadvertently
discovered the Shadows, awakening them. The Shadows destroyed the
Icarus so its crew could not return to warn others, and killed the
crewmembers who wouldn't cooperate. Morden was one of the crew.
<p>
<li> Delenn and Kosh knew about the reawakening of the Shadows immediately --
maybe even witnessed it somehow as it was happening.
<p>
<li> The Earth government has formed a new agency, the Ministry of Peace
(nicknamed "Minipax" by its employees,) with the alleged goal of
helping reduce internal tensions among the EA's populace. Its first
visible action was to establish a program called the Night Watch,
paying people 50 credits a week to wear black armbands and report
suspicious people to the authorities so that troublemakers can be
reformed before they disrupt the peace.
</ul>
<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Is Sheridan's wife still alive?
<li> What is the Ministry of Peace really up to?
<li> Will Talia join?
<li> Similarly, what significance is there in the fact that Delenn narrated
Sheridan's vision? Was she sharing it with him, or had she seen it
before?
<li> What kind of information did Morden bring for Londo?
<li> What, if anything, happened to the ship that originally discovered
the ruins on Z'ha'dum? Someone must have discovered them before the
Icarus' arrival, since the crew of the Icarus knew they were going
to explore an ancient civilization.
</ul>
<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Delenn's opening remarks about the First Ones bear a striking similarity
to G'Kar's comments about the beings at Sigma 957 (cf.
<a href="006.html">"Mind War."</a>)
Could those beings also be First Ones? If so, are the Vorlons aware
that they are still around in some form?
<li> Her remarks also echo her comments about humans in
<a href="020.html">"Babylon Squared"</a>
-- suggesting that she believes humanity has the capacity to eventually
rival the First Ones.
<li> Delenn stated that all but one of the First Ones have gone away, and
that the last one is Kosh. But does she mean that only one race
remains, or only one individual? Or is there a difference where
Vorlons are concerned? (See
<a href="#JS:vorlons">jms speaks</a>)
<li> If Kosh would be recognized by "everyone" because (as implied by Delenn)
his race had once walked openly among lesser ones, it's plausible that
Kosh may resemble something from legends thousands of years old -- an
angel, perhaps, since the Shadows bear some resemblance to demons and
Kosh's suit seems to have room for wings. This would tie in with
Kosh's statement in
<a href="035.html">"Hunter, Prey"</a>
that Sheridan must be ready "to fight legends" before Kosh will reveal
himself -- otherwise he'd be mistaken by some as a divine being rather
than an alien. Of course, angels and demons are far from the only
figures in the human pantheon, let alone alien mythology, and Kosh
may be something else entirely.
<li> Or the encounter suit may allow Kosh to control who gets visions like
Sheridan's; if he took it off, everyone who tried to look at him would
see something different, something personal. (See
<a href="#JS:hand">jms speaks.</a>)
This brings up a potential connection to the flashes in
<a href="020.html">"Babylon Squared"</a>;
perhaps the Vorlons were involved in Babylon 4's time travel, and
the flashes were a side effect of that.
<li> Why did Delenn demand to see Kosh in
<a href="022.html">"Chrysalis"</a>
before she was willing to undergo her change? She seems to know enough
about Vorlons that she would have had some idea what he looked like.
Did she simply want to verify that Kosh was one of the First Ones
mentioned in the Minbari history books? Or does his appearance have
something more directly to do with her wanting to become partially
human? That's assuming he was showing himself to her at all, rather
than sending her a dream sequence.
<li> How did Kosh know what happened on Z'ha'dum? Or was he just inventing
the scene he showed Sheridan based on what he figured must have
happened? Perhaps he gleaned it from his meeting with Morden in
<a href="013.html">"Signs and Portents,"</a>
though Delenn claims she and Kosh have known about it for the past
three years.
<li> <a name="AN:dates">The Icarus expedition</a>
seems to have set forth in late 2256. In
<a href="024.html">"Revelations,"</a>
which is set in early 2259, Sheridan's sister says that it's been
two years since Anna's death. In this episode, Delenn implies that
the Shadows were awakened three years earlier. Late 2256 makes sense
if both of them were rounding.
<li> The Shadows on Z'ha'dum may have been awakened in 2256,
but they weren't the first. The creature in
<a href="027.html">"The Long Dark"</a>
awoke during the Earth-Minbari War and was headed for Z'ha'dum.
What caused it to wake up before its masters did, assuming its
masters are the beings the Icarus discovered?
<li> Delenn's question was, "Have the Shadows <em>returned</em> to
Z'ha'dum?" That implies they were elsewhere; if so, where? Perhaps
the same thing that drew the abovementioned creature to Z'ha'dum
also drew the Shadows there. In that case, they may have already
been awake before the Icarus arrived.
<li> Sheridan let Morden go so he wouldn't suspect that his true nature
is known. But the damage may already be done; Morden and his
associates are likely to be suspicious of his sudden release.
The reason given to Morden -- "it was all a mistake" -- is going to
seem especially suspicious; "the Centauri asked for your release"
or "you're right; we can't hold you without charges" seem like they
would have been better excuses. Of course, the latter may be what
Zack told Morden.
<li> The Night Watch armbands seem more a tool of terror than of peace,
reminiscent of the armbands worn by Nazis and other tyrannical
regimes, a constant reminder to everyone that they're under
observation. The program seems designed to cause people to turn in
their neighbors, and it's probably naive to believe that people
accused of suspicious behavior (or worse, suspicious "attitudes")
will simply be put into therapy and
released shortly thereafter. Combined with the Ministry of Public
Morale (cf.
<a href="037.html">"And Now For a Word"</a>)
it suggests the Clark government is more interested in keeping the
citizenry under its thumb than anything noble.
<li> If it's true that the Night Watch considers thoughts dangerous, they
may well be involved with Psi Corps somehow; certainly it would make
sense for them to try to involve telepaths in rooting out undesirables.
Or, perhaps more likely, they're simply another of Psi Corps'
machinations.
<li> The Shadows aren't the only ones inhabiting places of power. Londo
observed that the technomages (cf.
<a href="025.html">"The Geometry of Shadows"</a>)
were usually cloistered in their places of power. And now the
technomages are headed for the Rim, or beyond it, because of a great
darkness approaching; what do they hope to achieve?
<li> Unless the holding cell cameras are very advanced, the Shadows'
invisibility is not all that good. Presumably there are aliens on the
station who can see well into the infrared or ultraviolet; the Shadows
would be easily detected by such beings in any public area. Perhaps
that's how Kosh knew who Morden was in
<a href="013.html">"Signs and Portents."</a>
On the other hand, it may simply be that some aliens <em>have</em>
seen the Shadows with Morden, but didn't think them remarkable enough
to be worth mentioning; they're probably far from the weirdest-looking
creatures walking around the station.
<li> Talia was able to detect the Shadows without even trying. That suggests
that telepaths will be a valuable weapon against the Shadows -- which
leads to the suspicion that the Shadows are working to co-opt Psi-Corps
behind the scenes so human telepaths will be less likely to work
against them. It's not clear whether her ability to sense the Shadows
was typical for a P5 telepath, or a result of her enhanced abilities
(cf. <a href="006.html">"Mind War."</a>)
<li> It's also worth noting that Talia saw Morden darken the same way Delenn
did in
<a href="013.html">"Signs and Portents"</a>
-- does this mean Delenn has some telepathic ability?
<li> In
<a href="004.html">"Infection,"</a>
Franklin says the Ikarans built their war machines to fend off
invasions, the last of which was 1000 years ago. Could they have been
participants in the last conflict with the Shadows? Will the
technology obtained by Earth in that episode be used in the upcoming
war?
<li> Morden's triangular hand placement while he was in his cell is
reminiscent of Lennier's meditation posture. Perhaps there's no
connection, or perhaps there is.
</ul>
<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> The name "Ministry of Peace" and its abbreviation Minipax are from
George Orwell's "1984."
<li> The convention mentioned by Talia is probably not the one described
in the novel
<a href="/lurk/novels/001.html">"Voices"</a>
because the novel takes place before
<a href="031.html">"The Coming of Shadows."</a>
<li> Delenn's narrative bears some resemblance to Gandalf's description of
the coming of Sauron near the beginning of the first book of "The Lord
of the Rings." In particular, this passage:
<blockquote>
"The rumours that you have heard are true: he has indeed arisen again
and left his hold in Mirkwood and returned to his ancient fastness in
the Dark Tower of Mordor. That name even you hobbits have heard of,
like a shadow on the borders of old stories. Always after a defeat
and a respite, the Shadow takes another shape and grows again."
</blockquote>
</ul>
<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> <a name="JS:about">"In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum"</a> is an
episode that is as emotionally raw as
<a href="022.html">"Chrysalis"</a>
with some major
revelations that force Sheridan to make the most important decision
of his life.
<p>
<li> Correct; Delenn and Kosh have said nothing about G'Kar's claims
because they're trying to keep a low profile.
<p>
<li> The shadows know that Kosh knows, because the Vorlons *always* know;
they also know (or think) that they're in a superior position because
if Kosh should tell the others, either a) most wouldn't believe him,
or b) the shadows would move aggressively now, costing untold lives.
They're more worried about an alliance between lots of races than the
Vorlons alone.
<p>
<li> I would not create a race as potentially unstoppable as the
shadows without making sure they had one -- but only one -- Achilles'
heel. Though it may take our characters a long time to figure out what
that is...almost *too* long....
<p>
<li> <a name="JS:vorlons">No, "all but one" refers to the race,</a>
not an individual. The First
Ones are various species/races. One of these species/races is still
around at this time. The Vorlons. Of which Kosh is one.
<p>
<li> The rim, and the "veil" beyond which the bulk of the First Ones
passed, is the Galactic rim. As for why the shadows are doing what
they're doing...that's kind of the key to the whole thing, which we
haven't turned yet.
<p>
<li> <em>Are the First Ones as old as the universe itself?</em><br>
Well, to some degree you're limited by the amount of time it
takes to evolve life per se, then into intelligent life, then into
spacefaring life. You need time after the Big Bang for planets to be
formed, cool, develop environments capable of supporting life...then
the long haul begins.
<p>
So yes, on the one hand, you've got races that are millions of
years older than humans, who were prowling around while we were still
furred, fanged, and slamming bones together. But they're not as old as
the universe, because they can't be.
<p>
<li> Exploration and archeological/scientific vessels like this usually
piggy-back on Explorer or other jump-capable ships, with an arrangement
that they'll be there for X-number of days or weeks, then another ship
will come that way and again piggy-back them out.
<p>
<li> Thanks. I like Vir a lot. Many folks were willing to write him off
in the beginning, not understanding that there was more beneath the
surface (a problem Vir has also had in his "life"). But you gotta be
careful; characters have a way of surprising you. And I like that, and
intended that, Vir be the first one to stand up to Morden.
<p>
<li> Again, look at the Kosh/Morden scene in
<a href="013.html">"Signs."</a>
A light is suddenly blown out off to one side. Morden didn't move.
So who did it...but his constant companions?
<p>
<li> <em>Kosh's command to Morden in "Signs"</em><br>
His comment would have been addressed to the shadows and their current
emissary.
<p>
<li> The difference is just in accent. ZA HA DOOM is the way I pronounce
it, but ZA cHA DOOM is also acceptable (from someone who's learned to
more or less accept the 47 different ways in which one may pronounce
straczynski).
<p>
<li> And, as you note, one of things that I like to play with is the
layering of ambiguity. Let's say, just for the sake of argument, that
we set up two sides: Shadowmen vs. Vorlons, which looks like evil vs.
good. Fundamentally, I would find that boring. What you would then
have to do is get into WHY they're doing what they do, and HOW they're
doing what they do.
<p>
There is, for instance, the "good" that says, "We know what's best
for you, we'll protect you, nurture you, but you'll do it our way, and
we'll keep you away from ideas and beliefs you shouldn't be exposed
to." Okay, maybe that fits one definition of good...but is it?
<p>
On the flip side, for instance, there's the "bad" that says "There
must be conflict and death, because it's only through conflict and
death that we grow stronger, that we can eventually create an ordered
universe. The gene pool must be kept strong. To do that, there must
be war and strife and death." Okay, maybe that fits the definition
of evil, but is it?
<p>
The key, again and always, is that nothing is what it seems on
Babylon 5. And even if it looks like it IS what it is, you have to
look at WHY it is what it is...and maybe at that point it isn't.
<p>
One of the things about this show is that you see as much as
you're willing to see. You can gloss over it, say, "Okay, these are
the good guys, these are the bad guys." But the closer you look, the
more you see the shades. I imagine when the Shadowmen are more fully
revealed, some folks'll think we're going for a basic good/evil
conflict...but believe me, there's a hell of a lot more involved in
it than that.
<p>
<li> <a name="JS:hand"><em>(From a 1993 GEnie message -- presumably we can
replace "Sinclair" with "Sheridan" now.)</em></a>
<p>
I've just sat here for five minutes trying to decide how to phrase this
and not give something vital away...and it's damn near impossible.
<p>
(another five minutes passes)
<p>
Okay, look...do this. Get a piece of paper. Write down the following:
"Sinclair sees the hand, but Sinclair does not see the hand. And
five other people standing in the room would not see the hand that
Sinclair sees, or see the hand that they see."
<p>
I know it looks like gibberish. But trust me on this. Put the piece of
paper in your wallet (next to the condom) and hold onto it for about two
years. Assuming we're still around that long, at some point that
message will make absolute and perfect sense.
<p>
<li> Kosh is always and forever *exactly* what he appears to be, no less and
no more. At the same time, Kosh is absolutely *nothing* like what he
appears to be.
<p>
These are not contradictory statements.
<p>
And this is about the straightest answer I've given yet on the subject,
believe it or not.
<p>
<li> I think it would be just about impossible to put Kosh on the outside
of a mug.
<p>
<li> Exactly. You will note that Macabee says, of the Ministry, "...or
Minipax, as we like to call it around the office." It's an in-house
joke, not the real name of the thing.
<p>
<li> Re: the two speeches by G'Kar and Delenn...yes, they were constructed
specifically to echo one another, because the walkers at Sigma 957 are
one of the older races that flit through but don't really pay any
attention to us anymore.
<p>
<li> Kosh is a Vorlon. The Vorlons fought the Shadows. There are many
Vorlons, back home. (The Writer committed an error in that he used
too many pronouns in that segment of dialogue.)
<p>
<li> <em>Was Kosh's line about Sheridan going to Z'ha'dum a warning or a
threat?</em><br>
Yes.
<p>
<li> How do you get a shot of Morden's head on a pike past the censors?
<p>
Easy.
<p>
You frame the shot so the head is draped...in shadows.
<p>
If I were to be planning such a thing, of course....
<p>
<li> MPs (Military Police) also wear armbands. So do the Red Cross and some
United Nations forces.
<p>
<li> <em>How many times did you shoot the scene with Talia slapping
Sheridan?</em><br>
Only twice. Mainly 'cause she tended to whack him real hard.
[...]
The take you see is the first one printed.
<p>
<li> He said stop because Zack had found the right wavelength (at least
briefly) and didn't want him to go further and lose it again.
<p>
<li> <em>Will Vir, even metaphorically, get to wave at Morden?</em><br>
That would be telling.
<p>
<li> <em>Was the Great Machine inside Epsilon 3 built by a member race of the
First Ones?</em><br>
Could be.
<p>
<li> No, Varn was not one of the First Ones.
</ul>
<h3>Bruce Boxleitner speaks</h3>
<ul>
<li> <em>Bruce: what has the most challenging episode been for you so
far, and why?</em><br>
The episode we just finished filming today.
It's called In the Shadow of Za'Ha'Dum and my character deals with
some very personal issues.
</ul>

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<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
An old acquaintance requests Londo's help. Sheridan is plagued by visions
nobody else can see.
</cite>
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Argenziano,+Carmen">Carmen Argenziano</a> as Urza Jaddo.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Forward,+William">William Forward</a> as Refa.
</blockquote>
<pre>
Sub-genre: Drama/Intrigue
<a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/039">7.21</a>
Production number: 216
Original air date: May 17, 1995
Written by Larry DiTillio
Directed by Stephen Posey
</pre>
<p>
<hr size=3>
<h2><a name="BP">Backplot</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> In his youth, Londo was a swordfighter of no small repute, and House
Mollari was one of the most well-respected in the Republic.
<li> Earth Force has confiscated all the files on the Babylon 4 incident (cf.
<a href="020.html">"Babylon Squared,"</a>)
but Garibaldi had the foresight to make a copy first.
<li> Refa and his associates on Centauri Prime are consolidating their
power by having their political opponents declared traitors. Some
of those opponents are well aware of his involvement in the
assassination of the Prime Minister (cf.
<a href="031.html">"The Coming of Shadows."</a>)
</ul>
<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> What was the creature? Was it involved somehow in Babylon 4's
movement through time, or did it just happen by Sector 14 after the
fact?
<li> Will Londo's support of Urza have an effect on Refa's plans?
</ul>
<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> The fact that there's still a spacetime rift of some sort in Sector
14 suggests that it may be possible to travel freely back and forth
between 2259 and whenever the creature came from. Unless, of course,
the creature was involved in Babylon 4's time travel; in that case,
its presence may have caused the rift to reopen.
<li> Londo believes he has a destiny to fulfill. What exactly does he
think it is? Is it based in part on his dream? (cf.
<a href="031.html">"The Coming of Shadows"</a>)
Or is it a more general notion of bringing the Centauri back to power
with the help of Morden, without any specific role for himself?
</ul>
<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> The names of the last Centauri Emperor and Prime Minister, Turhan and
Malachi, respectively, just happen to be the first names of the
actors who played those roles in
<a href="031.html">"The Coming of Shadows."</a>
<li> Garibaldi and Sheridan were getting a large number of foul balls on
the baseball diamond. Since the station is spinning,
the Coriolis effect would make playing baseball an interesting
proposition, to say the least, especially near the center of
rotation -- a high enough ball would pass beyond the axis and
land on some other section of the interior, perhaps even the
"ceiling!"
<li> Visual gaffe: When Londo was knocked down and he dropped his
sword, the sword fell and skidded on Londo's left, but when
he reached for the sword to deliver the fatal blow, it
appeared that he reached to his right.
<li> The Centauri method of dealing with traitors -- execution followed by
confiscation of property -- is similar to what the Romans used to do,
and it apparently has the same effect. Romans who knew they were about
to be convicted of treason often committed suicide to prevent their
families' inheritances from being seized.
</ul>
<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> <a name="JS:foul">Actually,</a>
Sheridan WAS hitting fair and home run balls in the front
of the show; later, though, when he was more rattled, they were all
foul.
<li> Actually, the chronological order was *supposed* to be "Knives," THEN
"Z'ha'dum." In "Knives" you get the reminder about Anna, then in
"Z'ha'dum" you get the payoff. That was originally how they were
intended to be aired, but there was *so much* CGI work and rotoscope
work and creature animation involved in "Knives" that it got flopped
to second in that order. So while it works *best* the way it was
intended, it still works okay in this order.
<li> Correct, the critter in "Knives" was most *definitely* not a
Vorlon.
</ul>

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<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
The outbreak of a fatal disease among the Markab population prompts a panic on
the station; Dr. Franklin races against time to find a cure.
</cite>
</blockquote>
<pre>
Sub-genre: Drama
<a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/040">7.85</a>
Production number: 218
Original air date: May 24, 1995
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Kevin Cremin
</pre>
<p>
<hr size=3>
<h2><a name="BP">Backplot</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> The Minbari expect Valen, the holy figure who founded the Grey Council
a thousand years ago (perhaps during the last conflict with the
Shadows) to return some day -- or at least, they have a religious
ceremony suggesting so.
<li> A deadly virus appeared on an isolated island on the Markab homeworld
several hundred years ago, wiping the entire population out. The
inhabitants of the island were known for what was widely considered
sinful behavior, and the virus came to be viewed as divine retribution
by the Markab.
<li> Dr. Franklin visited the Markab homeworld once while he was hitchhiking
on starships in his youth.
<li> Keffer has been taking trips into hyperspace in his spare time, looking
for the mysterious ship (a Shadow ship) he saw in
<a href="026.html">"A Distant Star."</a>
<li> When Delenn was a small child, she was separated from her parents in
an unfamiliar Minbari city. Eventually she found refuge in an old,
apparently unused, temple, where she waited for hours. Then, just
before her parents found her, she saw a vision of a figure, bathed
in light, who told her, "I will not allow my little ones to come to
harm in this place."
</ul>
<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Was the virus created artificially? If so, who did it and why? (See
<a href="#AN:timing">Analysis</a>)
<li> How many Markab are still alive?
<li> What's going on between Delenn and Sheridan?
<li> Will someone lay claim to the dead Markab worlds? Who?
<li> Was Delenn's story about the temple true, or just a story to comfort
the lost Markab child? If true, who or what appeared before her? (See
<a href="#JS:delenn">jms speaks</a>)
<li> Will the disease spread among the Pak'ma'ra as well, or will Franklin's
treatment stop it from wiping them out?
</ul>
<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> This episode's plague theme meshes with the story and ritual
practice of Passover. The Minbari dinnner ceremony Sheridan, Delenn, and
Lennier participate in is a ritualized meal, like Passover: foods must
be eaten in a particular order, and a table setting is left for a
revered historical figure (Elijah, Valen) who is supposed to return
some day. As the Markabs enter the de facto "quarantine" chamber, the
Markab ambassador suggests that if they pray and are pure, the plague
will "pass over" them -- a parallel with the original passover story,
where a certain sign on the house door made a plague attacking the
Egyptians pass over the Jews. Franklin's discussion of the Black Death
also mentions how Jews were unjustly accused of spreading the infection.
<p>
<li> Franklin appears to have forgotten about the alien healing device he
acquired in
<a href="021.html">"The Quality of Mercy"</a>
and used on Garibaldi in
<a href="024.html">"Revelations,"</a>
which he could have used to help his friend and thus increase
the chance of finding a real cure.
Or perhaps he knows enough about it now to know that it wouldn't have
worked on plague victims for some reason. (Obviously it wouldn't
have been of much use to the Markab population in general, since it
only works on one person at a time and only with a donor.)
<p>
<li> Babylon 5's crew may have inadvertently helped the disease spread
when they gathered all the Markab for blood tests; presumably some
of the subjects would have remained in their quarters if they
hadn't been dragged out and tested in a room full of possible
carriers.
<p>
<li> Sheridan presumably ordered Keffer to stop his expeditions because he
suspects Keffer's mystery ship is a Shadow vessel. Will he let
Keffer in on that information, or will he continue to keep it to
himself and simply let the order stand?
<p>
<li> Franklin's frequent use of stims to stay awake while a medical crisis
is going on (cf.
<a href="038.html">"In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum"</a>)
may spell big trouble for him if he keeps it up. Doctors on stims
are more likely to make mistakes (cf. Dr. Rosen in
<a href="021.html">"The Quality of Mercy"</a>)
and it appears the Earth medical community doesn't look kindly on the
practice of doctors drugging themselves to stay awake -- Dr. Rosen
lost her medical license as a result.
<p>
Whatever his good intentions,
his obsession with solving everything on his own may lead him into
a regrettable situation down the road. There isn't yet enough evidence
to show that he's actually addicted to the stims, though.
(See <a href="#JS:stims">jms speaks</a>)
<p>
<li> It's been argued that the Markab <em>did</em> die for their sins --
specifically, the sin of pride, by believing that they could keep the
disease to themselves and not involve any outsiders. Had Franklin
learned of the disease when it first hit the station, he (or another
non-Markab doctor) might well have been able to save a billion lives.
<p>
<li> Delenn seems to be coming apart at the seams in many ways, probably as
a result of being made a pariah among her people. If she's telling the
truth, or at least part of the truth, about undergoing her change to
help draw humans and Minbari closer together (cf.
<a href="024.html">"Revelations"</a>)
it must be frustrating in the extreme to be reviled by her own kind,
and resented by many humans (cf.
<a href="037.html">"And Now For a Word."</a>)
Especially if she believes that she's special somehow, a unique player
in an immense drama (cf.
<a href="020.html">"Babylon Squared."</a>)
This, in combination with the influence of her new biology, may explain
why she's reaching out to Sheridan now; he at least seems to respect
her and relate to her as an equal, and she probably trusts him a lot
more now that she sees he can be trusted with one of her biggest
secrets (cf.
<a href="038.html">"In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum."</a>)
<p>
Or, of course, she could be planning something. She's been trying to
get closer to Sheridan for quite some time (cf.
<a href="030.html">"A Race Through Dark Places"</a>)
and this could simply be the next step.
<p>
<li> On a similar note, being locked in a room and helplessly watching
thousands of people die all around can't be good for Delenn's emotional
stability. It remains to be seen if this will have an impact on her
personality; for many people it would be a profound shock.
<p>
<li> But Sheridan's statement that Delenn wouldn't be able to come back
out if she entered the contaminated area doesn't make sense, given
that the plague was known to be airborne; she'd be exposed to it
either way, given that the station's air is recycled (as stated in
the episode.) Presumably he was just trying to keep her from going in.
<p>
<li> <a name="AN:timing">The timing of the plague's reappearance,</a> with
all the other events going on, is suspicious. Of course, it might be a
simple coincidence, as
Franklin suspects, just a dormant disease whose time has come. But
another interpretation is that the outbreak on the Markab island
centuries earlier was an early biological warfare test on an isolated
population, and the events in this episode were the real attack. If
that's true, who is responsible, and do they have any connection with
the approaching Great War?
<p>
Note that the Markab did have some contact with the Shadows last time
they rose up, as evidenced by the Markab ambassador's speech in
<a href="027.html">"The Long Dark"</a>
-- perhaps someone (not necessarily the Shadows; maybe the man at the
bar was right) didn't want the Markab around to participate this time.
<p>
<li> Franklin's cure protects possible victims against attack, rather than
eliminating the disease. B5, with its recycled air supply, now
permanently carries the disease, which is dangerous to species with
yellow and green blood-cells (or cells that perform a similar function,
namely the manufacture of certain neurotransmitters) and might well
mutate to endanger
others. This could affect the willingness of alien groups to use the
station in the future. Even species not vulnerable to the disease
might keep away just to be safe.
</ul>
<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> This episode features a previously unseen alien (or at least, a
humanoid who's presumably alien) wearing a suit with an elaborate
helmet. The helmet bears a striking resemblance to the mask of
Morpheus, the King of Dreams, from Neil Gaiman's
<a href="http://www.holycow.com/dreaming/">"Sandman"</a>
comic book. As "Sandman" is one of JMS's favorite comics, this may be
an intentional homage.
<li> "Markab" is Arabic for "boat."
</ul>
<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> "Confessions" isn't per se a wham episode, for instance, but it does
have some very sharp turns, and it's an extremely intense episode on a
par with "Believers." It makes no compromises and takes no prisoners,
and I imagine it'll stir up about as much debate as did "Believers," if
not more. When we did playback after doing the audio mix a few days
ago, there wasn't a dry eye in the house.
<p>
<li> I would also point out that, upon returning from the Moon, Apollo
astronauts were quarantined routinely in case any virus might have been
encountered; also, Mars probes today are carefully sterilized prior to
launch to prevent any virus from our ecosystem interacting with anything
that might be there. Further, there have been numerous hearings within
NASA, and in at least one case in the Senate Science Subcommittee, in
which biologists and scientists have expressed concern about the
possibility of viral contamination from new species. So anyone who says
this isn't possible simply isn't reading the literature.
<p>
<li> Tom, we *do* have a medical/biological advisor, whose primary
comment on the notion that a virus couldn't pass between one species
and another..."We have yet to contact one other alien life form to make
an analysis. We do not know for a fact that their biology will be
radically different than our own. Until we actually make contact, it's
as likely as not." A biologist works from what's known; unless you've
got a specimen of alien life somewhere and aren't showing it to anyone,
or you're simply making a guess, which is neither more nor less correct
until we have something testable in our hands.
<p>
<li> I will not defend the notion that
the episode stated that all Americans felt that AIDS was a penalty from
god because it never said that. Ever. In any way, manner, shape or
form. The problem is that some people are so caught up in the current
situation that they lose all sense of perspective. Fact is, most
people DID think that the Black Death was a punishment from God, or the
work of the devil, as Franklin says. The Markabs had a similar belief.
Nowhere was that applied in dialogue to humans or the AIDS situation.
<p>
The whole point of the episode is NOT political; it says that if you
make a disease political on either side, you're gonna die. You have to
set aside all that crap and just Deal With The Problem. The only "side"
this episode took was in advocating compassion for those afflicted.
<p>
I have enough just dealing with what's actually *in* my series; don't
compound the problem by adding things that you saw only in your own
head, and which exist nowhere in dialogue or in the story. You are
adding the template of your own beliefs as an overlay, and seeing this
story through it. That ain't my problem. If you see this disease as
political, that's your lookout. This show says that ANY attempt to
politicize a disease is species-dangerous thinking. Period.
<p>
<li> On one level, this does indicate that we really *are* crazy over here at
B5. Here we developed this race for nearly two years. Developed their
culture. Mentioned them prominently just last episode. Had them speak
before the full Council (in "Long Dark"). Spent substantial amounts of
money making them the biggest single alien group we've got (some of the
group shots had 40-50 or more Markabs, all in full prosthetics and full
costume)...and now, never to be seen again.
<p>
It couldn't be a race we've never seen before, not if it was to have the
impact I wanted. It had to be a group that's been with us from the
start.
<p>
In Council scenes for the balance of the season, the Markab seat remains
empty.
<p>
<li> "No disease in human history is 100% fatal."
<p>
Not correct. The Black Death was fatal to everyone infected by it. It
was not, as Drafa, 100% contagious, but it *was* about 90% contagious.
The Black Death wiped out *three-quarters of the entire European
population*. <em>(Editor's note: not quite true; three-quarters of
the population in some areas was wiped out, but the total toll was
closer to one quarter -- still pretty devastating. The mortality
rate was high, but some people survived and were immune thereafter.
It also hit Africa and Asia.)</em>
<p>
Roll that around for a while. Three-quarters.
<p>
The only thing that saved areas of Europe was that there wasn't as much
travel then as today between countries; it was reserved for those with
enough money to afford it, which were very few. There were also fewer
means of entry; a river and a bridge closed to refugees was often enough
to keep people out. There is now MUCH freer travel. Had there been
freer travel in the 14th century, it's entirely possible that the
entire European population might have been completely eradicated, with
those few who might've been immune dying from associated diseases,
hunger and other problems caused by the presence of the disease.
<p>
One person I spoke with at the CDC (Center for Disease Control) said
that, hypothetically speaking, the sudden eruption of a disease like
this is possible. How likely depends on various circumstances. There
are, for instance, regions in the Amazon and South America where certain
kinds of plant and animal life can only be found; and those specific
lifeforms can transfer diseases to humans...diseases that literally
melt the flesh off your body, or in another case, cause worm-like
infestations to burst through the skin covering the entire body. (Let
me tell you, researching this was just a whole lotta laughs.) They are
*highly* contagious. The only thing that has (so far) prevented a
massive outbreak is the fact that by the time you can generally get
OUT of these remote areas...you're dead.
<p>
A particularly aggressive disease could perform very much like what is
described in the episode.
<p>
<li> What Colin misses, obviously, is that not *all* of the markabs are
"mindless religious fanatics," in that Dr. Lazarenn was not one, but
that was mainly because he had long been exposed to human/outsider
ideas, which most of his reclusive people are not.
<p>
Second, y'know, I get asked a lot, "Give us ALIEN aliens." So I do. And
then I get gigged because they don't act like we'd expect humans to act.
Sometimes I just throw up my hands....
<p>
<li> You have to listen a little closer. The dormancy period is several days
to several weeks, as Franklin says; once the disease *comes out of
dormancy*, then it kills within about a day.
<p>
<li> I don't think his behavior was boorish at all. After a very long day,
in which (he stated) he hadn't eaten a thing, he sits down in a cross
legged position for (if you track the time in the story) 3-5 *hours*,
alternately eating and meditating in a small, quiet room...who
*wouldn't* fall asleep?
<p>
<li> The fighters aren't *inexpensive*, but not hideously costly either.
Also, the pilots like to spend as much time out on patrol as possible,
to garner more flight pay. Keffer's squad was already out earlier (as
noted by Sheridan); Keffer chose to stay out a little longer doing a bit
of reconnaisance. Most of the hassle is in prepping the ship for
launch, maintainance and so on; once it's out, it's just a matter of a
bit more fuel. If he left *strictly* for this purpose, then yeah,
they'd nail his butt to the flight deck. But since he was out anyway,
it's not as big an issue.
<p>
<li> <em>(Delenn's childhood experience)</em><br>
<a name="JS:delenn">Well, it's about TIME somebody noticed</a> that
little exchange in "Confessions and Lamentations." Sometimes I stick
stuff so obviously in the foreground that I'm afraid it's going to be
too blatant, and then nobody seems to notice it, looking instead at
the tiny stuff in the background.
<p>
Unfortunately, all I can say for now is that it is significant to
Delenn's character and growth, and her sense of being special, and
called into the religious caste.
<p>
<li> We joked a few times about having a mass burial for the Markab
prosthetics and costumes behind the stage....
<p>
<li> A man is shot by a gun. Now, you can either do a story about the guy
and his life up to the moment he was shot and killed, or you can do a
story about the people who are affected by his death. The former
story ends kinda fast. But both are perfectly valid. The main thrust
is how this story AFFECTS our main characters. Would they have been
more affected if it were the Drazi rather than the Markabs? No. It
would've been just the same. My job is not to sit here and say, "Hmm
... do I think audience members like the Drazi or the Markabs more?"
and thus base my decision based on that. I write my stories based on
what's right for the story, period. In this case, I knew it had to
be one of the League races, and in particular, those prosthetics
capable of expressing broad ranges of emotion, potentially sympathetic
characters. The instantly cut out the pak'ma'ra as primary characters.
I considered the Drazi, but my sense was that the prosthetics couldn't
convey the depth of emotion I needed. Finally, that led me to the
Markabs.
<p>
Enough terrible things happened, and continue to happen, to our major
races; best to give them a break and see how they react when it's
someone else.
<p>
<li> <em>Delenn and Lennier's exchange after Sheridan leaves</em><br>
Isn't it more fun to leave the piece untranslated? Shouldn't some
things be left to the imagination?
<p>
<li> <em>Plague stories are trendy these days.</em><br>
Next time I will try and locate every other producer in town and
see what they plan to produce, so I can plan accordingly. When I
wrote the episode, Outbreak hadn't been promoted yet or known about,
Voyager hadn't aired, ER hadn't told me what they were going to do
...if I'd known there would be such a glut...well, I probably
would've done so anyway, because this isn't so much about the plague
and saying its' dangerous, but about our attitudes when we are
confronted by this, which really hasn't been dealt with that much in
SF. (And I'm sorry, but don't even *try* to bring the Voyager story
into this; the ship is threatened by a cheese contamination? I almost
fell off my chair.)
<p>
<li> What you also have to do is step back for a moment and remember that
the dinner began prior to Keffer and the rest leaving B5; and was
ending about the time they got back. Add up the time indicated, and
you've got a ritual that has gone on for at LEAST 3-4 hours now,
probably closer to 5-6; seated in a small room, legs crossed, after
what was almost certainly a busy day. Show me somebody who WOULDN'T
doze off after a while.
<p>
<li> <em>The alien with a breathing apparatus a "Sandman" reference?</em><br>
It's mainly an extrapolation on an alien breather based on WW II
style gas masks.
<p>
<li> <a name="JS:stims"><em>Franklin's use of stims here and in
"Z'ha'dum;" their disastrous consequences for Dr. Rosen in QoM</em></a>
<br>
Ah, about time; I was wondering when someone would get around to
remembering "Quality of Mercy" in this....
<p>
<li> The use of markabs was definitely NOT a reference to Scientology in
any way, manner, shape or form.
</ul>

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<H2><A NAME="OV">Overview</A></H2>
<BLOCKQUOTE><CITE>
Lyta Alexander, the station's first telepath,
returns with a warning that one of Babylon 5's officers is
an operative for a top-secret government organization. A long-held
secret of another Babylon 5 officer is revealed.
</CITE>
<A HREF="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Tallman,+Patricia">Patricia
Tallman</A> as Lyta Alexander.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<PRE>
Sub-genre: Mystery/Intrigue
<a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/041">8.50</a>
Production number: 220
Original air date: July 25, 1995 (UK)
October 11, 1995 (US)
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Jesus Trevino
</PRE>
<P>
<HR SIZE=3>
<H2><A NAME="BP">Backplot</A></H2>
<UL>
<LI> Lyta Alexander is part of a secret movement against Psi Corps. She's
evidently been a dissident since she probed Kosh (cf.
<A HREF="000.html">"The Gathering"</A>).
When Lyta probed Kosh, she felt something she then hid from the years of
subsequent interrogations from Psi-Corps.
She has been feeling drawn to Vorlon space and has desperately tried to
get there. She knows a lot more than she has ever told anyone, including
what Kosh is under his suit.
<li> Talia Winters was programmed with a 'sleeper' personality by the Psi
Corps. She is probably "Control" (cf.
<A HREF="028.html">"A Spider in the Web"</A>).
<li> Ivanova is a latent telepath. She is able to block some scans, knows
instantly if someone scans her,
can pick up on some feelings, but has never been able to scan anyone
except her mother.
She claims, though, that her psi rating is
"not even a P1."
<li> "Universe Today" has a section called 'Eye on Minbari'
which Delenn uses to find out things
about her homeworld she might not neccessarily have been told yet,
in addition to learning human perceptions of Minbari.
<li> Lyta spent some time with Psi Cops as part of her training, but left
because she didn't like it and became a commercial telepath instead.
</UL>
<H2><A NAME="UQ">Unanswered Questions</A></H2>
<ul>
<li> Exactly how much <em>does</em> Talia's new persona know? And what will
this do to B5 in the future?
<li> Is there really no chance of the old Talia recovering? If not, what
good is the recording Kosh made?
<li> How safe is Lyta's escape? Will Psi-corps get her in the end? The fact
that Kosh let her off the station suggests he's prepared to risk
Psi-Corps getting their grubby hands on whatever it is she knows from
the scan.
<li> What did Lyta see when she asked Kosh to reveal himself? Something
with a halo of light, but what?
<li> Dr. Kyle also saw Kosh. Has Psi-Corps learned anything from
him that they didn't learn from Lyta?
<li> How involved are Sinclair's rangers with the Mars resistance?
<li> Was it Talia who attempted to kill Lyta?
<li> How did (presumably) Talia get the lights in the security section to
go out, being replaced with red backups? And how did she know that she
had a chance to hit Lyta? She was being taken from one cell to another
on orders passed from Garibaldi to Zack to two ordinary security
people. Is Zack implicated in some way, perhaps by way of his
involvement in Nightwatch? It seems conincidental that in
the few minutes available an attempt was made on Lyta's life.
<li> What about Ironheart (cf.
<A HREF="006.html">"Mind War"</A>)?
If he saw "everything," would he not have known about the implanted
personality, however deep it was?
<li> What will Psi Corps do with Talia now that the Artificial Personality
has taken control?
<li> Was the 'Control' mentioned by Lyta the same one installed by Bureau 13?
<li> Was Garibaldi <em>really</em> faking the transition to an artificial
personality? And does he know more that he's letting on? (see
<A HREF="#AN">Analysis</A>)
<li> How will Sheridan and Delenn handle the growing feelings in their
friendship?
<li> Why is Babylon 5 seen to be so important to several unknown
individuals/groups, and who are those people?
</ul>
<H2><A NAME="AN">Analysis</A></H2>
<ul>
<li> Whatever Ironheart did to Talia seems to have enhanced her powers
enormously, and she seems to be growing more powerful. Psi Corps, at a
minimum, now have the psychic assassin they were trying to create, and
potentially much more. Assuming, of course, that Ironheart's gift
wasn't erased when Talia's original personality was destroyed.
<p>
<li> Another possibility is that Talia <em>wasn't</em> destroyed, that
Ironheart's gift allowed her to prevent Control from taking over,
but she's playing along as a means of continuing her own investigation
into what's going on with Psi-Corps (cf.
<a href="028.html">"Spider in the Web."</a>)
<p>
<li> Delenn's choice of articles in <CITE>Universe Today</CITE> is a
revealing one. This highlights the lack of information she is receiving
now that she is no longer a member of the Grey Council. However, she
is learning to gather information from other sources and to "read
between the lines" more carefully. It appears that she is regaining
confidence in her abilities.
<p>
<li> During the attempted murder of Lyta while she is being transfered
between holding cells, we see the hand holding the assailants PPG. It
is wearing a black glove, very similar to those worn by Talia. However,
the lead time between Garibaldi ordering Lyta to be moved, and the
attempted assassination appears to be very short. So how did Talia
know when to leave Ivanova's quarters in order to intercept Lyta? And
does Talia know how to kill the main lights in a section? Three
possibilities present themselves:
<p>
<ol>
<li> Coincidence. Talia, under the control of the artificial
personality (AP), goes to hunt down
and kill Lyta while Ivanova is out getting some air. The fact
that Lyta was being transferred made the attempt much easier.
Killing the main lights is knowledge that Talia has but we
aren't shown. However, in
<a href="028.html">"A Spider in the Web,"</a>
we <em>are</em> shown that Bureau 13 has cracked the station
computer's security, which presumably would allow Talia to
discover both Lyta's location and the time of the transfer.
<p>
<li> There is an additional agent provocateur on Babylon 5. Someone
who does have the knowledge of Lyta's movements, and would know
how to kill the main lights in a section. This strongly
suggests Garibaldi, but might be Zack or another member of the
security staff. A trigger message is sent to Talia, who then
attempts to kill Lyta.
<p>
<li> As above, there is an additional mole on Babylon 5, but it is
this individual who knows about Lyta's movements, knows how to
short circuit the main lights, and attempts to kill Lyta. In
this case, Talia is innocently caught up in the actions of
another individual attempting to protect themselves. There is
additional evidence that might be seen to support this
(see below).
</ol>
<p>
<li> How does Talia know that Lyta Alexander is aboard Babylon 5? She may
have guessed indirectly from a conversation with Ivanova and done some
digging of her own, but Ivanova only asks if Talia knew Lyta - not
telling her that she was aboard. Alternatively, she learnt of this
through her PsiCorps contacts. Or Talia arranged (at the suggestion of
the submerged AP) for her quarters to be out of use so that she could
be closer to Ivanova. Once close enough, she could scan Ivanova and
learn about the cell group, also learning about Lyta at the same time.
When Talia wakes up (finding Ivanova gone) she has no gloves on.
Physical contact may be used to intensify mental contact, and Talia
might have done this while Ivanova was sleeping. Talia's new
personality indicates that there <em>was</em> an ulterior motive for
getting close to Ivanova.
<p>
<li> Garibaldi's flashbacks refer to
<A HREF="009.html">"Deathwalker,"</A>
where Kosh uses a ViCaR (or VCR, an individual with an enhanced
photographic memory) to conduct a strange negotiation, with Talia
monitoring. A data crystal was also passed to Kosh from the ViCaR, and
Talia doesn't know what it contained. Kosh's comments seem to indicate
his awareness of Talia's AP and what will happen when it is activated.
So, has Kosh recorded a copy of Talia's personality onto a data
crystal? We have already seen that the Earth Alliance has the technology
to wipe a personality and build a new one
(<A HREF="021.html">"The Quality of Mercy"</A>.)
Will this be a way for Sheridan to wipe out the AP and any knowledge
that PsiCorps might pick up from Talia? It may not be so easy (see
<a href="#JS">JMS Speaks</a>).
<p>
<li> Garibaldi believed Lyta and her story. Considering how strongly this
goes against his previous behaviour, does he have an ulterior motive?
This may tie in with some of the speculation about Lyta's attempted
murder. See also the following two points.
<p>
<li> When Taro Isogi is killed by the modified Free Mars leader
(<A HREF="028.html">"A Spider in the Web"</A>),
Control identifies Talia Winters (who witnessed the murder) as
someone who should also be eliminated. Given that Lyta Alexander
referred to the (then unknown) sleeper agent as 'Control', can we draw
the conclusion that Talia was part of a Bureau 13 operation? Or are
there different sections of PsiCorps treading on each other's toes?
It seems unlikely that Talia ordered her own execution, especially if
Lyta is right about Control being programmed for self-preservation.
<p>
<li> Garibaldi's "faked" personality transition was taken by all the
others as being a joke in bad taste. But consider an alternative
explanation: Lyta stated that the AP would say or do anything to
protect itself, and Garibaldi was behaving out of character. He also
immediately turned everyone's attention to Ivanova. Talia was
caught unprepared for the sending of the password, but Garibaldi knew
that the password would be sent. Garibaldi knew, or could easily
have found out, when Lyta was slated to be moved, so could have pulled
the trigger. And he was ready to bring Talia into the conspiracy,
perhaps in order to expose it indirectly.
<p>
However, it is unlikely that
two different sleepers would respond to the same password, and the
events in the "flashforward" scene in
<A HREF="020.html">"Babylon Squared"</A>
would suggest that Garibaldi's loyalty is not in question.
<p>
<li> Ivanova was also awake at the time, and unaccounted-for, making her
a suspect.
<p>
<li> How high up the chain of Psi-Corps command does this implanting go?
There is every indication the it's above Bester. Twice in the series
Bester has suspected and even accused Talia of conspiring against the
Corps. Why would he suspect or accuse her of this if he knew he had
an ally inside her brain?
<p>
<li> The Delenn/Sheridan relationship is growing stronger. Neither Delenn or
Sheridan are making a strong attempt to hide their growing trust and
respect for each other. After the events in
<A HREF="040.html">"Confessions and
Lamentations"</A>, Delenn has drawn emotional support from Sheridan.
Her growing affection for him is something that she clearly shows in
her face and actions while they are in the garden talking. Sheridan
also appears to be happy that he has someone who he can turn to who
will help him when all around is madness, and is wondering just where
all this is leading.
<p>
<li> The relationship between Talia and Ivanova is one that will attract
much debate.
<p>
At the start of the episode, it seems clear that they are just friends.
Talia would not hesitate to impose on Ivanova's sleeping quarters if
there were anything stronger.
<p>
During the episode, as Ivanova becomes more and more worried about
revealing her (limited) telepathic ability, she relies on Talia during
the expression of her feelings and doubts. There is an apparent
emotional tension between them that might be interpreted as a "should I
make the first move," or as Talia's giving support but hesitating to
probe further, and Ivanova's "should I trust her, even though she's a
telepath?"
<p>
When Talia wakes up in Ivanova's bed, finding her missing, it is
tempting to jump to the "obvious" conclusion. However we know that
Ivanova's quarters only has one cot (indicated in
<A HREF="027.html">"The Long Dark"</A>
by Dr. Franklin.) Of course, Ivanova probably has a sofa/couch that
might have been used.
<p>
When Ivanova has her final conversation with the dominated Talia, she
indicates that it gave Talia the words that would get her close to all
Ivanova knew. Just how much Talia knows about Ivanova is unclear, and
we have no indication of just how close in addition to the emotional
bond.
<p>
Had Ivanova and Talia had a physical relationship then Ivanova might
have revealed her latent telepathy ("Do you know what its like when
telepaths make love?" in
<A HREF="006.html">"Mind War"</A>.)
Since the alternate Talia didn't goad Ivanova about this, then either
Ivanova maintained a block, or they didn't have a physical
relationship.
<p>
<li> Ivanova's relationship with her mother is opened up further by her
revelation of being a latent telepath, although this is not explored
directly. Since Ivanova could initiate contact with her mother, she
could obtain a clear mental as well as physical picture of her mothers
deterioration under the PsiCorps telepathic suppression drugs. The
drugs would of course prevent any attempt at contact initiated by her
mother, and also of any blocking.
<p>
We now have a clearer understanding of how Ivanova developed her strong
feelings against PsiCorps, and what she must have overcome in order to
establish her friendship with Talia. This change in Talia (and the AP
claiming to have directed the growth of their friendship) may have far
reaching effects in her ability to trust again.<p>
<p>
<li> Sheridan has now seen a part of his Kosh-induced dream
(<A HREF="033.html">"All Alone in the
Night"</A>) come true. In the dream he saw Ivanova with a black raven
on her shoulder, and heard her say: "Do you know who I am?" At
what point will other parts of the dream come true? (If they
haven't already.)<p>
<p>
<li> Why did Sheridan let Talia go so easily? He could have held her on
charges of shooting two security guards, if nothing else. Perhaps he
felt that doing so would draw too much attention to his covert
activities.
<p>
<li> Since a Ranger was involved in smuggling the data crystal to Lyta,
Garibaldi may have been warned of her arrival.
<p>
<li> Delenn appeared to be turning down closer relations with the Lumati (cf.
<a href="034.html">"Acts of Sacrifice"</a>)
when Lyta called. Why? (Maybe their method of closing treaties is
a bit closer than she'd prefer the relations to get.)
<p>
<li> JMS says (see
<a href="#JS:takashima">jms speaks</a>)
that originally, Takashima (cf.
<a href="000.html">"The Gathering"</a>
was going to be the plant, and that that
part of the storyline was transferred over to Talia with the cast
changes between pilot and series. The other events in "The Gathering,"
combined with some revelations from the comic series (cf. comic 8,
<a href="/lurk/comic/008.html">"Silent Enemies"</a>)
suggest some disturbing connections.
<p>
Psi Corps was working with Minbari dissidents to kill a Vorlon. The
comic has also established a connection between Psi Corps and the
Shadows, although this has not yet been seen on screen. If the comic
is to be believed, there is a link through Psi Corps between the
Shadows and elements of the Minbari warrior caste. The effects
of that link on the coming war may be quite unfortunate for one side
or the other.
</ul>
<H2><A NAME="NO">Notes</A></H2>
<UL>
<li> Zack is still wearing his "Nightwatch" armband
(<A HREF="038.html">"In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum"</A>)
and Garibaldi is a little bemused by it. Clearly he doesn't quite
approve of the idea.
<li> The Pak'ma'ra have separate toilet facilities. Oddly, the warning
sign next to the door is written, among other languages, in Vorlon!
Or at least, in a script identical to that displayed by Kosh's ship in
<a href="035.html">"Hunter, Prey."</a>
<li> At least one of the fugitives in the sewers on Mars was clearly a
ranger. The other may not neccessarily have been. Lyta arrived
in a shot-up ship and knows that two men died for the information.
Obviously she has links with the rangers.
<li> Delenn lies yet again, and is caught immediately.
<li> When Delenn is dictating her response to the Lumati, the computer
screen shows the text appearing (whether this is Lumati writing or
Minbari isn't clear.) One odd thing about it is that it alternately
flows in both directions, up and down, across the width of the
screen from left to right.
</UL>
<H2><A NAME="JS">jms speaks</A></H2>
<UL>
<LI> <A NAME="JS:about">"Divided Loyalties"</a> will
produce a stunning revelation about one of our major characters.
<p>
<li> Pat is nothing less than terrific. If there was any sense of hesitation
in her appearance in "Divided Loyalties," it can be attributed to the
fact that she had just given birth to her son something like 4-6 weeks
prior, if that much, and this was pretty much her first day back in
the saddle.
<p>
<LI> <em>Does the comic series contain spoilers for the series?</em><br>
There's only one case of this conflict, so if you want to avoid any
spoilers, here's my recommendation: when the last issue of this current
story arc comes out, resolving the Mars/Sinclair/Garibaldi thread, pick
up that last issue and stick it in a bag until after the first new ep
airs in October. THEN read it. You'll know it when you find it.
<p>
<li> The impact of Talia's situation should be the same whether you saw
the comic or not. (And, remember, the idea was that the comic would
come out AFTER the remaining year 2 episodes, as a nice little
frisson, not as required data.)
<p>
<li> Re: things you don't expect to happen...that's kind of one
aspect I was after here. By way of comparison....
<p>
There's one great thing about The Shining, despite some other
flaws in the film: they set up Scatman Cruthers (sp?) as the one guy
who understands what's going on...he gets the Shining, he's a
potentially heroic character, and when all hell breaks loose, he's the
one to get into the snow plow, cross terrible weather, we're all sure
he's going to get there and fight the menace... he overcomes weather and
nonsense to get there... he blows through the front door, ready for
action... and gets an axe in the middle of his chest and dies.
<p>
I *loved* that, and always kinda wanted to something of that nature,
where you set someone up to be that kind of character, the future,
whatever, then you yank it back and let the audience say, Oh, hell,
NOW what?
<p>
<li> RE: Talia...look, you've kinda got to look at this the way I do.
Stuff happens. Yes, Talia was hoped for to be a key to the solution
of the problem. (Not the key, but a key.) But if you do that, every
single time, you become predictable. It means you, the audience,
can relax. "Well, we know now that Talia will always get through
this because she's the one they're hoping for." Suspense: gone.
Story: suddenly predictable. There's no rule that every person who
is hoped to help solve the problem in real life is gonna make it to
the end or BE that solution. So if you delete that person, now it's
"Oh, hell, NOW what're they gonna do?" which is more intrinsically
interesting to me than the other option.
<p>
Generally speaking, about once a year, toward the end of the year, I
kinda look around at the characters with a loaded gun in my hand, and
say, "Hmmm...if I take out *that* person, what happens? Is there
anyone here I can afford to lose? Would it be more dramatically
interesting to have this person alive, or dead? What is the absolute
bare minimum of characters I need to get to the end of the story and
achieve what I have to achieve?"
<p>
It helps to really remember that this is a *novel*, and uses the
structure of a novel. That means you have to have some real suprises
as you go. Anyone is fair game. To the question "Why did you get
rid of Sinclair? Why'd you get rid of Keffer? Why'd you get rid of
Talia? Why'd you get rid of....oh, er, that hasn't happened
yet...." there is only one answer: 'cause I felt like it, and 'cause
I thought it'd make the story a lot more interesting.
<p>
The stories I like best are the ones that ratchet up the tension and
the uncertainty inch by inch until you're screaming. This could
apply to any of Stephen King's novels (and recall that a lot of my
background is in horror writing). Mother Abigail in THE STAND was
supposed to be their hope for the future. So in short order she's
vulture-food, JUST when she's most needed. *Because that's
interesting*. It makes you say, "Oh, hell, NOW what?" (Stephen
actually does that a lot in his books, and it's a technique I've
learned as well.) Boromir in LoTR was a capable, skilled fighter,
deemed absolutely essential to the Company of the Ring...oops, there
he is by the tree, full of Orc arrows.
<p>
Stuff happens.
<p>
Same here.
<p>
<li> One other thought on Talia...one of the motifes we've played
with from the start was always showing Talia in mirrors...in Race,
in Z'ha'dum and others...always showing the reflection, her opposite,
just to set stuff up on an emotional/symbological level.
<p>
<li> In the B5 universe, as a general rule of thumb, people don't just
come back after something like this. "Talia" has been destroyed
permanently; that's what it said in the episode, and that's the way
it'll stay.
<p>
<li> What was the password? I'm hideously tempted to say, "Z'ha'dum."
<p>
<li> One thing you have to remember is that while Talia is in the opening
credits, to Psi Corps she's just one more of many programmed
individuals in various places. The character in "Spider" was a highly
valued infiltration unit, with very expensive "parts." Of the two,
Talia would've been far more expendable.
<p>
And I don't recall that Control actually issued any death order; it was
the Psi Corps/B13 in any event.
<p>
<li> Absolutely *nothing* from prior seasons/episodes has been discarded.
So if that's your concern...don't worry about it.
<p>
In very tense situations, some people feel compelled to somehow break
the tension. Hence, that sequence. [Garibaldi's "gotcha"]
<p>
<li> The problem in trying to keep something mysterious and
vague is that sometimes you can outsmart yourself, and get
confusing. The *theory* is that there was the Bureau as Control
overall back on Earth; and a minor Control figure on B5. And
Controls are always referred to as "he"regardless of the facts
to avoid giving any means of identification to anoutsider based
on gender.
<p>
So it would be
<pre> BUREAU CONTROL
----------------------|---------------------
| | |
Earthdome Control B5 Control Minipax Control</pre>
<p>
(That's a breakdown using artificial and not necessarily
correct elements, just for illustration.)
<p>
It is, however, a confusing bit of terminology, so it's been
amended subsequently.
<p>
<li> <em>If Talia was Control in "Spider in the Web," why would she order
herself eliminated?</em><br>
My sense was that the Control part, which sometimes moved
at night, reported that the mission could be jeapordized.
Then B13 gave the order to eliminate. Nowhere does it say
that Control said the second half of the sentence.
<p>
<li> <em>Was the hand that fired the PPG a left or a right hand?</em><br>
I don't remember offhand; I'll have to check the tape. (I have a
vague memory that it was a right hand originally, flopped to shoot in
the other direction.)
<p>
<li> Not that it just looked better per se, but the gunshots came from
right to left; the gun hand as originally shot fired from left to right.
It looked very funky when edited together, like it was going in a
different direction than the one it was fired in. Flopping the shot
corrected that.
<p>
<li> Yeah, I wouldn't waste much time on the gun-hand, frankly.
<p>
<li> <em>About <a href="021.html">"The Quality of Mercy"</a></em><br>
Yes, part of the reason for the episode was to
set up the notion of an implanted personality as acheivable tech.
<p>
<li> <em>Couldn't Ironheart have removed Control? Was Talia the original
personality?</em><br>
Control was the construct. The alternate personality was dormant at
the time Ironheart was there.
<p>
<li> Remember that Ironheart was not seeing Talia under the best of
conditions...he was fighting hard NOT to use his abilities, for any
reason, because it created mindquakes...he was pulling everything IN.
And later he was shot, also not a good position.
<p>
<li> <em>Does Psi Corps have Talia's gift now? Isn't that a problem?</em>
<br>
Logically, yes, that would eventually pose a problem.
<p>
<li> <em>Was the new personality formed by modifying Talia's, or was it
created from scratch?</em><br>
I'd rather let this aspect slide for the moment.
<p>
<li> Remember, the *conscious* Talia did none of those things; she would
never dream of scanning without permission. (And in Ivanova's case,
remember that she said she knows *instantly* if she's being scanned.
Note her strong reaction in "Eyes" when it happens.)
<p>
<li> Talia v 1.0 would not have violated Ivanova's privacy during any kind
of intimacy, as that would violate her profoundly; you can hold back,
and Talia would have, and Ivanova would've sensed if she had tried it.
The theory on telepaths making love is that they both willingly drop
the blocks they normally keep in place.
<p>
<li> The real Talia was becoming more and more disenchanted with PC, and
this was in time going to pull her into resistance activities, which
Talia v2.0 would only be *thrilled* about. The self-protection
mechanism only kicks in when the personality's existence is threatened.
<p>
<li> <em>Why did they kick Talia off the station?</em><br>
Because the longer she was there, the more she'd discover (was about to
enter into Sheridan's cell group in fact), and the more damage she'd
be able to do.
<p>
<li> Oh, to be sure, they'd have preferred to have Talia accidentally fall
out an airlock rather than turn her over to the Corps...but that's cold
blooded murder, and if they go that route, then there's no difference
between them and their opposite number.
<p>
<li> <em>Did Lyta sense Ivanova's talent?</em><br>
A non-telepath can learn certain tricks to make it harder to break
through, albeit briefly, so the reaction was sufficiently ambiguous and
the event sufficiently brief that it wouldn't raise too many concerns.
Which is why Sheridan dived in when he did; if she'd continue to block
much longer, just instinctively, it would've revealed her latent
potential. It was his distracting Ivanova that in a sense helped Lyta
break through.
<p>
<li> <em>Could Ivanova sense when someone else was being scanned?</em><br>
No, that she wouldn't really be capable of doing at her present level.
<p>
<li> Of *course* the telepath issue will have to be dealt with; this is a
logical progression of the story, no?
<p>
<li> <em><a name="JS:takashima">Was the plant</a>
originally going to be Laurel Takashima (cf.
<a href="000.html">"The Gathering"</a>)?</em><br>
Mike: your assessment is pretty much correct. Laurel was to be the
traitor initially; as I noted long, long time ago, and you quoted, she
was not, in fact, acting entirely under her own volition. There would
indeed have been an implanted personality there, acting without even
her knowing about it. And it would've been this implanted personality
that would've shot Garibaldi.
<p>
When I took Laurel off the board, elements of this were transferred
to other characters. This is the kind of thing I mean when I say that
even with changes here and there, the story continues to go where I
want it to go. We don't necessarily remember *which* general put the
briefcase with a bomb next to Hitler's chair in the bunker, only that
it got done. Some chairs are moveable, some are not, as anyone who's
ever written a novel from an outline can tell you...you start moving
the chairs around, but you always keep going where you're going.
<p>
<li> Yeah, originally it was the Kosh-scan that would've gotten Lyta in
trouble; the TK aspect was originally going to come in from another
angle, but I was able to collapse the two in Talia, and then bring Lyta
in from a different direction, as you'll see in one of the first batch
of new year 3 eps.
<p>
<li> <em>Was a kiss between Ivanova and Talia edited out?</em><br>
Nope, no such scene was cut. It's just a slightly awkward
match in the edited shots.
<p>
<li> No, nothing was cut; we had a matching problem at one point in the edit,
where Andrea reached with her left hand in one angle, and didn't reach
out with the other, and we had to come around for the shot on Ivanova,
so it looked a tick off. But nothing was cut.
<p>
<li> We will see Lyta again.
<p>
RE: alternate lifestyles...I said when stuff happened, we wouldn't make
a big deal out of it, it'd just be there...and I said we'd address it in
our own way, in our own time. We've done a bit here, we'll do a bit
more down the road. I won't give you or anyone a timetable; I'll do
stuff as the integrity of the story permits, not sooner, not later. I
will not allow this to become a political football. If you do nothing,
folks yell at you for ignoring it; if you do a little, they yell for
not doing more; if you do more, they yell for not doing it sooner.
Screw it. I do what the story calls for, as the story calls for it.
<p>
<li> See, here's where I start to have a problem. For starters, I don't do
any thing to be politically correct, or politically incorrect, I do
what I do in any story because that's what the story points me
toward. Anybody who says "It's not necessary" isn't entitled to that
judgement, frankly; you don't know what's necessary to the story. And
by framing it in the "is this NECESSARY?" way is designed to make you
defend your position when such defense isn't the point; is it
NECESSARY to have humor? to have a romance? to have correct science?
No, *nothing* is NECESSARY. It's what the writer feels is right for
that scene, that story, that character.
<p>
"Oh, well, I saw it, but was all that violence NECESSARY?" This is,
frankly, a BS observation usually offered by someone with an agenda,
who wishes to invalidate the notion of an artistic view and impose
some kind of quota, or objective criterion to what is and isn't
necessary for a movie or film. As far as I'm concerned, the first
person to throw this into a discussion has, frankly, just lost the
argument.
<p>
Point the second: one of the most consistent comments I get, in email
and regular mail, is the spirituality conveyed in the show, that we
have shown, and will continue to show, tolerance toward religion, even
created sympathetic religious characters. "Thank you for your
tolerance," they say...until we show somebody or some action THEY
don't like...and at that point suddenly it's a lot of tsk-tsking and
chest thumping and disapproval; so okay, how about I just stop all
positive religious aspects of the show?
<p>
It seems to me, that if I do *all that* with religion, and with thje
(the) simple act of showing maybe ONE PERSON in all the long history
of TV science fiction across 40 years has a different view of life,
that the show is somehow degraded, or downgraded, or dropped in
opinion...this simply reinforces the notion, held by many, that a lot
of folks in the religious right wish to make sure no other perspective
or lifestyle is ever shown on television, at any time, unless in a
negative fashion.
<p>
The thing of it is, while on the one hand I'm getting praise from
religious folks for addressing spirituality in my series (speaking
here as an atheist), I've gotten flack from others who think it has no
place in a SCIENCE fiction series, and why the hell am I putting
something in that goes right against my own beliefs? "Because," I
tell them, "this show is not about reflecting my beliefs, or yours, or
somebody else's, it's about telling this story, about these people,
with as much honesty and integrity as I can summon up. That means
conceding the fact that religious people are going to be around 260
years from now." Well, fact is, all kinds of people are going to be
around 260 years from now. And what did the anti-religion folks say
specifically about including spirituality in my series? "It's not
*necessary*," they said.
<p>
Translation: they didn't like it. Well, tough. It was right for this
story, and this show. And it seems to me rather hypocritical for some
folks, who applaud the show for tolerance, for my standing up to
those who want to exclude religion from TV, to then turn around and
say the show is diminished because it showed that same tolerance...to
another group or perspective. I guess tolerance is only okay as long
as it's pointed one way.
<p>
You say that as a christian, you think any sex except that between a
husband and a wife to be wrong. Well, as I recall, the bible also
speaks against murder. We've depicted deaths by the hundreds of
thousands. (And we're talking here about the *depicting* of the act,
simply showing it, not the value judgements made after the fact.) Why
does the one (which is so barely hinted at as to be almost invisible)
cause the show to be diminished where the other does not?
<p>
My job is not to reinforce your personal political, social or
religious beliefs. My job is not to reinforce MY personal political,
social or religious beliefs. Then it isn't art or storytelling
anymore, it's simply propaganda. My job is to tell this story, about
these people, AS people, as mixed and varied as they are today. And
there is no outside objective criteria as to what is, or isn't
*necessary* in a story; that is the sole province of the author. You
may or may not like it. You may or may not choose to watch it. Just
as people who don't like to see religion and god discussed on TV may
dislike it or choose not to watch it.
<p>
But you'll excuse me if I see complaints about this one little thing
from the religious side, after all I've done to present religious
characters and the religious life in a positive fashion, to be
hypocritical and frankly somewhat ungrateful. It's as though all this
means nothing because of one thing, one outside-imposed litmus test
that disregards anything and everything else that has been done.
<p>
So straight up...if I should stop tolerating or showing viewpoints
that are not my own (spoken as someone who is absolutely straight),
then should I now stop showing religion as well? Because that's what
this comes down to. Is that what you want? Because religion is
included at my discretion as well as anything else on this show. You
want me to be less tolerant? Just say the word.
<p>
<li> Ken: yes, showing does not mean endorsing, showing just means saying
"this is here," not to make an issue of it. If I'm going to start
endorsing ANYbody's POV around here, it's going to be mine, and I think
we all know how dreadful THAT would be.
<p>
As for "including controversy rather than skirting it," this is
more or less the point. The goal here is to not have our characters
or our show make *value judgments* about what our characters do,
because then you're hitting the audience over the head with the
MESSAGE. "Believers" is a good example of that; some came away using
parts of that to argue pro and anti interference in medical
situations; ditto for "Confessions" which hit squarely on BOTH sides
of the issue (no, you can't blame morality for disease...but then, we
had our characters openly requiring blood testing, which annoys many
on the other side of the issue)....my sense is that our audience is
smart enough to take the elements we present them with, and discuss
them, and come to their own conclusions and draw their own meanings
from them. It's the part of objecting to even *presenting* the
situation that seems to me a marginal position at best.
<p>
<li> I didn't show a kiss because, in my experience, it's easier on all
around if one steps into the shallow end of the pool first, and walks
into the deep end rather than diving in and splashing everybody in the
process.
<p>
<li> As for Ivanova...remember that the core of good drama is conflict. So
here we have a situation where a possible romantic involvement is
shaping up for her in year three. It shouldn't be made too easy. So
you create a situation that really hurts her deeply; she made a
difficult step, got over her distance, opened herself up, became
vulnerable...and got hurt very badly as a result. The same thing that
happened in first season, when her old flame was discovered to be a
big guy with Home Guard.
<p>
You now have someone who's freshly hurt, who is going to be unwilling
or slow to open up again, who's now experienced every kind of
relationship and NONE of them have worked...in short, she's one
exposed nerve ending, perfect for someone now to come in who may be
right, but for whom she has little time, and is disposed not to get
involved.
<p>
Sounds a lot like my own dating history...keep them razor blades and
salt sprays a'comin.....
<p>
<li> No, the Ivanova revelation in "Loyalties" has nothing to do with
replacing Talia; that is a moot point in many ways, since Lyta is back,
and since other things happen which take that issue off the table in
any event.
<p>
<li> Didn't say Talia WAS a psi-cop, Talia said she *interned with* the
PsiCops. Bear in mind that you're going to need support staff, lower
level liaisons, and a bunch of other positions as well as the actual
cops.
<p>
<li> <em>Did Bester try to befriend Talia because she was Control? (cf.
<a href="030.html">"A Race Through Dark Places"></a>)</em><br>
You're assuming Bester knows everything. Also, Bester's interest
may have been more...carnal than PsiCorp oriented.
<p>
<li> <em>If Laurel Takashima had stayed with the crew and shot Garibaldi
in "Chrysalis," would she have been Control?</em><br>
Yes, Laurel would've been Control.
<p>
<li> If Laurel *had* stayed with the show, by the middle of
year two the fact that she was Control would've been revealed
via the password incident. At that point, one particular
possibility was that her second in command under her -- a
rather dour Russian lieutenant named Ivanova -- would've been
promoted to take her place, while Laurel was moved off the
chessboard. (This was planned because we knew going in that
Tamlyn Tomita had a growing film career, and we probably
could've only kept her for a couple of years in the best of
circumstances. So why not turn that to your advantage?)
<p>
The position now being occupied by Corwin, Ivanova's
second, is the position that Ivanova would've held (though
more prominently) if Laurel had stayed on. (And no, Corwin
doesn't now have that arc lurking in the background.)
<p>
See, it's easy to stick to an outline and never diverge
if you're writing characters in a novel; in a TV show, with
live actors, you have to be flexible, plan ahead, come up
with contingency plans, and have threads that weave and
interlock in ways to leave you maximum flexibility while still
proceeding toward your destination.
<p>
<li> Takashima would have been the one to be Control. A Psi
Corps plant. (Her background on Mars would've been the perfect time
for it to have happened.) When Laurel went away, I took that one
thread and passed it along to Talia, setting it up as early as the very
first episode, when Talia and Ivanova first meet, and later reluctantly
have a drink.
<p>
At one point, Ivanova says to Talia, referencing Ivanova's
mother, "You're as much of a victim as she was." To which Talia
replies, "I don't feel like a victim." And, of course, that's exactly
what she was, though she didn't know it yet. Ivanova's analysis was
100% correct.
</UL>

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<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
The Narn-Centauri War reaches a turning point. Sheridan is contacted by a
powerful ally, who offers assistance.
</cite>
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Schuck,+John">John Schuck</a>.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Sheppard,+Morgan">W. Morgan
Sheppard</a> as Warmaster G'Sten.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Forward,+William">William
Forward</a> as Refa.
</blockquote>
<pre>
Sub-genre: Action/Intrigue
<a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/042">9.49</a>
Production number: 219
Original air date: August 1, 1995 (UK)
October 18, 1995 (US)
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by John Flinn
</pre>
<p>
<strong>Note: this episode is more momentous than most. Think twice before
proceeding to the spoilers; it's worth seeing unawares at least once.</strong>
<h3><a name="WF">Watch For</a></h3>
<ul>
<li> A change in the number of
<a name="#NO:candles">candles</a>
in G'Kar's quarters.
</ul>
<p>
<hr size=3>
<h2><a name="BP">Backplot</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> The new Centauri emperor, Cartargia, is acting mostly as a
figurehead, a front for Refa and his compatriots.
<li> A treaty among all the aligned worlds outlawed the use of
mass drivers as a weapon of war, similar to the Earth
treaties outlawing the use of chemical and biological weapons.
<li> Draal says he has found other beings on Epsilon 3, ones
who take care of the great Machine Draal is at the heart of.
One of them is a fellow named Zathras (cf.
<a href="020.html">"Babylon Squared"</a>.)
<li> Delenn has been in charge of all the Rangers on Babylon 5.
She now shares that command with Sheridan.
<li> Sheridan does not know that Sinclair is behind the Rangers.
<li> The Centauri seem to have gravity control technology.
Londo watches as the Centauri bombard the Narn homeworld,
standing -- seemingly in gravity -- aboard a motionless ship.
(Either that, or they have magnetic shoes.)
</ul>
<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> What's Zathras doing on Epsilon 3, and how did he get there? If the
planet has been undisturbed for at least the past 500 years
(<a href="019.html">"A Voice in the Wilderness, part 2,"</a>)
is he that old?
<li> Where was Zathras such that Draal, with sight that extends across
light-years, couldn't find him? Perhaps he wasn't in another place,
but another time (see
<a href="020.html">"Babylon Squared."</a>)
<li> Will the great machine be involved in pulling Babylon 4 through time?
<li> Now that Londo has stated he no longer wishes to associate with the
Shadows, his usefulness to Lord Refa is at an end. How will Refa handle
this?
<li> What exactly was G'Kar told to do in the Kha'Ri's last message?
Ask for sanctuary, obviously, but anything else?
<li> What other technology do the Shadows have that we haven't seen yet?
<li> Have the Narn unwittingly discovered a weakness of the Shadows? (see
<a href="#AN">Analysis</a>)
<li> Now that G'Kar has been stripped of his homeworld and position on
Babylon 5, what can he contribute to the battle against the Shadows?
</ul>
<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Londo is now convinced that his associates are far too powerful for
their motives to be solely for his benefit. He realises that he has
become a pawn in their larger game, and that his personal quest for
more power has lead to the death of esteemed friends and many innocents.
While convinced of this, and that he has allowed himself to be
maneuvered at every turn by the will of others, he still carries
through with his role as a paper tiger politician/ambassador.
<p>
<li> The Shadows show some new weaponry. It appears that each ship can "give
birth" to a cluster of forty or so of the smaller fighters G'Kar
encountered at Z'ha'dum in
<a href="024.html">"Revelations."</a>
We are not shown that these fighters are re-assimilated at the end of
the confrontation, and it is also unknown how many times each Shadow
can do this.
<p>
The second weapon has the ability to disrupt a jump point so that it is
fatal for any ship to attempt to use it. Once an attack against the
Shadows begins it appears you can leave only when they so allow it.
<p>
<li> The Shadow "wounded" during the battle is thrown off course by the loss
of one of its spines. After the battle is finished, a second Shadow
joins with it as if to assist it. The broken
spine is clearly visible on the ship that does not move during the
docking procedure. It suggests that the damaged Shadow was unable to
function as effectively, perhaps because it was in pain.
<p>
<li> With Draal offering the resources of the highly advanced technology at
his command, it appears that Babylon 5 is one of the few places that may
withstand a Shadow assault. That it can become the base of operations
for the Army of Light is now clear.
<p>
Perhaps more importantly, Babylon 5 can probably also withstand a
frontal assault by Earthforce, though they might prefer to destroy it
from within.
<p>
<li> The Centauri use of mass drivers flauts all previously signed
conventions, and it appears (cf.
<A HREF="037.html">"And Now for a Word,"</A>
where the Centauri are discovered using Babylon 5 to transport mass
drivers and energy weapons) that they have been planning this kind of
assault on the Narn homeworld for some time.
<p>
<li> A mass driver uses a heavy object (such as a small asteroid) launched
from orbit toward a planet's surface at low speed. As it falls
through the planet's gravity well it gains considerable momentum. On
impact the immediate area becomes a crater, and huge quantities of dust
are thrown up into the atmosphere, blocking out sunlight and causing
something like a nuclear winter. E. E. "Doc" Smith's
<cite>Lensman</cite> series is the first literary SF work to use mass
drivers as weapons for planetary bombardment as shown in this episode.
(If you know of an earlier one, send me mail!)
<p>
<li> All of the major governments (with the exception of the Vorlons) are
now under serious internal stress. They are either introspective
(Earth,) skeptical of present danger (Minbari,) overextended (Centauri,)
or occupied (Narn). It appears that the Shadows have achieved, either
directly or indirectly, effective destabilization of every major power
that might stand up to their forces.
<p>
<li> Ambassador Kosh openly lets the Rangers know of his involvement.
<p>
<li> It appears that Garibaldi's friendship with Londo has strained to the
breaking point.
<p>
<li> Sheridan now has access to the Rangers. This appears to be fulfilling
the dream induced by Kosh (cf.
<A HREF="033.html">"All Alone in the Night"</A>)
where he is described as being "The Hand." Presumably this reference
is to his role as someone who will help lead the forces of light as
the right hand man of "The One."<p>
<p>
<li> A fully prepared numerically superior Narn task force is easily
destroyed by the Shadows. Unless more effective combat techniques are
discovered, the battle with darkness will have to involve more subtle
tactics.
<p>
<li> Londo hasn't forgiven Refa for the death of his friend Urza Jaddo
(<a href="039.html">"Knives."</a>)
<p>
<li> Londo's cough in the council chamber scene sounds suspiciously like
the one in his dream in
<a href="031.html">"The Coming of Shadows."</a>
Could he be coming down with something? (See
<a href="#JS:cough">jms speaks</a>)
</ul>
<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> JMS premiered this episode at the Chicago Comicon on July 1, 1995.
<li> W. Morgan Sheppard also appeared in the first season episode
<A HREF="002.html">"Soul Hunter"</A>
as the title character.
<li> The episode's initial airing, in the UK, was 50 years, almost to the
day, after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima during World War
II. Considering the obvious parallels between the Centauri use of
mass drivers and the American use of the atomic bomb, that's a
serindipitous, if unintentional, bit of timing.
<li> <a name="NO:jfk">"Now the trumpet summons us again:</a>
not as a call to bear arms, though
arms we need; not as a call to battle, though in battle we are; but as
a call to bear the burdens of a long, twilight struggle--year in and
year out, rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation--a struggle against
the common enemies of man--tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself."
--John Fitzgerald Kennedy. An
<a href="http://www.spies.com/~ceej/Music/twilight.struggle.html">audio
version</a> of his speech is available.
<img align=right width=128 height=96 src="/lurk/gif/042/duck.gif">
<li> In the first Londo-Refa scene, just before Refa sits, what looks like
a wooden duck with its wings outstretched is visible on a shelf
beside the throne. Perhaps it's a Centauri cat (cf.
<a href="022.html">"Chrysalis."</a>)
<li> <a name="NO:candles">Candles</a> are used subtly to represent hope,
here and in previous episodes (see
<a href="#JS:candles">jms speaks</a>.)
At the beginning of G'Kar's prayer scene, the shelf behind him
is filled with burning candles -- but by the end, as his people's last
hope is destroyed by the Shadows, they've all gone out.
<li> Likewise, when Londo and Refa are talking, they're both cloaked in
shadow -- until Londo expresses misgivings about his associates and
emerges into the light.
<li> The battle sequence was directed by Mojo of Foundation Imaging; the
mass-driver sequence was directed by John Teska. The episode has more
effects footage than any previous one, nearly five minutes' worth.
The effects took almost a month to produce.
</ul>
<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> <a name="JS:about">"The Long, Twilight Struggle"</a> is probably the
biggest episode of the entire two years to date, story and EFX and
character wise, and will have a profound effect on the series that
I'd compare to a cross between "Signs and Portents" and "Chrysalis".
<p>
<li> I don't want to say anything about "The Long Twilight Struggle" at
this time, to avoid hyping people. Suffice to say it's a very strong
episode.
<p>
<li> Hell, in some ways, when compared with "Struggle," "The Coming of
Shadows" is a light comedy in which nothing much happens.
<p>
<li> Without spoiling anything...yes, in this regard, I've always noted
that there are some echoes of WW II in the overall storyline, and some
applies here. Also, again, the purpose of a large measure of the show
is to elicit discussion of such issues as this...where are the mora,
(moral) responsibilities in such a situation? What are the ethics of
mass warfare? Where does expediency begin and compassion end? *Should*
compassion have to end for the greater good?
<p>
If we can start some bar fights, I'll have done my job.
<p>
Fact is, I don't have one single damned good answer. But I've got a
whole LOTTA questions...
<p>
<li> Thanks. Yes, there's a WW II parallel, not in terms of
justifying one or the other -- one can make compelling
arguments for and against the use of atomic weapons to close
the war, but I leave it to those who were there to have
made the right decision, because they had to live with it --
but in terms of strategy and wartime logic.
<p>
<li> Thank you. I'm quite frankly thrilled beyond words at the preliminary
reactions from the UK to this episode; we worked *really* hard on it,
and I can't tell you what the reactions mean to us.
<p>
<li> Thanks. It's definitely one of my favorite episodes.
The intensity is terrific.
<p>
<li> Yes, "They're being bombed back to the stone age" is a Vietnam era
quote.
<p>
<li> Re: what you could see of the planet's surface...one of the side
effects of the technology used is that, realistically, it would throw up
a *hideous* amount of smoke, dust and debris, and you wouldn't see much
of anything.
<p>
<li> <em>Why isn't Londo floating weightless?</em><br>
Some races, like the Centauri and the Minbari, use drive systems built
to varying degrees on magnetic and gravitational forces;
some of them don't so much go to a planet as create a situation where
they are drawn toward it.
One of the side effects of this is a field allowing for artificial
gravity. Earth doesn't have this level of technology, however.
<p>
<li> Re: your note about 500 Narns for every 1 Centauri...you may want to
check our own history. During the occupation of some parts of Europe
during WW II, similar tactics were used.
In some cases the threat rose as high as 100-200 Jews or Russians
executed for every Nazi killed; much the same has been done in earlier
history. Five hundred to one is a figure relatively consistent with
what humans have done from time to time when we wish to instill terror.
So I find this a curious quibble.
<p>
<li> Actually, Londo *specifies* that the 500 will include "the
perpetrator's own family."
<p>
<li> <em>Was Draal's voice dubbed?</em><br>
No, his voice wasn't dubbed, or changed, by anyone; might've been a
glitch in local audio or something.
<p>
<li> Thanks. Draal's played by John Shuck, who did a great job.
And yes, we'll definitely be seeing him again. (We first met him in
"A Voice in the Wilderness.")
<p>
<li> <em>I loved the part with Draal calling out for Zathras</em><br>
Yeah, that was a rather Draal bit of humor, wasn't it?
<p>
<li> In part it's John's take on the character, but what I indicated to him
was that Draal's gone through some considerable changes by entering the
heart of the machine; it's given him greater understanding, and the
freeing aspects of greater humor. It's almost like -- and I hate to
even use the reference because somebody'll say "Oh, that's what he's
doing," and I ain't, it's just a point of comparison -- Tom Bombadil in
LoTR...quite funny, but also someone not to be trifled with.
<p>
<li> It wasn't intended that Delenn should touch Draal; it sorta happened
on the set, and no one really noticed, and it wasn't worth going
back and reshooting the whole thing. My sense is that if it's
like a virtual reality situation, she would "feel" it even though
it's not there, if the image was impinging correctly on the brain.
<p>
But in either event, the image is not and should not e considered
to be solid.
<p>
As for Londo's shot...the director called "cut" I think a bit too
soon, we used every frame we had to extend that shot (and, in fact,
we even went so far as to freeze the final frame and extend the shot
by a smidge, if you look at it carefully). Nonetheless, I think it
works pretty spiffily.
<p>
As for the mass drivers, the amount of energy required to move
something that big would generate huge amounts of heat, possibly
making them even white-hot hence the glow.
<p>
<li> Actually, what Delenn said was, "...the Rangers *in this area* are
under my direct command." So Sinclair's post as Ranger One remains
back on Minbar.
<p>
And yes, Sinclair has apparently been described as the One...but you
must ask...the one *what*?
<p>
Expect final answers to this one late this coming season.
<p>
<li> <em>On each season's music for the opening credits reflecting the
mood of the season</em><br>
What do I have in mind for season three? What I indicated to Chris
Franke was to look at a piece of music he did in "The Long, Twilight
Struggle" and interpolate some elements of that into the main theme,
with a very hard sound. The piece in question is about the middle of
the first really...um...busy scene after the act break.
<p>
<li> Until "The Long Twilight Struggle," nothing else has come close to
that scene [the attack on the Narn outpost in "Coming of Shadows"]
for me. But there's some stuff in there that finally manages to
to surpass it. Just gorgeous and scary and awe-inspiring.
<p>
<li> <em>About the Narn/Shadow battle</em><br>
Thanks. Yeah, that scene is one of my favorites; a lot of work
went into it, and I think it shows.
<p>
<li> <em>Secret of Narn success in injuring a Shadow ship?</em><br>
Not much to the secret...they coordinated their firepower on one of
the ships, in hopes of doing damage.
<p>
<li> Thanks. One of the things I wanted to try was to find a way to stage
long-range combat. One of the things everyone says is that even though
real aerial combat tends to be at great distance -- and space combat
would be conducted over thousands of kilometers, you probably wouldn't
be able to even SEE your opponent at that range, just pick up the enemy
ships on your scanners -- you can't do that for TV because you need to
have both in frame, hammering each other short-range, to make it work
for viewers.
<p>
But I've always liked a challenge, so I thought I'd see if I could make
it work. The two sides are, as noted, thousands of kilometers apart,
and take most of that sequences just to catch up with each other. And
frankly, I think it's probably one of the most dynamic battle sequences
we've ever done, so you can expect more in the future, now that I've
kind of got the hang of how to do this.
<p>
<li> Agreed. The use of different tactics and weapons at different distances
gives a sense that there is a *strategy* behind what's going on, that
it's not just two ships coming with city blocks of one another and
clobbering each other. Strategy implies intelligence, and to see
intelligence in the shadow vessels is scary indeed.....
<p>
<li> The reason for the placement of the jump points is *very* straight
forward.
<p>
By virtue of their size and the tremendous forces unleashed by
punching a hole into hyperspace, you want to form it a little distance
away or risk being severely damaged.
If they formed the points between them and the enemy, which was quite
capable of avoiding them, it would be entirely possible for the shadows
to get in front of the point and cut off their sole means of escape.
Usually, better to form them behind you, so the enemy can't block your
way out, and take a possible hit or two to your aft sections than be
totally cut off.
They didn't anticipate the extra weapons the shadows had.
<p>
<li> <em>Were those Narn cruisers especially big?</em><br>
The cruiser is the same size as that sent to look into Z'ha'dum; it's
just a matter of perspective and how close the camera gets.
<p>
<li> <em>Did the shadow ships phase out to avoid the energy mines?</em><br>
No, they didn't phase out so much as absorb the energy,
at cost of great pain.
<p>
<li> Well, they're organic technology, so they can feel, but only
after a fashion.
<p>
<li> "Why didn't the fighters do anything?"
<p>
They did. Look more closely. They engaged the Narn fighters in
dogfights all over the place. They're hardly more than specks against
the huge ships, but they're definitely there.
<p>
<li> <em>One Shadow ship in "Signs and Portents," two in "Chrysalis,"
three in "The Coming of Shadows," four here?</em><br>
Give Tim Lynch a ceegar. Yes, more ships are starting to appear,
as more ships become available.
<p>
<li> <em>They only have four ships?</em><br>
Never said you're seeing their entire fleet, you're seeing what they
can afford to send out at any given moment on relatively low-priority
jobs.
<p>
<li> <a name="JS:cough">Dave: yup.</a> Londo's never coughed before, and
this was very deliberately placed. He's on the path, like it or not.
<p>
<li> <em>The Vorlons lodged an official protest! Is this the first time
they've taken an action like that?</em><br>
Yeah, that's pretty much the first time since the pilot where the
Vorlons got involved with the Sinclair situation.
<p>
<li> Bingo. As I mentioned before, the "long twilight struggle" title
is a quote; you correctly identified the source in the
<a href="#NO:jfk">JFK quote.</a>
<p>
<li> <em>About Sheridan's closing speech</em><br>
Certainly, Sheridan is slowly growing more into a leader who must
be able to step to the front in this kind of way, yes.
<p>
<li> <em>What does "the balloon is going up" mean?</em><br>
There have been many explanations for where this phrase comes
from. Most of them are obviously spook etymology, but the first one I
heard -- and who knows if this is right -- comes from WW I, where just
before one side would go into battle, they'd send one man up in a hot
air balloon to scout the enemy's location. If you saw the balloon
going up, you knew combat wasn't far behind.
<p>
Wherever it comes from, though, that's the general meaning of
the phrase.
<p>
<li> <a name="JS:candles">Candles are, I think, wonderfully emblematic</a>
of life, and of being
a single ray of light, or hope, in a dark place. The Grey Council
stands between the candle and the star; watch G'Kar's action re: a
candle in his quarters...and in that scene (for those who've seen TLTS)
note how many candles are in the room in the beginning, and at the end.
<p>
We are the candle that burns brightly, stubbornly, effectively...but
briefly.
<p>
<li> <a href="#NO:candles"><em>The candles in G'Kar's quarters</em></a><br>
Sherry...thank you. The level of attention to detail is the *only*
way that this story will be told properly. It means you sit down with
the director, and others, and you make totally clear -- there, and in
the script -- what you saw in your head when you wrote it. As well as
repeatd verbal themes, cues, phraseologies, it's important (since this
is a visual medium) to incorporate visual cues that add to the thematic
thrust of the piece, that create a mood, or convey an emotion or a
thought on an almost cellular level. The hardest part is being careful
not to OVER use them, because then they lose all meaning and impact.
</ul>

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<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
G'Kar tries to rally the Narn on Babylon 5.
Kosh tests Delenn's allegiance by summoning an ancient
inquisitor.
</cite>
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Alexander,+Wayne">Wayne
Alexander</a> as Sebastian.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Kehler,+Jack">Jack Kehler</a>
as Mr. Chase.
</blockquote>
<pre><a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/043">8.47</a>
Production number: 221
Original air date: August 8, 1995 (UK)
October 25, 1995 (US)
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Mike Laurence Vejar
</pre>
<p>
<hr size=3>
<h2><a name="BP">Backplot</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> The Vorlons have visited Earth in the past, as recently as the
nineteenth century, and have even taken humans to their homeworld.
<li> Garibaldi maintains friendships with people he knows are dealing in
illegal smuggling operations.
</ul>
<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> How did the Rangers get the message from Narn in 24 hours? (See
<A href="#AN">Analysis</a>)
<li> Exactly how long have the Vorlons been visiting Earth, and for what
purpose?
<li> How did they discover Sebastian, and what made them choose him as their
inquisitor?
</ul>
<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
<ul>
<p>
<li>
All of the key players on the side of light have now had their commitment and
loyalty to their cause tested. Sheridan, Garibaldi, Ivanova,
and Franklin in their battle against the current Earth Alliance
administration (cf.
<a href="041.html">"Divided Loyalties."</a>)
And now Delenn and Sheridan as the
"spirit" and "warrior," respectively, of the Army of Light.
The pieces seem to be falling into place on the side of light.
<li>
G'Kar preaching about what the Centauri will do next is somewhat chilling.
Most people just don't want to believe it. Yet in
<a href="042.html">"The Long, Twilight Struggle"</a>
we heard that the Centauri have already annexed several non-Narn
worlds. JMS has said that G'Kar is his Cassandra character, gifted with
the power of prophesy yet heeded by none. The fact that it was a human
who argued against G'Kar may be an indication of things to come.
<li>
Based on Sebastian's comments, Sheridan determines that he is most likely
Jack the Ripper. Sebastian's final comment also appears to confirm this.
The murderer killed five prostitutes between August 7th and November 10th
of 1888 in the East End of London (Sheridan stated the West End, but got
the date correct), and was never caught. He stalked the streets at night,
slitting his victims' throats and then mutilating their bodies. The
nickname "Jack the Ripper" reportedly came from several letters sent to
the police, but their authenticity has been questioned.
<li>
The Vorlons have been to Earth on many occasions, and all over the galaxy
in general. This is quite likely part of the reason why Kosh will be
recognised by everyone if he(?) steps out of the encounter suit.
<li>
This marks the second time a major, secretive power has sent a human
representative to Babylon 5 to ask a question: the Shadows with Morden and
"What do you want?" and the Vorlons with Sebastian and "Who are you?"
Why do the Vorlons, in particular, feel the need to act through a third
party? Delenn obviously knows about Kosh already, so why couldn't Kosh
have conducted the interrogation? Perhaps he simply chooses to remain
aloof and let others do his dirty work, or perhaps for some reason he felt
he wouldn't have been as effective as Sebastian was.
<li>
Sheridan and Garibaldi have given the Rangers their first trial in a
combat zone, on behalf of G'Kar. They succeeded in the allotted 24 hours
but we are given no information on how. Perhaps they are able to penetrate
the Centauri communications network. Or perhaps it involved two "hit
and run" jumps into the Narn homeworld system. The first to deliver the
message to search for this family (there must already be Rangers on Narn,)
and the second to pick up the required transmission. This runs the risk
of being detected and caught by Centauri forces patrolling the system (a
jump point presumably has a very bright characteristic energy signature on
scanners). While the search might have been initiated via telepathic
contact (cf.
<a href="031.html">"The Coming of Shadows,"</a>
specifically the Centuari Emperor's
telepaths, who can communicate over interstellar distances)
this is unlikely, and telepathy almost certainly cannot transmit
the contents of a data crystal. Another possible explanation is that there
are Centauri Rangers.
<li>
Vir's encounter with G'Kar indicates the depth of the hatred that the Narn
feel for their oppressors. An apology is no longer possible in G'Kar's
eyes, only the release of his people from their occupation and the
destruction of the Centauri along the way. Something inside Vir might
well give soon; he has already stood up to Morden
(<a href="038.html">"In The Shadow of Z'ha'dum"</a>)
and tried to tell Londo of the consequences of his actions - what next?
<li>
Vir's dismissal of the Centuari businessman, "I have already told you the
Ambassador can do nothing for you." Is that a polite way of telling the
businessman to go away, or has Londo's sphere of influence been reduced by
his refusal to involve the Shadows again?
<li>
There's an interesting parallel between the main storyline and Garibaldi's
talk with G'Kar. Both Garibaldi and Sebastian go into their respective
conversations expecting a certain outcome, but allowing room for the other
person to act otherwise. The difference is that Garibaldi is an optimist --
he expected G'Kar to do the right thing -- while Sebastian expected to be
disappointed as he so often had been in the past.
<li>
This isn't the first reference to Jack the Ripper on the show. In
<a href="006.html">"Mind War,"</a>
Ivanova accuses Psi Corps of having "all the moral fiber of Jack the Ripper."
Whether that's just a coincidence remains to be seen.
<li>
Given the fact that Delenn was a member of the Grey Council, the
choice of Grey section (by Sheridan) as the place for the inquisition
was rather interesting. In addition, some elements of the lighting inside
Grey 19 (the circles of light on the floor, arranged in a circular
pattern, with Delenn in a center circle) were reminiscent of the Grey Council,
especially the last time she was in their presence.
<li>
On a more speculative numerological note, the number nineteen (the inquisition
occurred in Grey 19) is composed of the digits "1" and "9". Taking the
analysis to an extreme, perhaps the "9" represents the Grey Council and the
"1" represents the chosen one.
</ul>
<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> One of the Narn in the meeting with G'Kar is played by Dennis
Michael, a CNN reporter who was doing a story on B5's makeup group,
Optic Nerve, and was made up as a Narn as part of his news story.
<li> Was someone named Sebastian an actual suspect in the murders?
<li> In the original UK broadcast, the scene between G'Kar and Vir was
edited to not show G'Kar cutting his hand. The edit is obvious once
you know it's there.
<li> One of Sebastian's closing remarks resembled a Biblical quote, John
15:13: "There is no greater love than this: to lay down one's life for
one's friends."
</ul>
<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> "CtI is the only episode in the last four that we know nothing about."
<p>
And if I figure out how I happened to achieve that (short of just
keeping my big yap shut), I'll do it some more. There should be some
surprises, yes?
<p>
And it's an arc story, yes, but in a very odd way.
<p>
<li> <em>(Referring to Delenn's actions in
<a href="040.html">"Confessions and Lamentations"</a>)</em><br>
Re: why Delenn would do such a thing . . . hold out for "Comes
the Inquisitor" . . . it gets into her rationales on such things.
<p>
<li> "I can't wait to see how you torture us next week!"
<p>
Funny line, that, which you'll understand in a few days.
<p>
<li> The Inquisitor was a great episode to write, and Wayne did a killer
job with it (so to speak). That one episode has received more mail than
most others, particularly from those in the religious community, as well
as at universities, crisis centers, you name it. Something there seemed
to strike a chord.
<p>
It's easy in an SF show to cut to the EFX and let it rock; to me, the
challenge is what's shown in those scenes: two people, locked in a room,
no (or few) EFX, no car chases, not even much of a set...with explosions
of dialogue and character. Ah loves it.
<p>
<li> As for locale, it was similar to, but not exactly the same as the one
in which the Marcabs died [in "Confessions and Lamentations"], though
I did want to somewhat evoke the memory of that when I indicated the
set I had in mind.
<p>
<li> Sebastian was played by Wayne Alexander, a British actor of great
skill who hasn't been seen much on TV before this, but should now,
with this performance as a calling card. It was a stunning
performance.
<p>
<li> I don't think Wayne has done that much TV work before, he's primarily
a stage actor, but in any event, he's certainly brilliant as Sebastian.
<p>
<li> Why bring up Sebastian's past? Because it's integral to who he is
now, and what he's doing, and why he's doing it. Also, there's
something very important here about greying up the Vorlons a little;
of all the people they could've chosen for this job, why THIS kind
of person? It makes them a trifle more morally ambiguous, which is
necessary.
<p>
<li> "It doesn't fit in with the way the Vorlons have been portrayed. It
bothered me."
<p>
Good. That was the intended result.
<p>
Part of the reason for the story was to grey up the Vorlons a little;
one shouldn't fall too easily for what other people *say* they are.
<p>
(One might also say much the same of the old testament god who would
have Job so severely tested, btw.)
<p>
One should always be cautious of taking *anyone* at face value on B5.
<p>
"...you could consider them a force for good."
<p>
Ah, but what *is* good? And whose *version* of good are we
discussing?
<p>
<li> I'd say there's a very good chance that the Vorlons have more than
one Inquisitor.
<p>
<li> <em>Was Sebastian based on Star Trek's "Q"?</em><br>
No, had nothing to do with Q, it's deciding what kind of person our
Mr. Sebastian might've been, and working from there. When you have
a character with as vivid and powerful as his, you don't need
to look to ST for any ideas on character.
And unlike Q, Sebastian has no powers of his own, just the force of his
personality.
<p>
<li> <em>What was the last word in Sebastian's "What about" litany?</em><br>
Actually, the last one, since it was going to be drowned out, was an
adlib, "eternity."
<p>
<li> Also, check Sebastian's reaction when he asks Delenn what if she's
wrong, "have you ever considered that? HAVE YOU?"
<p>
She responds, softly, "....yes."
<p>
Look at his face when she says this. It rattles him. It's not the
answer he expected, but more important, it's not the answer he wanted,
needed to hear.
<p>
He needed to hear her say that she had never had the slightest
*scintilla* of doubt, that as he had been, she was a True Believer, a
fanatic, incapable of doubt of mistake...and thus doomed to failure.
He can't even meet her gaze; he turns, looks away, and suggests an
"intermission" that is more for his benefit than hers.
<p>
There's an awful lot going on in this show, a great deal of it sub
rosa, under the surface, implied in gestures or hesitations or looks,
some implied, some stated outright. He *hates* the memory of Jack;
it's not his name, the one thing that is his...remember, he is caught
up with "who ARE you?" and his answer to that is lost in the persona
created by history...his true name, is what's totally forgotten to
history.
<p>
<li> Sebastian learns quite a bit in the
course of that encounter about himself...especially when she rubs it
in his face as she does.
<p>
<li> Of course, bear in mind that there *is* no correct answer to
Sebastian's question...because no matter what answer you give, the
question will be repeated. It's a process, not a goal, designed to
tear down the artifices we construct around ourselves until we're left
facing ourselves, not our roles. At some point the "answer," such as it
is, must transcend language.
<p>
Since the episode aired, I've received many notes from philosophy
teachers and religious instructors and those who ran the Synanon game
noting that they've used that technique as well, or intend to do so from
now on.
<p>
<li> The episode underlines that there are two fundamental questions in
B5: who are you, and what do you want?
The order in which you answer those two questions can either make you
great...or destroy you.
<p>
<li> I think that, in the long run, the vorlons and the shadows will answer
the questions Who are you and What do you want...in that that's kind of
what they *are*, if that makes any sense.
<p>
Well, it will. Eventually.
<p>
<li> It's not that there's a *correct* answer, but that there's an
*informed* answer. If you decide what you want, before you know
who you are, you're likely to get something that will destroy you;
if you know who you are, you can then ask for something that will be
of greater use to you.
<p>
<li> The pain is necessary because it's easy to consider laying down one's
life intellectually; when the pain and the
agony bring it home, it's no longer as easy.
<p>
And there *is* no correct answer to "Who are you?" The only real
answer is no answer, because as soon as you apply someone's term for it,
you have limited yourself, defined yourself in someone else's terms.
<p>
Doing things in a refined, gentle, intellectual manner is the sort of
thing Delenn's used to, she can handle that easily...the goal of
Sebastian was to try and *break* her.
That's not intended to be done gently. You don't break someone over a
cup of tea discussing philosophical concepts and the nature of personal
identity.
It's also not terribly dramatic to watch.
<p>
Because of her position, rank and authority, she expected to be
treated a certain way...which was why it was important to treat her just
the opposite.
It's easy to put oneself into a grand prophecy, to assume one has a
destiny...to pay the price for that is something else again.
Anyone can do the former; very few can ever do the latter.
<p>
<li> Sacrificing oneself happens frequently...but for just one other
person, AND in a situation where no one else would ever know about it.
Bear in mind that he wasn't testing people randomly; only those who felt
that they were chosen of god, fulfillers of prophecy...people who
assumed that they were part of some grand scheme, and thus to whom an
anonymous death is an intolerable thought.
<p>
Also, most probably never *got* that far, unable to stand the real
pain of being placed in this position. Everybody can talk the talk;
very few can walk the walk. Most probably just yanked off the bracelets
and split, on the theory that they weren't being sufficiently coddled or
glorified...or because being a potential prophet isn't as much fun as
they'd thought.
<p>
<li> There have been a great number of films and TV programs with one sort
of interrogation scene or other; I'd commend "Closetland" for something
else on this order.
<p>
<li> Mentioning just the first name may not have been necessary for
UK viewers, but it was necessary for the rest of the planet.
<p>
<li> Of course, his real name was never Jack Sebastian; "Jack" is his
working name, Sebastian could be a first or last name.
<p>
<li> I tied him [Sebastian] to a specific person because
in writing, you *always* try to go for specifics, because generalities
don't really work. It's the difference, in prose, between, "The room
smelled good," and "The room smelled of cinnamon and fresh coffee."
Also, the specific connotations to who and what Jack was were essential
and integral to the storyline.
<p>
<li> "Jack" was the media appellation; whether Sebastian is a first or
last name is left open.
<p>
I looked at who this historical figure could be, but no one else fit
into the area I wanted. It was a decision born of necessity, not
whim. I needed someone far enough removed not to have any current
victims' families still alive; someone known to a worldwide population
(anonymous wouldn't have worked because why would Sheridan have known
about him, why should we care, why should it resonate, and we'd spend
time explaining what he did that would have meant cutting out other
material in the episode); the other serial killers tend to have clear
fates, whereas Jack vanished and is thus "available" to us; visually
that period makes for a striking contrast to 2259.
<p>
And, again, you have to look at who he *was*...a fanatic, trying to
clean up Spittlefields (good cause) by hatred (wrong reason) and
murder (wrong means), the EXACT thing Delenn warns against at the
very start of the show. (Did you know there's a letter in the London
Times for that period that tries to explain the Ripper's motives as a
cry ofr (for) understanding about conditions in that part of London?)
He felt he was a divine messenger, learned he was not, and in
bitterness has become the single best inquisitor you could've had in
that job.
<p>
Every single thing about Jack made him *perfect* for that role, as
mirror, menace and warning sign. So I used him. And I'd do it again.
You have to find what works best for the story, and do it.
<p>
<li> <em>Jack the Ripper has been used too much in SF.</em><br>
So, in other words, if a historical, real character has been used in
some other venue, if the use of that same character in another,
wholly different world/series/show/universe is absolutely, totally and
completely the right thing for that story,
one should instead do what's *wrong* for the story and leave it out?
<p>
Sorry. Don't buy it.
<p>
<Li> On the "Jack sucks" threads, phrased various ways...doesn't really
bother me. I knew going in that some folks would react well to that, and
some wouldn't, for an assortment of reasons, some valid, some less so.
<p>
<li> I guess also that the key to avoid something becoming cliche is to
turn it on its head. Which was the case with Sebastian. One thing
I neglected to mention was the need to have an absolute
mirror-counterpoint to Morden. Here you've got the smiling,
pleasant, utterly charming and good looking fellow who is our
"mirror" if you will in which we see the Shadows reflected. So now
you need something dark and ominous and terrible as the mirror
through which we briefly glimpse the Vorlons, which has to be done
all in one episode, you can't develop it gradually as with Morden.
So everything about Sebastian was the opposite of Morden...and each
is the opposite of what they represent. As it appears to us now,
anyway.
<p>
<li> "it just didn't pay off in the long run." For you. For others it
did. Let's not start getting grandiose. You feel this way, that's fine,
but it's not the ultimate truth. Otherwise you're totally dismissing
the opinions of others who liked it a lot.
<p>
"Jack...has become a real cliche." So because others have used that
figure in their work, well or poorly, no one should ever use this
historical figure ever again in the next thousand years of human
history. One should not do what one thinks is right for a story because
of what someone else did in a different story.
<p>
Sorry. I don't work that way. By your logic, I should not be using
starships or hyperspace or aliens, either, because they've been used a
LOT more than Jack.
<p>
<li> Actually, I think I saw more *annoyance* at Jack being used from the
UK folks than the US folks, that's the main difference, I think.
Probably because it's a peaceful, wonderful country which is *still*
paying off, in the public eye, one particularly nasty creature in their
recent history. They're probably tired of hearing about him, and to
some extent, correctly so.
<p>
<li> Will: thanks, and you're quite right; it does say something about the
Vorlons that they'd use Jack for this purpose. Now we just have to
further define what that is.
<p>
BTW, just to append it here, not strictly appropos of your message...
I've noted a number of people say, in essence, "Boy, was I disappointed
that he said Jack at the end, what does he think we are, morons?" And
I've seen plenty of comments from people who didn't know it was Jack
until that very last moment, for whom it was a revelation.
<p>
It's pretty clear, to lots of folks, that the test was in some ways
(most, actually) more for Delenn's benefit than Kosh's...lots of folks
got this...and then others have said, "Well, if that's what he meant,
why didn't he just have one of them come out and SAY this, say what
was learned or that this was for THEIR benefit?"
<p>
So frankly, whether one comes out and says something, or does not come
out and say something, someone on one side or the other is going to give
you a hard time about it.
<p>
<li> <em>Jack's murders took place in the East End of London, not the
West End</em>
<p>
What happened is...basically...Joe is a moron.
<p>
I did my research. I called up the info on the encyclopedia, got
all the dates right, and my eyes saw East End and for whatever
stupid, idiotic reason, my fingers typed West instead of East, and
nobody, NObody, caught it until now. I'd loop it, but alas the line
is on his face, and it'd look real stupid, and the delivery is *so*
perfect as it is; if we looped it, we'd destroy it.
<p>
So I content myself with the notion that it's west...of B5.
<p>
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go shoot myself.
<p>
<li> Actually, yes, I do have a pet theory about who the Ripper was, but
I'm so embarrassed over the west end/east end typo in one of our
episodes that I don't know if I'll ever have enough courage to broach it
to anyone.
<p>
<li> Okay, here's one clue for any would-be Ripperologists out there.
<p>
In all the long story of Jack, when he was out doing his nightly work,
only one person, a woman, wrote an actual letter, published in the
London Times, offering an *explanation* for the Ripper's work,
arguing that he was trying to send a message, that maybe people should
listen to that message. It was as close as anyone's ever come to an
actual *defense* of what he was doing.
<p>
Note the woman's name, and who her husband was...a man who was twice
interviewed by Scotland Yard, and interviewed by many Church officials,
the transcripts of which have been *sealed* by the Church ever since,
at the request of the family...a person who was the last man to see at
least one of the victims alive...and who was a direct blood relative of
the man who was living with the final victim (who was killed indoors,
leading to the speculation that she knew her assailant)...who suffered a
breakdown just before the murders began, was obsessed with cleaning up
the Whitechapel area, and after whose sudden, hasty transfer, the
murders stopped...and whose profession is tied *directly* to the only
thing the Ripper was overheard to say to one of his victims.
<p>
<li> <em>Maybe the West End fell into the ocean and the East End is now
West.</em>
<p>
No, no, it's hopeless...I'll have to turn in my writer's card.
<p>
<li> Unfortunately (yes, we discussed this), he says the line *on camera*,
and the shape of the mouth for West is very different than for East;
also the performance wouldn't be nearly as good. So there it is....
<p>
<li> Thanks. Though I knew about the gaff a LONG time before it was to
air here in the US, I let the east/west thing go through as shot for
the very first broadcast because I was afraid that the loop might
hurt the scene, and it was *so* perfectly done. That over, I decided
it was worth taking a shot at it. If your friend didn't notice, then
we did it right. So now those who taped the first broadcast have
something that'll never be seen again (if I have anything to say
about it).
<p>
<li> Yeah, it's always the dopey, small stuff that slips past, and nobody
notices until it jumps out at you when it's too late.
<p>
<li> Sebastian's final words were part of the same sentence he began
while speaking directly to Sheridan's face...insofar as I have ever
considered the scene, he IS talking to Sheridan.
<p>
<li> <em>How did Lennier know where Delenn was?</em><br>
Well, given Delenn's position, I think she'd have let Lennier know
where she was, or that he'd heard Sheridan tell Delenn in the scene we
played the voice-over.
<p>
<li> Actually, there *was* a scene where Lennier, concerned, tracks down Kosh
to inquire after Delenn's situation, which report alarms him and sends
him after Sheridan. It was filmed...but cut for time.
<p>
<li> <em>Censorship by C4 in Great Britain</em>
<p>
They SNIPPED the shot of G'Kar slicing his hand? You're kidding! I
find that quite astonishing; it was done discreetly. I'm dumbfounded.
No wonder there was confusion about that scene.
<p>
<li> You're right, btw; I was informed in another message here that they
did snip that piece of G'Kar's action. Suffice to say I had *no*
idea, and now that I *do* have an idea...I'm simply wog-boggled.
<p>
<li> Can G'Kar grow to forgive? I don't think so...and yet in a way he must
come to something more than rage, and other than forgiveness. There is
an important step in his development yet to come. And he will have to
go there by a very hard road.
</ul>
<p>
Originally compiled by Jason Snell.

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<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
As the Centauri war escalates, a Narn warcruiser seeks help from Babylon 5.
Earth takes a position in the war. Keffer makes a terrifying discovery.
Kosh takes a drastic step to save a life.
</cite>
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Dotrice,+Roy">Roy Dotrice</a> as Frederick Lantze.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Vickery,+John">John Vickery</a> as Mr. Welles.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Hamilton,+Rick">Rick Hamilton</a> as Mitch.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Sachs,+Robin">Robin Sachs</a> as Na'Kal.
</blockquote>
<pre><a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/044">9.40</a>
Production number: 222
Original air date: August 15, 1995 (UK)
November 1, 1995 (US)
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Janet Greek</pre>
<p>
<strong>Think twice before reading what's below if you haven't seen the
episode -- major spoilers follow!</strong>
<p>
<hr size=3>
<h2><a name="BP">Backplot</a></h2>
<ul>
<li>
The Ministry of Peace has been recruiting other high-level B5 staff members
for its Nightwatch program.
<li>
Vorlons appear as angelic, winged beings of light, whose appearance is
different to each observer. They can fly. (But see
<a href="#JS:vorlons">jms speaks</a>)
</ul>
<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
<ul>
<li>
Is Keffer mercifully dead, or might he reappear as "worse than dead" -- a
tool of the Shadows a la Morden?
<li>
What will be the ramifications of Zack's turning the shopkeeper in to the
Nightwatch?
<li>
How far will the Centauri expansion push?
<li>
Why did Londo see nothing when he looked at Kosh? (see
<a href="#AN">Analysis</a>)
<li>
Who was behind the bombing of Sheridan's tram? Who were the young Centauri
taking orders from, if anyone?
<li>
What ramifications will there be to Kosh's appearance, since it was such a
closely kept secret before?
<li>
What will happen to the Narn cruiser?
<li>
What other forces do the Narn have that were not caught by the Centauri?
<li>
Where did the cruiser go?
<li>
Have the Centauri made any arrangements with the Minbari, or are they
relying on their non-interference in the affairs of other races?
<li>
Will Sheridan's planned apology be enough to satisfy his superiors at
Earthdome, or is he in danger of losing his position?
<li>
What effect will the open transmission by ISN of Keffers recorder log have
on the Shadows' plans? Will it force them to show their hand?
</ul>
<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
<ul>
<li>
Night has indeed fallen. As the Centauri government
continues to expand by attacking other races like the Drazi and the
Pak'Ma'Ra, the Earth government has entered into an appeasement pact with
them. Meanwhile, the inward-turning Earth government is using their
"Nightwatch" as a means to silence dissent. However, Keffer's last flight
has made the presence of the Shadows in hyperspace known to all of Earth,
relayed to them via ISN.
<p>
<li>It's interesting that Kosh risks revealing himself to save one life - the
same criterion for saintliness/being the Chosen that the Inquisitor established
(cf. <a href="043.html">"Comes the Inquisitor"</a>).
<p>
<li>
Vir and Lennier are both feeling the pressures of knowing a great deal
about what is going on but not being involved in the planning and
decision making stages. That they have found each other to talk to is
somewhat ironic, since each is working for masters who have taken
opposing sides - Light and Dark - in the coming battle.
<p>
<li>
"We will, at last, know peace in our time." This phrase, given by Lantze
when he announces the Earth-Centauri non-aggression pact, is very similar
to a phrase used by Neville Chamberlain after signing an appeasement
agreement with Hitler in 1938 just prior to the invasion of Czechoslovakia, an
agreement that failed to stop Hitler's expansionist policy. The choice of
words is probably intended to highlight the futility of such a pact with
an aggressive party and a foreshadow of future events. There are other
parallels with Nazi actions (divided between the actions of <i>both</i>
signatories), but the motivations of the Earth government are not race
related nor moving towards the domination/submission of other groups.
<p>
<li>
NightWatch openly tries to recruit highly placed individuals, not
appearing too concerned if they refuse. This suggests that they feel
confident about circumnavigating these people with a strong sense of
loyalty at a later date, replacing them with a more easily manipulated
individual.
<p>
<li>
Had Sheridan refused to apologize publicly and been replaced, it would
have been with Ivanova had she accepted Welles offer to work with the
NightWatch. Otherwise they would have brought in an easily manipulated
person to command Babylon 5, as Welles indicated.<p>
<li>
This episode shows the new defense grid (cf.
<A HREF="032.html">"GROPOS"</A>)
in action for the
first time. As promised it is an even match for a heavy battle
cruiser. The battle doctrine for the B5 universe is one of fighters
engage fighters, heavy ships engage heavy ships. During this combat
sequence we see what happens when a heavy ship ignores the fighters and
fails (for whatever reason) to deploy its own fighters. While not capable
of inducing complete destruction of a heavy vessel in the short term, the
fighters can strip a heavy vessel of its offensive/defensive armament
since such weaponry is small compared to the ship and necessarily exposed
in order to be effective.
<p>
<li>
Lantze is a dreamer and idealist, taking any steps to ensure peace for
Earth. He is someone who feels that the ends justify the means so long as
it does not involve Earth. This is a direct expression of the anti-alien
feelings present at the moment on Earth. That Lantze is not directly
involved in the NightWatch suggests that, while he understands the aims of
the NightWatch, his concience is not capable of handling the individual
betrayals involved. Perhaps the ideal politician.
<p>
Welles, on the other hand, is very much caught up in the management of the
NightWatch. He has no conscience pangs about the betrayal of individals.
While he is a co-director of The Ministry of Peace, he probably has more
real power than Lantze because of what he is managing. He is also gifted
with the art of manipulating people as shown with both Zack and Sheridan
(although the latter is more aware of the manipulation and capable of
defending against it.)
<p>
<li>
The Narn cruiser will probably use other races threatened by the Centauri
for assistance, perhaps acting as a mercenary. Or it may find
somewhere quiet to lie low until it can be called into the service of
homeworld. The Minbari cruiser Trigati managed to avoid capture for over
ten years (cf.
<A HREF="023.html">"Points of Departure"</A>).
<p>
<li>
The Shadows did not destroy the recorder marker dropped by Keffer. Either
they failed to detect it (they aren't omnipotent), or they chose to ignore
it (they are confident it would make no difference, or were unaware of the
contents).
<p>
<li>
Keffer's recording log has been transmitted by ISN. This is exactly what
Delenn and Sheridan wanted to avoid. Will it force the Shadows' hand now
that they have been seen? Or will it push the forces of Light into even
greater efforts?
<p>
<li>
The commentary by ISN at the end of the episode suggests that the events
on Earth are not being manipulated by the Shadows. Of course this could
just be a politically expedient newscast.
<p>
<li>
Kosh's rescue of Sheridan is like a blessing from the heavens. This will
no doubt be taken as a sign of Sheridan's worthiness to lead the forces of
Light, as it has already been taken to indicate that Babylon 5 is blessed.
<p>
<li>
When Kosh left his encounter suit only Delenn was present. She has
already seen Kosh. The other ambassadors only saw a being of light
rise up and rescue
Sheridan. Kosh also landed in an empty part of the Zen garden before
returning to his encounter suit. The conversation in the Zocalo between
the Narn and the Drazi suggests they are not aware it is Kosh. What would
the reaction be if these races were to find out that the Vorlons had been
interfering (apparently benevolently) in the development of their race?
Would religions collapse under the revelation that their supernatural
beings were simply ancient aliens?
<p>
<li>
Does each Vorlon appear as a particular entity to each type of observer,
an entity that remains the same over time? If so, could Kosh be the original
G'Lan, and thus be at least a thousand years old?
<p>
<li>
Londo failed to see Kosh when he revealed himself. Does this extend to
all Centauri, or is it peculiar to Londo? If it is the former then it
suggests that either the Vorlons have not openly visited the Centauri
(why?) or that their worship of their deceased Emperors as gods has
diminished the effect of exposure to Vorlons. If it is the latter then it
must be because of Londo's association with the Shadows. If this is the
case then what would be the response of other Centauri on seeing a Vorlon? (see
<a href="#JS:centauri">jms speaks</a>)
<p>
<li>
Carrying the above a step further, are Vorlons invisible to Centauri and/or
to anyone of a race they haven't dealt with before? That suggests the
possibility that the Shadows might be the same way, visible to some people
and not to others.
<p>
<li>
Delenn seemed somewhat taken aback by Sheridan's unflattering appraisal of
the Vorlons' motives; she seems willing to regard them as, if not completely
good, at least altruistic, and is clearly awed by them. It's plausible she
has perceived Kosh as a Minbari religious figure from the start, which has
colored her perceptions of him in exactly the way Sheridan describes.
<p>
Might Sheridan's less starry-eyed view of the Vorlons be due in part to the
training he's been getting from Kosh, the point of which (for a while,
anyway) was to help Sheridan and Kosh understand each other? Put another
way, has Sheridan learned to fight the legends he believes Kosh's appearance
is intended to evoke?
<p>
<li>
Why do the Vorlons appear as the particular religious figures they do? Each
of the figures we saw was an idealized version of the race in question.
Perhaps this is to make themselves seem less alien, more familiar and therefore
less threatening. The fact that they feel the need to do this suggests that
their true appearance may be very alien indeed.
<p>
<li>
When Sheridan mentioned to Delenn that everyone saw something different in
Kosh, Delenn replied that each person saw something "according to his or
her type." That choice of words can be interpreted in a disturbing way, to
suggest that the Vorlons have organized other sentients into categories.
<p>
<li>
Might the Shadows' appearance also be subjective? What do they look like
to Morden, for instance? It may be that the Shadows feel no need to deceive
others about their appearance, as it might not advance their goals (whatever
those goals might be.) Clearly the Shadows prefer not to be seen, to work
through others, but that might be the result of small numbers or caution as
much as anything else.
<p>
<li>
Kosh's true form is probably smaller than what everyone saw; for one thing,
his encounter suit is shorter than he appeared to be. When he was behind
the screen in
<a href="001.html">"Midnight on the Firing Line"</a>
he appeared to be much smaller as well. But he probably does have a physical
form of some kind, since he was able to touch Sheridan (if it were just
telekinesis, presumably he wouldn't have needed to leave his suit.)
<p>
<li>
Zack is having second thoughts about the NightWatch. Up until now he has
been happily accepting their money in return for just wearing the armband
and giving in few reports. He misunderstood their intentions and now
realizes that should he try to leave he will be branded in the same way as
the shopkeeper in the Zocalo. The fear of being taken out of society
and branded as a traitor is greater than the urge to stand up for what he
believes to be right. Zack's dissatisfaction with the
NightWatch might be useful at a later date.
<p>
<li>
The signal for the Centauri weapons lock on to Babylon 5 sounded like that
of a submarine sonar. It represents an active weapons lock (ship sending
out signals to locate its target) rather than a passive lock (ship
detecting emmissions from its target.) It brings a tension to the
situation inherited from the submarine warfare genre of films.
<p>
<li>
How compatible is an Earth Alliance career and raising children?
Ivanova's conversation with Lantze suggests that women do bear children
while actively continuing with their careers. Another hint from JMS that
the military at least are an equal oppourtunities employer.
<p>
<li>
The celebration of Winter Solstice described by Lantze is a pagan
festival. The celebration of Christ's birth, though important in
Christian teaching, was not begun until the 4th century. The time of year
was chosen to counter the celebration of the Winter Solstice. Presumably
the reference to the public celebration of the solstice indicate a more
open tolerance of religion on Earth in the 22nd century, and that there
are other religious groups that celebrate the same period for different
reasons.
<p>
<li>
It's Keffer's obsession with the shadow ship he saw in hyperspace in
<A HREF="026.html">"A Distant Star"</A>
that leads to his demise.
<p>
<li>
Kosh has now offered his hand to Babylon 5's commander twice, both times
with potentially disastrous results.
<p>
<li>
The exchange between Lennier and Vir might have been more than mere comic
relief. Perhaps they were actually passing information back and forth
using a code of some kind -- Vir now appears strongly motivated to do
something like that.
<p>
<li>
<a name="AN:candles">
Ivanova's lighting of candles at the end of the episode had a deeper meaning
</a>
than may initially be obvious. In Orthodox Jewish tradition, Chanukah
(the Festival of Lights)
celebrates both the victory over the conquerors of Jerusalem and the victory
of those who wanted to uphold traditional values over those who wanted to
assimilate with the enemy, an internal struggle which is also arguably the
main theme of the episode. (See <a href="#JS:candles">jms speaks</a>,
here and in <a href="042.html#JS:candles">"The Long, Twilight Struggle"</a>)
</ul>
<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>
<ul>
<li>
The character "Corwin" is no doubt named after Norman Corwin,
JMS' friend and mentor.
<p>
<li>
Ivanova's comment about Sheridan being weightless depends on one's point
of view. In a strict, pedantic sense, everyone on Babylon 5 is close to
weightless, since weight is defined as the force with which a mass is
gravitationally attracted to another mass, and B5 achieves the illusion
of weight by rotation, not by gravity. (Leaving aside, of course, the
gravity of the planet below the station.)
<p>
Sheridan's movement away from the station's axis is due to three factors.
First, the tram wasn't exactly at the axis, so it was revolving
at some speed. Just as a rock flies in a straight line if you swing it
on a piece of string then let go, Sheridan would have moved toward the ground
even if he'd just stepped gingerly out the door.
<p>
Of course, he didn't; he leapt. Depending on whether the door was facing
into or against the station's spin, this might have either
accelerated his descent or slowed it. The fact that he appeared to not
leap very hard suggests that the door was facing spinward and he wanted to
stay in the air as long as possible.
<p>
The final factor is the atmosphere, which rotates in the Garden along with
the ground and everything else. As Sheridan fell, he would be pushed along
by air revolving at speeds closer and closer to the speed of the ground; this
would tend to accelerate his fall, since it would cause him to revolve more
quickly. So the longer he fell, the faster he would be going. That effect
would probably be fairly weak for most of the fall, so it might
not have accelerated him to high enough speed to cause serious harm when he
hit the ground.
<p>
Unfortunately, his inertia would keep him from achieving ground speed even
with the push of the wind, so as Ivanova said, he would have hit the ground
as if he'd fallen out of a car on the freeway, even if his rate of descent
alone wouldn't have been enough to hurt him seriously.
<p>
In any case, Sheridan is probably quite glad Kosh chose that moment to make an
appearance.
</ul>
<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Janet [Greek] was not available to us for most of this season due to
illness (flu turning into pneumonia), but she's better now, and will be
directing our season-ender, "[The Fall of Night]." We hope to have her
do five or six next year, and will of course try to get her for our
first and last as with this year and the last of year one; she's kind
of our good luck charm.
<p>
<li> On Monday we begin our last week of filming. We're going for an
eight-day shoot this one time, rather than our usual seven-day shoot,
because of the extraordinary EFX requirements to pull off the finale.
It should be a doozy.
<p>
<li> How does the finale compare? Hmmm...depends on what you're looking
for. "Inquisitor" is primarily a character piece, virtually no EFX,
but very intense. The story is kind of straightforward, with a few
kickers along the way. "Twilight" is a heavy story episode, that
zips all over the B5 landscape, between the Narns, the Centauri, and
elsewhere (he said vaguely). The finale, "The Fall of Night," is
actually kind of deceptive; it starts out fairly calmly and tightens
fairly fast. The story is not as back-and-forth or layered as Twilight
or Coming, it's really about one thing. Visually, it's the most
ambitious thing we've done to date, and probably the most ambitious
EFX stuff done for a TV series *ever*. I don't think you'll feel left
wanting after the episode is done.
<p>
<li> No, the last ep of this season wasn't per se a cliffhanger, though it
does tip over a few things, so it flows from 222 to 301 fairly smoothly.
<p>
<li> Yeah, this is the other structure that's kind of a favorite of mine.
I used it also in "Coming of Shadows." It starts out kind of slow, it
lulls you into a sense that this is going to be a fairly ordinary story,
nothing major...allowing me to sneak up behind you in the story and just
*whack* you real hard when you're not expecting it.
<p>
<li> In a few days we will begin shooting the final episode of
season two: "The Fall of Night." In terms of action, this is the
biggest thing we've ever attempted. Where normally our scripts have
50-80 scenes/shots (as noted in numerical sluglines), this one has 134;
of which 64 are EFX shots, some in combinations. To understand the
weight of that, there were 60 EFX shots in the entire two-hour pilot.
In addition, this has more and more *complex* CGI than the first 13
episodes of our first season put TOGETHER. Nothing on quite this scale
has ever been attempted in series TV before, and the irony is that the
major part of this covers only a few minutes in the fourth act.
<p>
This stuff is going to involve every one of our EFX divisions,
compositing, makeup, prosthetics, costuming, practical effects, mattes,
CGI; the visual EFX meeting was the biggest we've ever had, and
everyone's both sober and excited. Because there are only two options
when you go for something this substantial: either you're going to do
something truly amazing, or you're going to massively fall on your
face. For our EFX people, this is kinda like boarding the wildest ride
at Magic Mountain and leaving off your seatbelt on a dare...it's one
hell of a ride, but boy is it dangerous.
<p>
But as Ron Thornton pointed out: no guts, no glory.
<p>
This is also going to be a Janet Greek-directed episode, who for
various reasons was only available to do our first episode prior to
this, but she's kind of our good luck charm, and we wanted someone
who's done as much for us as she has to come in here and helm
this...because it could probably break a less experienced (on B5)
director.
<p>
<li> Thanks. That last sequence is the single biggest effects sequence
done for TV, insofar as I know. There are 34 composite shots in a
matter of just a few minutes. Our guys nearly went blind doing it,
but it's cool. The whole feel, I think, is quite nice.
<p>
<li> Definite agreement on the shuttle sequence, works nicely.
<p>
<li> A wire harness was used; and the effect you ask about
<em>[Kosh]</em> was a mix of CGI, live action, and rotoscope.
<p>
<li> I think the Kosh stuff is *very* cool...but I don't want to over-sell
it; best to see it cold.
<p>
<li> <em>Kosh's wings looked like those of the aliens in "The Abyss."</em>
<br>
There was no deliberate homage, but the individual who helped design
that, working with me, was Steve Burg, who has worked on Abyss and T2.
<p>
<li> <em>How long did the Kosh scene take to get right?</em><br>
It took, literally, months of trial and error, design and
redesign, which is why we did it as the last episode of that
season.
<p>
<li> <a name="JS:vorlons">Since "The Fall of Night"</a>
has now aired in the UK, and word is getting
out, herewith a post I left on GEnie about Kosh's now-revealed
identity. I thought it came out fairly well, so I'm repeating it here.
<p>
*****
<p>
Okay. Here it is. I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna reveal Kosh.
<p>
I'm not kidding. Bail now if you're looking in and don't want to know.
<p>
No backsies.
<p>
I mean it.
<p>
Last chance.
<p>
Okay, this is it.
<p>
"If he leaves his encounter suit, he will be recognized."<br>
"By who?"<br>
"Everyone."
<p>
"The First Ones taught the younger races, explored beyond the rim,
built civilizations...."
<p>
Kosh is what you're pointing at when you say "That's Kosh."
<p>
"Yes, the Vorlons have been to Earth, the Vorlons have been everywhere.
The Vorlons *are*."
<p>
They *are*.
<p>
"For centuries, the Vorlons have helped the younger races, guiding us,
and --" "And manipulating us?" "It is, as you say, a matter...
of perspective."
<p>
They *are*...a matter of perspective.
<p>
Each race who sees them, sees something out of their own past, their
own legends, religions, faiths. A being of light, if you will, but a
Drazi sees the Drazi version of that, Droshalla; the Minbari see the
Minbari version of that, Valeria; humans see a human version of that.
<p>
It is the mirror in which we see our beliefs reflected, but is it the
progenitor of those beliefs...or an implanted image that overlays that
vision on top of the true form of the Vorlon? Is it revelation, or is
it manipulation?
<p>
The Vorlons are a cypher. The Vorlons are a matter of perspective.
The Vorlons are guides...or users, emissaries or puppeteers, who wish
to be seen a certain way, so that we will react properly.
<p>
Is this good, or is this bad?
<p>
And the truth is, even though you have seen a Vorlon, have you seen
THE Vorlon, the one behind the image that dances somewhere between your
optic nerve and your brain?
<p>
Or to quote a message I left long ago, paraphrased from memory, "The
hand Sinclair sees is not the hand Sinclair sees, and the hand Sinclair
sees is not the same hand someone else in the room sees, and is not
even the hand that that person sees."
<p>
The Vorlons Are.
<p>
<li> <em>Kosh is weak. He allowed himself to be poisoned by a Minbari and
attacked by Morden. He needed a Vicar to probe Talia and needed
Sebastian to test Delenn. He rarely does anything directly, preferring
to use others. I find Kosh slightly righteous.</em><br>
Thanks. And finding Kosh slightly righteous is pretty much the desired
intent. So you're clicking on all the right cylinders.
<p>
<li> <em>Kosh is an angel! But which one?</em><br>
<p>
Actually, no, not really; Kosh is what you see when you look at him.
And if a Drazi looks at him, the Drazi sees something different
than a Minbari; yes, a being of light, BUT....
<p>
Is that what they actually ARE, or how they have programmed us to
react when we see them? As Sheridan said, have we been *manipulated*
to seeing them a certain way, seeing a certain image? We may not be
seeing what they ARE, but what they WANT us to see.
<p>
It goes a heck of a lot deeper than what it seems.
<p>
<li> That's the irony, in a sense...what's inside Kosh's biomechanical
encounter suit...is a *perceptual* encounter suit....
<p>
<li> <em>Would a Hindu, or a Buddhist, see Kosh differently?</em><br>
Yes, there would be some amount of variation among humans, though not
in terms of beliefs that may have come along post-Vorlon influence.
This sort of thing has been implanted almost at a genetic level, and
they do have a hand, or a mind, in activating it when seen. The more
people who see them in different ways, the longer they must maintain
that, the greater the strain on them.
<p>
<li> The more people who have to *see* Kosh as one of their own, the
greater the strain on Kosh, as you'll note in the first ep of year
three.
<p>
<li> <em>The Vorlons aren't prepared to fight? They'll refuse?</em><br>
As for the Vorlons line..."prepared"
should be taken in the same sense as "ready"...so they may not yet be
ready.
<p>
<li> Yes, the Shadows know that the Vorlons are still around, and that Kosh
is there. That's never been any kind of secret. They're just hoping
that the Vorlons and anyone who might believe them won't find out that
they're out and about again until too [late.]
<p>
<li> The Vorlons aren't yet ready; they can't take on the shadows by
themselves, and must bring together other forces.
<p>
And in each case, re: Kosh, what they saw was not the *head* of
their belief, but in essence a supporting being of light; it wasn't
G'Quon, but G'Lan that G'Kar saw, which was a being that story tells us
served G'Quon. So you wouldn't see the head of the religion,
since there can only be one of those, and lots of Vorlons, but each
tends to have a supporting cast, for lack of a better term. Those are
what we perceive the vorlons to be.
<p>
And remember, we didn't see any other human's POV of Kosh but
Sheridan's.
<p>
<li> No, she wouldn't. Again, you don't see the *top* of the echelon of any
belief, because there can be only one of those; it's the servants of
light you see (and even the Old Testament makes reference to such
things).
<p>
<li> Yes, those are pretty much the two interpretations...
that the Vorlons *created* the myth of angels, or that they
came in and *exploited* it for their own purposes. In my
view, the latter seems more logical in some ways.
<p>
<li> When one Vorlon looks at another, he sees a proper Vorlon.
<p>
<li> <em>Will WE see a proper Vorlon?</em><br>
We will see them. Eventually.
<p>
<li> What, I should begin catering to prurient interests?
Broadcasting picture postcards (likely French) of Vorlons
in provocative poses, in lingerie? A terrible thing, that
a nice young man such as yourself should be asking about.
Does your mother know you're out here doing this? Good heavens.
<p>
And who said they reproduce anymore?
<p>
<li> <em>Where did Kosh go afterwards?</em><br>
First he returned to his encounter suit, then he went to his ship,
and stayed there for quite a while.
<p>
<li> Yes, he had the momentum from his jump, plus that of the
core shuttle itself (which is considerable), plus the wind
currents toward the center of the station area/garden, which
area also considerable. Together that would be enough to
keep him moving toward the outer edge of the garden area.
<p>
<li> <a name="JS:centauri">Nnnnnnoo, not really;</a>
the Centauri don't actually have an equivalent to G'Quan or Valen.
<p>
Believe it or not, this one answer may add another layer to a scene
in one of the last episodes of this season. You can infer it backwards
once you see it, but now you'll have it going in.
<p>
<li> They [Centauri]
believe in a variety of afterlives; the god you worship, of the
centauri pantheon, holds dominion over a given "heaven" or afterworld.
If you appease the god sufficiently during life, it will accept you
into that afterworld, in preparation for the day when all heavens are
united; if not, you will have to be reborn and choose another until
one accepts you.
<p>
<li> Londo saw what he said he saw.
<p>
<li> Basically, all that was indicated in the script was that he for a beat
isn't sure what's up...then lets it go. I generally don't drop specific
points explaining foreshadowing in the scripts, in case they leak out.
If a line like that isn't sufficiently clear for the actor's intent,
they then come to me and I explain it verbally. This was done in
particular when we had to shoot "Chrysalis" before "Signs and Portents,"
even though the latter aired before the former.
<p>
<li> <em>"It doesn't matter. This place has been blessed." Nobody was
trying to claim it was only THEIR deity.</em><br>
Thanks. I think that, with so many races around, you couldn't go into
holy wars or jihads at every occasion. In a
way, what was seen was a validation for many...a moment they all came
together, instead of coming apart.
<p>
<li> <em>Why didn't Clark reprimand Sheridan personally?</em><br>
From a strictly logical standpoint, a president would not lower
himself to deal with this personally. When MacArthur and Patton earned
the disfavor of the president, it was intermediaries who pulled them
aside and registered this. Also, gradually more authority is being
vested in Nightwatch and the Ministry of Peace, as that's his arm, and
so he'd be inclined to use that since he's in most direct control.
(Just to explain why what was done was done.)
<p>
<li> <em>About Zack trusting the Nightwatch</em><br>
And bear in mind that it's never just a common sense "oh, these guys
are lying to me from Nightwatch, they're the bad guys." It's always
couched in such a way that it sounds like it *might* be a real concern.
That was how McCarthy and others terrorized this country during the
1950s. There were plenty of people who really *believed* that the Reds
had infiltrated every aspect of society, as well as those who might've
had doubts, but figured that maybe where there's smoke there IS fire.
<p>
<li> There's also a certain amount of McCarthyism inherent in the
Nightwatch, the emphasis on revealing spies in our midst, enemies of the
people.
<p>
The problem with pointing to the Nazis or the Gestapo exclusively is
that it allows us the safety of saying, "Well, it happened just there,
and only once, *we* could never fall for that."
<p>
Wrong.
<p>
<li> Bear in mind that Sheridan specifically states that the treaty had
*not* been finalized yet between Earth and the Centauri, so the attack
was not a violation of a treaty that hadn't been signed yet. (And very
likely the Centauri captain was unaware of it *anyway*, just as Sheridan
was taken by surprise by it all.)
<p>
<li> <em>I hope Sheridan verified those orders.</em><br>
And the really great thing is...you're quite right about verifying
orders from one arm of the government with another...as we'll see in the
first third of the coming season. Good call.
<p>
<li> After the Centauri tried to kill him, the need for an apology was
somewhat obviated. Had he still been forced to do so, the one he
rehearsed was the one he intended to give.
<p>
<li> <em>The "peace in our time" reference</em><br>
Yes, it was a definite nod to Chamberlain, and a bit of foreshadowing
for ominous things to come.
<p>
<li> There are a number of metaphors in the show that operate on many
different levels; it can't be a one-to-one corrolary to WW II,
because that limits and makes predictable your story.
<p>
In musical terms, it's almost a tonal piece, taking elements to
which we respond, almost subconsciously, and then rearranging them
into something that is, one hopes, a new construct. You can find
here echoes of Vietnam, of Kennedy, of Chamberlain, of WW II, of
Korea, of the Mideast; in a way, it's a thematic piece that touches
how we have come to think of war, and conflict, across the
development of the 20th century, and the role of the individual in
that regard.
<p>
We have learned to think of war as something now on a huge scale,
an entity in itself. Once upon a time, before the gatling gun and
the automatic rifle, combat was something individual, even in larger
wars, one person against the enemy...and that person was honored, one
person could turn the tide against the enemy. In a world in which
weapons of mass destruction exist, where then is the individual?
Where then the bravery, the struggle, the triumph...and the failure?
Where, fundamentally, is the responsibility?
<p>
All of that is intertwined with the storyline, and to communicate that
I'm not averse to taking elements of history that resonate with that
theme and reworking them, knowing that on a cellular level, we
*recognize* that aspect, we've seen it...but now in a new context, we
can see it differently, discuss its implications, *learn* from it.
<p>
This is one of the things I rarely talk about, because it's the kind
of thing that is best left simply implied, or implicit, in the work,
and because if you have to draw attention to something in the work,
somehow I think it lessens it, because it works best unspoken. And
because I guess it sounds kinda presumptuous, and high-falutin' and
self-indulgent. But it's one the things that matters to me in the
context of the story.
<p>
<li> <a href="#AN:candles" name="JS:candles"><em>Symbolism in Ivanova's
candle-lighting</em></a><br>
Moshe: an excellent analysis of the theme behind that scene, which
as you state ties directly into the theme of the whole episode, and
moreover, somewhat sets up the theme for the coming season...who will
determine your identity, the rules you follow, who will lead you, and
who you are...the question of, as you say, those who wish to accommodate
and give in to pressures from within and from without.
<p>
Didn't want to be heavy-handed about it, so I figured those who got
it, got it; those who didn't, would see a nice candle scene which sets
the mood, even if they don't get the full thematic/symbolic aspects that
others would get.
<p>
(not a Talmudic scholar, but I play one on TeeVee....)
<p>
<li> The narrative [at the end] was a tonal setup for next season.
<p>
<li> <em>Imagery in Season Two episode titles?</em><br>
Yes; work it out as you have, but take it further...we start with a
point of departure...then after some revelations, examine the geometry
of shadows, then begin to more forward, a race through dark places. We
come toward the long dark, our past a distant star. We carry the motif
of a world getting dark. The coming of shadows that darkens into the
long twilight struggle, the last period between day and night...and we
end the season on...the fall of night.
<p>
<li> Actually, the "snitch" was the C&C tech, NOT the pilot, they just
have a somewhat similar appearance.
<p>
We've established that klaxons go off elsewhere in the station
during an attack to warn civilians, but they aren't going off in C&C
because they make it impossible to concentrate, as per military
tradition (see
<a href="037.html">"And Now For a Word"</a> to confirm this).
<p>
There wasn't time to call Draal, and they can't begin relying on him
for every problem; they have to be able to hold their own. You would
only bring in Draal on something really major.
<p>
<li> <em>Is Keffer dead?</em><br>
He is an Ex-Keffer.
<p>
<li> <em>Does that mean he's dead?</em><br>
Dead as the proverbial doorknob.
<p>
<li> <em>Keffer jettisoned his recording as soon as the Shadow ship started
scanning him. But the ISN broadcast showed the Shadow ship turning and
firing.</em><br>
Yeah, I kinda figured that recorders like this would be outfitted with
a receiver for the ship's gun camera. This would be vital to locate
ships that got lost, and track as long as possible what happened after
the log was ejected, and before the recorder moved out of range.
<p>
<li> Yes, the camera was still mounted on the Starfury, but cameras even
today are constantly transmitting to other locations; TV cameras don't
just transmit on a cable to the box they're attached to, they are
uplinked to other places. Similarly, the recording device continued
to receive transmission from the Starfury until such time as it either
went out of range or, in this case, the transmitter was destroyed.
<p>
<li> <em>What was the part of the station that was shot off?</em><br>
It's an area for helping secure ships while being offloaded
into the zero-G cargo bay right behind it.
<p>
<li> <em>What does "time on target" mean?</em><br>
It's an actual military term for launching a lot of stuff, so that
even though it's launched at different times, it all arrives at once.
<p>
<li> The interceptors line refers to the fact that there are so many
incoming bursts that the interceptors are only knocking down 90% of them
at this point, meaning that some of them (the incoming bursts) are
getting through.
<p>
<li> Visually, yeah, I'd have to say TFoN is one of our biggest from year
two, and I'm quite fond of it; the only reason that it isn't in my
top three is because while the last half is very intense, it takes a
little bit to get there; I like 'em intense from the first frame on.
<p>
For the growing use of montage/intercutting...it's really just a
process of continuing to learn my craft. So I try out and experiment
with different techniques. While I love dialogue, and lots of it, I'm
also coming more and more to appreciate moments where you *only* play
the visuals, and the music, and get out of the way of the Moment.
<p>
<li> It's fair to say that you will be seeing that Narn cruiser again; it's
still out there.
</ul>
<p>
Originally compiled by Jason Snell.

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<!-- TITLE Matters of Honor -->
<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
While an Earth official investigates the mystery ship encountered by Lt.
Keffer in hyperspace, Londo attempts to sever his ties with Morden.
Sheridan receives a new tool in the fight against the Shadows.
</cite>
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Smallwood,+Tucker">Tucker Smallwood</a> as David Endawi.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Wasser,+Ed">Ed Wasser</a> as Morden.
</blockquote>
<pre><a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/045">8.60</a>
Production number: 301
Original air week: November 6, 1995
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Kevin Cremin
</pre>
<p>
<hr size=3>
<h2><a name="BP">Backplot</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> A little over a thousand years ago, long before the Narn achieved
spaceflight, the Shadows set up a base on one of the Narn homeworld's
southern continents.
<li> Morden is involved with the Psi Corps and some part of the Earth
government. The Corps knows about the Shadows. Morden has also been
in contact with Lord Refa without Londo's knowledge.
<li> If Delenn is correct about Morden always having Shadow companions,
then the Psi Corps, at least, presumably knows about the Shadows.
Talia, in
<a href="038.html">"In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum,"</a>
was able -- or even forced -- to sense the Shadows when she passed
Morden in the hall; presumably a Psi Cop would easily be able to
do the same. (Unless, of course, Talia's perception was a result of
Ironheart's gift from
<a href="006.html">"Mind War."</a>)
<li> The Shadows aren't particularly interested in the section of the
galaxy containing the Centauri Republic; what they're after (or rather,
what they claim to be after) is on the other side.
<li> What they <em>are</em> interested in, though, is the Rangers --
interested enough to have Morden go over Londo's head and get Refa to
give them a world known to house a Ranger training camp.
<li> The Markab homeworld has been looted by scavengers since the race
became extinct
(<a href="040.html">"Confessions and Lamentations."</a>)
<li> The Minbari religious caste, without the knowledge of some members of
the Grey Council, have built a new ship using Minbari and Vorlon
technology. Called the White Star, it has been granted to Sheridan
for use against the Shadows.
<li> The fleet of Shadow ships in Londo's dream
(<a href="031.html">"The Coming of Shadows"</a>)
are flying over Centauri Prime, as far as Londo can tell.
<li> Being seen by many people is a strain on Kosh.
</ul>
<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> What other details of Londo's dream weren't shown in
<a href="031.html">"The Coming of Shadows?"</a>
<li> What in particular are the Shadows after, that they don't care what
the Centauri do with a good 30% of the galaxy? What's in the
remaining section? (For example, where are the major races in
relation to the boundary Morden drew?)
<li> How did Marcus leave Medlab? Is he able to put himself into a
trance deep enough to pass unnoticed in an admittedly cursory
medical examination?
<li> What do the Shadows know about the Rangers?
<li> How did Ivanova find out about the Rangers?
<li> What is the "program" referred to by the Psi Cop?
<li> Why are some on Earth working with the Shadows? What do they hope to
gain from the association, and how does that tie in with whatever the
Shadows want?
<li> Will Endawi's report ever make it to real strategic analysts? Did
G'Kar tell him about Z'ha'dum?
<li> What else can the White Star do?
<li> Was the Shadow vessel actually destroyed, or did it manage to escape?
If it was destroyed, did it have a chance to relay information about
the White Star first? (see
<a href="#JS:destroy">jms speaks</a>)
</ul>
<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Lennier says, "Not all of my people are comfortable with the idea of
the Rangers." That implies that the Rangers aren't as secret an
organization on the Minbari homeworld as they are elsewhere.
<li> Likewise, the fact that Marcus' brother was able to sign up for the
Rangers, and that Marcus apparently knew about them too at the time,
suggests that they're operating at least somewhat in the open. That
might also explain how Ivanova and the Shadows found out about them.
The fact that the Drazi government apparently knew about the Ranger
training base is further evidence.
<li> Londo severing his ties with Morden may have little
impact on the Shadows' association with the Centauri; Morden may
continue to meet with Refa, rendering Londo's newly prominent
position among the Centauri obsolete.
<li> Shadow ships are actually entering and leaving hyperspace when they
shimmer in and out of sight; they aren't just becoming invisible.
Obviously they know a good deal more about hyperspace than most of
the other races (also evidenced by the jump-point weapon they used
in <a href="042.html">"The Long, Twilight Struggle."</a>) It's
interesting to note that another ancient race, the walkers at Sigma
957 (<a href="006.html">"Mind War"</a>) also had an atypical way of
entering hyperspace -- assuming that's what they were doing in that
episode.
<li> Perhaps the fact that Kosh feels he must maintain his illusory
appearance when out of his encounter suit, and the fact that doing
so is a strain on him, is another reason he wears the suit in the
first place. If it weren't a strain to be seen by many people,
perhaps he would be willing to walk around the station in full view.
(Probably not, though; otherwise he'd most likely have been more
willing to show himself in the confines of his quarters.)
<li> Was the White Star constructed with Sheridan in mind? Giving it that
name seems certain to stir up resentment among the warrior caste when
they find out about it, especially if it turns out that the man they
call Starkiller was the intended commander from the start. (Sheridan
destroyed the Minbari cruiser Black Star in the Earth-Minbari War.)
<li> The White Star has some obvious Minbari characteristics, not the least
of which are the distinctive spade-shaped fins at the rear (also visible
on Minbari flyers and battle cruisers.) If the Shadows are at all
familiar with Minbari ships, they probably won't be fooled by the
White Star for long.
<li> Either the Minbari and Vorlons have mastered the art of intuitive
user interfaces, or Ivanova is an extremely quick study; she was
operating the White Star's weapons systems, presumably not a trivial
task, with at most a few hours of training. Perhaps the controls
are partially telepathic in nature.
<li> The Shadows are aware of the fact that some Narn (if only G'Kar) know
about them; they don't seem to consider it significant, especially
now that the Narn have been beaten into submission.
<li> The Shadows are even willing to be heard in public; they're plainly
audible telling Morden to set up a second meeting with Londo (assuming
that's what they're saying.)
<li> Was the Shadow base on Narn a unique thing, or did they have bases on
other races' worlds as well? In
<a href="027.html">"The Long Dark,"</a>
the Markab ambassador claimed to have heard the same stories of an
ancient enemy that G'Kar was recounting. Perhaps the Shadows had a
base on the Markab homeworld as well -- and if so, perhaps they
unleashed the plague
(<a href="040.html">"Confessions and Lamentations"</a>)
in order to reacquire that base without anyone noticing. If that's
the case, Sheridan may have inadvertently helped the Shadows out by
destroying the Markab jumpgate; that'll make it harder for someone
to stumble on the base by accident.
<li> Is the former Shadow presence on Narn related to the fact that there
are no Narn telepaths?
(<a href="000.html">"The Gathering"</a>)
Given how unpleasant -- even painful -- being near the Shadows was
for Talia
(<a href="038.html">"In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum"</a>)
perhaps prolonged exposure to the Shadows caused so much trouble for
Narn telepaths that they didn't survive to breed new generations of
telepaths.
<li> Morden has had contact with the Centauri and with Earth. Has he also
been talking to other races? The Minbari warrior caste, for instance?
<li> When Londo asks for assurances that the Shadows won't bother the
Centauri, Morden says dismissively,
"You and I both know what treaties are worth."
This could be a reference to the Centauri's disregard for the treaties
against mass drivers
(<a href="042.html">"The Long, Twilight Struggle"</a>)
-- but there's another, more recent, treaty that could also be the
one in question, namely the pact with Earth.
<li> A small inconsistency, perhaps: Lennier doesn't recognize Marcus in
the bar, yet the two of them presumably met, since Lennier gave
Marcus' broach to Delenn. It's possible that Marcus either left it
where Lennier would find it, or that he had Franklin deliver it (the
scene wasn't entirely clear, but it appeared Franklin removed the
broach in medlab.)
<li> Sheridan has now destroyed two indestructible enemy vessels in his
career.
<li> Marcus claims his brother was killed in a Shadow attack on a mining
colony. Which colony was that? Was Marcus working on a Narn mining
colony, or have the Shadows been attacking other targets as well?
<li> Marcus' reason for joining the Rangers is similar to Ivanova's reason
for joining Earthforce
(<a href="037.html">"And Now For a Word."</a>)
Both of them joined after losing a brother in a war.
<li> Sheridan orders the White Star's aft jump engines online. If this
can be taken to mean that it has two (or more) sets of jump engines,
it may be that the White Star can duplicate the Shadow-killing
explosion without the aid of a jump gate by using both its jump
engines at the same time. On the other hand, it may be that there's
only enough power to run one set of engines at a time, or that
there's something about jumpgates, rather than jump points, that
causes the effect. (The closed caption quotes him as saying "Half
jump engines.")
<li> The Centauri automated defense systems appear to be able to track
the White Star, evidence that Centauri weapons technology is more
advanced than Earth's
(<a href="023.html">"Points of Departure."</a>)
<li> Endawi says that Earth pulled the Shadow footage off ISN shortly
after it first aired. In what sense? Did they just record it from
ISN, or did they force ISN to stop airing the report?
<li> In the conference room, after Endawi leaves, Delenn tells Sheridan
that she has never seen such a ship, that only descriptions of the
ships have been passed down from the last war. Presumably, if the
Minbari were involved in the last war against the shadows, they were
capable of spaceflight (recall: the Narn, who were not capable of
spaceflight, were ignored in the last war). That they should have no
recorded images of the shadow ships from that conflict seems odd, since
recording technology would clearly have been within their grasp.
Possibilities:
<ol>
<li> Someone, or something, quietly eradicated whatever images did
exist at some point in the past. We have certainly seen the
Shadows act through their agents to suppress information
regarding their past activities (i.e. the Narn being beaten
down). No one said all the "information suppression" had to
be as spectacular as a planetary conquest. This of course
begs the question 'Who are the agents?' - Minbari, or outsiders.
<li> The last shadow war was so devastating that all recorded images
were lost.
<li> Delenn was lying. (There doesn't seem to be a good reason
for her to do so, though.)
</ol>
</ul>
<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> A small effects glitch is visible in the opening shot. As the camera
pans down from the repair crew, look at the stationary ring around
the front of the station. At about the eight o'clock position,
there's a small shaded area, the bottom half of which flickers on
and off.
<li> When Endawi leaves the conference room after meeting with Sheridan,
Delenn, and Ivanova, he forgets to take his data crystal with him.
It is left in the viewer. He does in fact remove it when visiting
Londo. Presumably, since it was pulled just after airing on ISN,
he would not want to leave copies lying around.
<li> This episode has Delenn's first action scene of the series.
</ul>
<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> <em>July 23, 1995:</em>
Finally, one week from tomorrow, we start filming on year three, with
episode #301, "Matters of Honor," which also introduces a new recurring
character named Marcus.
<p>
<li> Actually, the lead guest character in the first episode of year three,
one Mr. Endawi, is a Nigerian, and our new recurring character, Marcus
Cole (a Ranger) is British, and played by Jason Carter. So you have two
non-American accents occupying major parts of the first ep next year.
<p>
<li> New sets: yes, and we're creating situations in which we can see more of
Earth, Mars, our other local planets, plus Narn, Centauri, Minbari and
one other major world. As the Shadow War cranks into gear, you're
going to need a place to meet in security and plan for it, so we're
also building that. We'll see more of Draal's place on Epsilon 3.
And there's one other major set that we'll see in the first episode,
and quite a bit thereafter.
<p>
New characters: well, there's Marcus Cole, a Ranger assigned permanently
to Babylon 5, played by British actor Jason Carter; we'll see Lyta
Alexander more this year; and Theo...what can I say about Theo...well,
perhaps better to let you see for yourself.
<p>
<li> <em>About the title sequence</em><br>
"Why are starfuries firing on starfuries?"
<p>
Noticed that, eh?
<p>
Wait and see.
<p>
<li> <em>Will the station still be damaged?</em><br>
Repairs will be visible being done in the first episode.
<p>
<li> When the fighting staff expanded, it was CGI; physical otherwise.
<p>
<li> <em>What was that noise after Morden and Londo spoke?</em><br>
No, you heard something, all right...just a little bit of shadow whisper
for those who got it; those who don't, won't notice.
<p>
<li> <em>Are Morden and his "associates" equal partners?</em><br>
Well, he may sometimes *think* of his associates as equals...and my cat
thinks he actually owns this house....
<p>
<li> <em>Delenn lied! A continuity glitch?</em><br>
Re: Minbari lying...it has been established, repeatedly, that the
Minbari do lie *when it means saving someone else's honor*. That was
even stated, openly, in the very same episode about Sheridan's frame
job, "There All The Honor Lies." Londo says, right there, that the
Minbari will lie for a greater cause, another's honor. The same was
done in "The Quality of Mercy." Delenn fibbed about the ship in
"Matters" because in so doing, she saved Sheridan's honor.
<p>
This is not a plot hole, it's been established clearly in the series
on multiple occasions. We have never, ever, at any time said
conclusively that Minbari never, ever lie. This is another example of
certain persons simply not paying attention, and then blaming the show
for their own lack of continuity in attention.
<p>
<li> Yes, Endawi is more or less a good guy, in that he's totally
uninvolved with Morden or anyone on that side. He was doing what he
said he'd been assigned to do.
<p>
<li> <a name="JS:destroy"><em>Was the Shadow ship destroyed?</em></a><br>
Be of good cheer; the jumpgate blast destroyed the pursuing vessel.
<p>
<li> It's two separate mechanisms; no one has been able to open a
jump point in a jump point because of the hideous amount of energy
needed by the ship in question. They used the White Star to open a
jump point within a standing *jump gate* that was already there, and
had a secondary source of power. The competing energies were
impossible to control, and blew the whole thing.
<p>
<li> Where Delenn gets all those wardrobe changes is one of those
questions that, in a real world, doesn't warrant close scrutiny.
<p>
And yes, her costumes tend to be emblematic of where the character
is, and who she is. Consequently, there will be some year three
additions to underscore her more assertive nature; there's a green
costume in particular that shows up in the first episode that's just
*killer*.
<p>
<li> <em>Was Delenn's bone crest changed?</em><br>
Yeah, we made some small modifications to the headpiece (good call,
Corun). It merges more seamlessly behind, it's raised slightly at the
crest, and the ends blend more smoothly into the skin in front, to make
the whole thing more natural.
<p>
<li> <em>What was the plant pictured in G'Kar's book?</em><br>
The leaf shown is the G'Quon-eth, the plant featured in "By Any Means
Necessary."
<p>
<li> Had a Minbari been running that sensor, he would've nailed it instantly;
but Ivanova had never actually encountered that ship before, and was
running off the initial scan reports. (Also it was just phasing in at
that point.)
<p>
The White Star uses local drive engines based on magnetic and
gravitational principles; in a sense, it doesn't so much push itself
toward other worlds as *pull* itself or *repel* itself. One side effect
of creating a powerful gravitational system is the ability to create
artificial gravity.
<p>
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
<p>
<li> No, the Drazi was not a Ranger, only a supporter/collaborator (if I can
use, or misuse that term.)
<p>
At this stage, the Rangers are exclusively either human or minbari.
</ul>

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<!-- TITLE Convictions -->
<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
A series of bombings threatens the station, and Ivanova calls on some
unusual investigators to help solve the mystery.
</cite>
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Kilpatrick,+Patrick">Patrick Kilpatrick</a> as Robert Carlson.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Turenne,+Louis">Louis Turenne</a> as Brother Theo.
</blockquote>
<pre><a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/046">7.75</a>
Production number: 302
Original air week: November 13, 1995
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Mike Vejar
</pre>
<p>
<hr size=3>
<h2><a name="BP">Backplot</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> All explosives manufactured in the Earth Alliance are laced with
special chemical codes to allow them to be traced to a particular
buyer.
</ul>
<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> What was Londo doing on a transport arriving from the Minbari
homeworld? (Assuming he was; he may have been on the Centauri
transport mentioned to G'Kar by Garibaldi.)
<li> How will the influx of missionaries affect the station?
</ul>
<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Lennier has saved Londo twice now, once here and once (in a less
extreme way) in
<a href="021.html">"The Quality of Mercy."</a>
And now he's likely to be decorated by the Centaurum. How will
that affect his position in the battle between light and dark,
and his apparent new friendship with Vir
(<a href="044.html">"The Fall of Night?"</a>)
<li> Londo apparently doesn't place absolute faith in the dream of his
death twenty years in the future
(<a href="001.html">"Midnight on the Firing Line,"</a>
<a href="031.html">"The Coming of Shadows."</a>)
Otherwise he wouldn't have been afraid he was going to die in the
elevator. (Which isn't to say he wouldn't have still tried to call
for help, of course.)
<li> Lennier's own convictions, namely his prohibition against lying except
to save face for another, seem to have weakened since his arrival,
despite his pledge to do penance later. On the other hand, perhaps
he justified it in his mind by figuring he was saving face for
the obnoxious man by getting him to stop making a fool of himself.
</ul>
<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> G'Kar's song in the elevator is based on the ditty he sang at the
beginning of
<a href="005.html">"The Parliament of Dreams."</a>
<li> We may have seen Carlson before, if briefly. In
<a href="044.html">"The Fall Of Night,"</a>
as the Earth officials arrive, there's a man in the arrival area.
He's slapped by a woman and walks after her when she leaves. The
man bears some resemblance to Carlson without the beard. Perhaps
the woman was his wife.
<li> Lennier's fake disease, Netter's Syndrome, is no doubt named for
executive producer Doug Netter.
<li> The name Theo (short for Theodore) comes from the Greek word
theodoros which means "gift of God."
</ul>
<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> What's great is that this [the second] season, we haven't had one
single episode on
the level of War Prayer or Infection or Grail, some of our weaker first
season eps. The worst we've done is pretty darned good. What we're now
working for in year three is that they're all better than that at their
baseline rating. And so far, they're killer...our second episode for
year three, "Convictions," has a very different feel from anything
we've done on the show to date, a very dark, scary and gritty feel, and
probably one of the best character sequences in the series to date.
We're also doing some major EFX blow-outs of a type other than "they go
into space and shoot stuff." Very interesting, creative, offbeat stuff.
<p>
<li> <em>September 7, 1995</em>:
I am thus far *very* happy with season three; we've got three shows
in the can (edited, not yet scored or mixed), and shooting number four
as I type this. I think we're already a notch above our general
episodes
from year two, and "Convictions" is extremely intense, with a very
different look and feel from anything we've done before. Has kind of an
NYPD Blue feel to it.
<p>
<li> BTW, on the question of effects...here's one that's kinda
interesting, in that I've seen a few comments here and there about
how we must've mapped the CGI fireball into the hallway in
"Convictions" where Londo jumps into the transport tube. Some even
offered you could tell the fire was CGI.
<p>
Nooooooop.
<p>
Here's how that shot was done: we built a miniature hallway
(actually, "miniature" ain't the right word; it was something like 30
feet long or more). Painted it so that it looked exactly like the
regular B5 hallways. On film you absolutely can't tell the
difference. Then we mounted the hallway *vertically* alongside the
outside of the main building here. Set the camer at the top,
pointing down into the hall. We built a firebomb and set it at the
far end of the hall (on the bottom, in other words). We then set off
the firebomb (with all the proper authorities present), so that it
shot up the length of the vertical hall. We overcranked the camera
so it'd start in slow- motion, then pulled the plug so that the
camera slowed down to normal speed...giving the sense of the fire
swelling, then suddenly rushing forward with a huge fireball. So
when it looks like the "hallway" is on fire...it is. Real fire.
<p>
Next we shot Londo (Peter) against a bluescreen, reacting to this,
then diving to his left. We then comp'd the bluescreen into the
hallway, and used CGI to build a transport tube door to Londo's left,
which then closed just as the fire reached it.
<p>
It was an utterly immense amount of work for, basically, a five
second shot...but it looks 'way cool.
<p>
<li> Effects shots like this one were/are supervised via our EFX supervisor,
Ted Rae, working closely with the director and folks from Foundation.
<p>
<li> Sue: as you're looking at the fireball approaching toward camera, he
jumps to our left. Trust me on this.
<p>
<li> Another scene with Londo and Lennier,
btw, contains a small nod to the online fans of the show; we can't and
won't use story ideas, but there's been so much humor, reams and reams
of it, every imaginable kind of joke, that I dropped one of these jokes
into an episode...one that's come up at a lot of conventions and on the
nets endlessly. Just to acknowledge the fans in the only way I can.
<p>
<li> I don't actually know for certain the origin of the joke; it was all
over the nets, and the BBSs, uploaded places with several gazillion other
lightbulb jokes (after I'd made the original version of this in the show),
which is why I figured I'd drop it into the episode, since it was so common
and associated with the nets. While in the UK, I met a young man who said
that he had been the first with that variation, and I have no reason not
to believe him. (A couple other people sent me email saying that they
had also come up with that one; it's kind of obvious I guess, but again,
I have no way of knowing what's true because it was just all over the
place, never with attribution.)
<p>
<li> Londo and G'Kar no longer really have much to discuss; they're past that
point, I figure. They hate each other.
<p>
Londo wasn't on Minbar; he was seeing someone off on a ship going to
Centauri Prime.
<p>
<li> Correct. Louis was not available to use for "Twilight" for health
reasons, but we like Louis a lot, and vowed to use him in another, even
better role, at the first opportunity. We seized it.
<p>
<li> Finding character names is sometimes easy, sometimes hard; it really
does vary.
<p>
And Theo was named for Vincent's brother.
<p>
<li> It was a mild Spring day, warm, clear, sunny, when Vincent Van
Gogh picked up his easel, and some paints, and walked a mile and a half
to an open field where he often painted landscapes. He set up his
easel, sat under a tree for a while, ate part of an apple, composed a
brief note to his brother Theo. Then he pulled out a derringer and
shot himself in the chest.
<p>
After an hour, realizing that he was not going to die for a
while yet, he picked himself up and staggered the mile and half back to
Theo's house, where a few hours later that evening he passed away in
Theo's arms.
<p>
Some say his sad ending came about because he felt he was a
burden to his brother Theo, and the guilt did him in; others because he
sold only one painting during his life, for 48 francs, and he felt he
would never become a painter of any worth.
<p>
On reflection, perhaps it was the thought of people bidding for
his ear that did it.
<p>
<li> I've always liked the name Theo, from Vincent's brother, so there
was the sound of it; also the sense of it, in that Theo was a guide, a
counselor, a confidante, which Theo might come to be in this; and,
finally, Theodore means (I just lapsed on the actual definition) but
either chosen (favored) of god or messenger of god (have to check my
dictionary of names again), which is appropos.
<p>
<li> We'll see Theo here and there as we go along this season.
<p>
<li> <em>Any relation to the technomages?</em><br>
No, I wouldn't think of them in technomage terms; if you look at the
history of many of these orders, they've generally pulled together
people of varying skills. Ain't really that new an idea....
<p>
<li> <em>Any connection between Theo's mission and the short story "The
Nine Billion Names of God?"</em><br>
No, there's no connection whatsoever. The Tibetan monks in the
story were specifically coming up with all the names of god in order to
bring about the end of the world; Theo et al have come as an exercise in
comparative religion, to learn what the other races call god, and how it
compares. As others have done before, right here on good old earth.
<p>
<li> Re: "The Nine Billion Names of God," the
whole purpose of that story had nothing to do with alien contact; it had
to do with gettting all the earthbound names of God into a computer, so
they could create the end of the world. The monks are on B5 in an
attempt at studying the different religions out there for the purpose of
better understanding...or more succinctly, comparative religious
studies, which long predate Clarke by, oh, about 500 years.
<p>
<li> <em>What were the floating discs at the crime scene?</em><br>
It's a floating (air-compression) vidrecorder.
<p>
<li> "B5 has gravity defying video cameras"
<p>
Only if you consider a plane or any other reasonable technology
of flight to be gravity defying.
<p>
The video recorders are made of an extremely ultralight
material, new alloys that in total weighs less than an ounce; it has a
visible (and audible) air propulsion system, a high speed fan with a
stabalizer/gyroscope that keeps it steady, and move it forward.
<p>
<li> <em>Why did the "bomb squad" have to go out into
space in order to gain access to the fusion reactor?</em><br>
Going in the vacuum door was the fastest way to get a bunch of people in
there, and presumably get a big object out again. Instead of riding
transport tubes to the core shuttle, then the core shuttle to the far
end, then tubes to the bottom...you jump out, get picked up and dumped
at the far end. Takes 2 minutes rather than 10 or 15. Remember, this
place is five miles long.
<p>
<li> Doug's reaction to Netter's Syndrome was...amused, chagrined,
and the promise of swift and terrible revenge.
</ul>

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<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
Sheridan and Ivanova try to deal with an association of cargo pilots. An
alien probe makes first contact with the station. G'Kar's position among the
Narn is threatened by the arrival of a Centauri-appointed liaison.
</cite>
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Macht,+Stephen">Stephen Macht</a> as Na'Far.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Teague,+Marshall">Marshall Teague</a> as Ta'Lon.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Betancourt,+Anne">Anne Betancourt</a> as Dr. Gonzalez.
</blockquote>
<pre><a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/047">7.85</a>
Production number: 303
Original air week: November 20, 1995
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by David Eagle
</pre>
<p>
<hr size=3>
<h2><a name="BP">Backplot</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> The Centauri diplomatic mission on Minbar has been closed for
several years.
</ul>
<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Who sent the probe?
<li> Will Franklin's continuing use of stims have greater repercussions,
especially now that he's willing to lie about it?
<li> What will become of Na'Far? And of Ta'Lon, for that matter -- will
he remain on the station, and will he look after Sheridan?
</ul>
<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Vir is leaving Londo just when Londo seems to need him most; Londo
is becoming darker and darker, as his conversation with Na'Far
demonstrates. Now he'll have nobody to slow his descent (though
it's not clear how much he listened to Vir in the first place.)
<li> The favor Delenn owed Londo was most likely the one he earned by
transporting her and Draal to Epsilon 3 in
<a href="019.html">"A Voice in the Wilderness, part 2."</a>
<li> Franklin's stim use is nothing new; it was touched on as recently as
<a href="040.html">"Confessions and Lamentations."</a>
He may feel he has no choice and no problem, but he seems to be
ignoring the example of Dr. Rosen in
<a href="021.html">"The Quality of Mercy,"</a>
who lost her medical license over her stim use.
</ul>
<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> A <a href="/lurk/ftp/Pictures/Effects/ship1.gif">picture</a> of the probe is
available.
<li> Vir's departure has, in part, a real-world cause: actor Stephen Furst
is starring in a sitcom on the Fox network. He will still appear on
<cite>Babylon 5</cite> from time to time.
<li> Sheridan's reference to the probe as a "berserker" is probably a
nod to Fred Saberhagen's "Berserker" novels, which feature huge
automated war machines that seek out and destroy sentients.
<li> A small gaffe: At the end of the episode, when the probe is headed away
from the station, Sheridan asks the tech if there are any security bots
in the area. The tech replies that there is just one, at 5000km.
The next shot is of the bot in question, except that there are clearly
2 bots in the shot, and they look identical.
<li> A related goof: Sheridan orders a securebot sent to look at the probe,
but the display on the screen reads "Maintbot 12."
</ul>
<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> "A Day in the Strife," a fair number of threads, a day in the
life episode with everything that can go wrong going wrong, some
elements of humor but mainly a straight-ahead kind of episode...
<p>
<li> <em>Is Marshall Teague playing the same character he did in
<a href="033.html">"All Alone in the Night?"</a></em><br>
Yes, it's the same character, and his name is Ta'Lon.
<p>
<li> "A narn resistance is going to be pretty hard to organize."
<p>
*Exactly* the issue we'll explore in "A Day in the Strife." (Well,
one of many issues.)
<p>
<li> <em>How many Narn dead are there?</em><br>
Actually, yes, there are millions of dead; I think that either Vir
or Na'Far gets it right in "Strife," and the other misstates the figure
in the same episode.
<p>
<li> Just went back and checked the script; Ta'Lon refers to millions in
his meeting with Sheridan. (Knew I wasn't nuts....)
<p>
<li> <em>Londo's comment, "It's nothing personal, Vir," was the same one
the bomber echoed in "Convictions."</em><br>
Yeah, "it's nothing personal" does echo the other theme; those
who inflict great harm tend to shrug it off that way.
<p>
<li> You will see Vir many times again in the course of the third season.
<p>
<li> <em>Why didn't they ask Delenn or Kosh for help with the
questions?</em><br>
Because Delenn doesn't know that information offhand, any more than you
or I would have casual access to detailed scientific information from
our own world just off the top of our heads; she'd still have to go to
her own homeworld for the info, as our characters did. And it's not
that we didn't have it, it was just collating it all. And given how
Kosh answers questions, would you really want to use his responses in
this thing?
<p>
<li> My sense is that Delenn is not a godlike font of information; I don't
think anyone, alien or human, at the station would just happen to know
all the information required. How much would Delenn know about
molecular biology, for instance? (And if you asked Kosh a question
about the subject, he'd probably come back with "The heart does not
sing with its parts." Not exactly useful.)
<p>
Anyone there would have to go back to their own world for experts in
the various fields...so you're back where you started. Earth *has*
the info, it's just getting it, and getting it fast. If you add the
overlay of going through another government, you're going to run out
of time that much faster.
<p>
Logically, a probe like this would be sent off looking for information
on the very cusp of technology that could pose a threat. That's why
it *didn't* go off when the probe presumed them to be a less developed
civilization; it was looking for civilizations that *are* sufficiently
advanced to pose a possible threat; Sheridan says exactly that as he
walks across C&C.
<p>
Interesting aside on this, btw, in the "where do you get your ideas?"
department. The US House Science Sub-Committee held a series of
hearings into the question of extraterrestrial contact during the
1970s, to determine what we should do in the event of contact. The
most likely scenario, the scientists agreed, was a probe coming into
our solar system. So what do we do in response to a message asking if
anybody's home?
<p>
Believe it or not, it was the consensus of the Subcommittee that we
should not respond...in case it was a berserker, just as shown in the
episode. That is our government's official policy on the subject.
<p>
<li> I just went through my stuff trying to find it...there was a formal
report published by the Government Printing Agency in around 1978 or
so. I think it was entitled something like "Prospects for Contact by
Extra- Terrestrial Intelligence," and went into the whole CETI issue
at great length. (Back then, it was CETI, for Contact With
Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence, changed shortly after the House
hearing on the subject to SETI, Search For Extra-Terrestrial
Intelligence.) Any GPA office should have the report on file.
<p>
<li> <em>Would the explosion have taken out a planet?</em><br>
No, it probably couldn't take out a planet, though it'd sure disrupt all
communications in and out for a long time, maybe throw up a dust
curtain to bring down the temperature quite a bit. Certainly it'd
debilitate the planet long enough for additional probes to be sent in.
If one can do the job, one does the job; if more are required, more
are sent.
<p>
<li> <em>What kind of alien was sick in medlab?</em><br>
I'll have to go back and check, but from memory I'm pretty sure he's a
Llort.
<p>
<li> <em>What happened to Na'Fon?</em><br>
When he failed to convince the other Narns to accept him as
their new leader -- which was the whole point to his being sent to B5
in the first place -- he had no choice but to go home.
</ul>

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<!-- TITLE Passing Through Gethsemane -->
<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
Lyta Alexander returns to the station at Kosh's behest.
One of Theo's brothers discovers that he may have a hidden past.
</cite>
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Dourif,+Brad">Brad Dourif</a> as Brother Edward.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Turenne,+Louis">Louis Turenne</a> as Brother Theo.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Tallman,+Patricia">Patricia Tallman</a> as Lyta Alexander.
</blockquote>
<pre><a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/048">8.38</a>
Production number: 305
Original air week: November 27, 1995
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Adam Nimoy
</pre>
<p>
<hr size=3>
<h2><a name="BP">Backplot</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Mindwipes were instituted after Earth decided that they were more
humane than the death penalty. They are apparently not very
complete; the old memories remain in some form or another, but are
inaccessible without the intervention of a telepath. (See also
<a href="021.html">"The Quality of Mercy."</a>)
<li> Minbari religion is based on the notion that souls are part of a
larger whole, of the universe itself, which is in the process of
trying to discover itself. Souls can only be perceived via the
physical bodies they inhabit, but the real soul is something only
dimly related to the body.
<li> Valen, the great Minbari spiritual leader and founder of the Grey
Council, appeared a thousand years ago. He is believed to be a
Minbari not born of other Minbari, according to Lennier.
</ul>
<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> What happened to Lyta? Was Kosh inhabiting her body? Was the
body not even Lyta's to start with? She has gills on her neck that
allow her to breathe in Kosh's quarters, and several health problems
have been completely repaired. What else did the Vorlons do to her,
and why?
<li> Given how easily she pulled the information from the Centauri, have
her telepathic powers increased? Or could any P5 do the same?
<li> What did she see on the Vorlon homeworld?
<li> Why is Londo so anxious to find out what she saw that he'd resort to
threatening her?
<li> What was Lyta's mission for Kosh? Why does he want an aide all of a
sudden, when he hasn't had one before?
</ul>
<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> If Garibaldi and Sheridan are any indication, mindwipes are widely
considered to be insufficient punishment for serious crimes. How
widespread that perception is isn't known.
<li> Could the techniques used to put a mindwipe in place be related
to the method used by Bureau 13 to implant hidden personalities
(<a href="041.html">"Divided Loyalties"</a>
and, more ominous, comic #8,
<a href="/lurk/comic/008.html">"Silent Enemies?"</a>)
Both seem to involve submerging one personality and causing another
to become dominant, though in the case of Control, it's not clear
which was the original.
<li> Edward's execution was not only a sort of crucifixion (notice how
he's suspended from the metal frame) but also resembles Sheridan's
suspension from what looks like the same kind of frame in
<a href="043.html">"Comes the Inquisitor."</a>
<li> Might Valen have been a Vorlon, or a Minbari under Vorlon influence?
If, as Lennier says, he was truly not born of Minbari parents, that
strongly suggests he wasn't Minbari at all, and Vorlons certainly
have the power to appear as Minbari.
<li> If Minbari consider the universe to be a manifestation of a single
soul, how did they ever find it conscienable to fight the
Earth-Minbari War? (see
<a href="#JS.souls">jms speaks</a>)
<li> The Vorlons didn't hear, or didn't respond, to Lyta's signals, and
took five days to respond to her telepathic broadcast. What's
interesting is that they apparently didn't come until she was nearly
unconscious. Could that be related to what happened to Sheridan in
<a href="033.html">"All Alone In the Night?"</a>
Maybe she was only able to make contact when, as Kosh said of Sheridan,
her mind was quiet enough to hear the Vorlons. Or, of course, it
could simply have taken them several days to locate and reach her, in
which case they could even have been responding to the non-telepathic
signals.
<li> Why didn't Franklin notice Lyta's gills?
Perhaps he did and didn't feel they were worth mentioning (gill
implants aren't completely alien concepts; G'Kar has them, as
noted by the assassin in
<a href="000.html">"The Gathering."</a>)
It's also possible she didn't get them until her errand in the
middle of the episode.
Franklin did note that she had elevated oxygen levels in her
bloodstream, though, which would tend to indicate both that she had
the gills before he examined her and that he didn't notice them.
Given the powers of illusion Vorlons have demonstrated, covering
up gills would probably have been a small matter with Kosh's help.
<li> Whatever left Lyta to enter Kosh's suit looked a lot like the creature
inhabiting Sheridan in
<a href="039.html">"Knives."</a>
Could Sheridan have inadvertently been inhabited by a Vorlon?
Certainly it would be consistent with him being made to see things
that weren't there; Kosh clearly has that power.
<li> Psi Corps may have strict rules against unauthorized scans, but
Sheridan and Garibaldi don't hold those rules in particularly
high esteem. Now that they have a non-Corps telepath at their disposal,
someone whose loyalty is presumably above reproach thanks to her
association with Kosh, will they begin calling her in on a regular
basis?
<li> The Centauri telepath, likewise, seemed to show contempt for the Corps'
regulations. What regulations, if any, are Centauri telepaths
obligated to follow? Clearly they're not simply allowed to roam
freely, since Londo had this particular telepath's name on a list.
<li> If Lyta can implant nightmares, other psis can presumably do the same.
We've seen one nightmare: Londo's prophetic dream. Is it possible
that someone or something implanted it in him? (He says, in
<a href="001.html">"Midnight on the Firing Line,"</a>
that Centauri have such dreams as a matter of course, but that
doesn't rule out an external influence.)
</ul>
<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> The title, as noted in the episode,
is a Biblical reference. In the New Testament,
<a href="http://www.gospelcom.net/bible?passage=Matthew+26:30-50">Matthew 26:30-50,</a>
Jesus goes to Gethsemane with Peter and two others to pray and
contemplate his imminent betrayal. They fail to keep watch over
him, and Judas is able to lead the Romans to Jesus. Gethsemane
is also referred to, not always by name, in
<a href="http://www.gospelcom.net/bible?passage=Mark+14:32-52">Mark 14:32-52,</a>
<a href="http://www.gospelcom.net/bible?passage=Luke+23:39-51">Luke 23:39-51,</a>
and
<a href="http://www.gospelcom.net/bible?passage=John+18:1-13">John 18:1-13.</a>
<p>
<li> Delenn's opinion of Garibaldi's eye-for-an-eye attitude echoes that
of Gandhi, who said, "An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind."
<p>
<li> Malcolm, Edward, and Charles are all names of rulers of Scotland.
<p>
<li> The names Edward and Charlie may also be a reference to two H.P.
Lovecraft stories. In "The Thing On the Doorstep," a character
named Edward falls in love with a woman whose grandfather has
shifted his soul into her body, replacing hers. In "The Strange
Case of Charles Dexter Ward," the title character becomes obsessed
with the memory of an ancient ancestor.
<p>
<li> Shooting began on September 11, 1995.
</ul>
<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> I'd rather not say anything at all about "Gethsemane," because a
large part of the plot turns on something you need to discover
mid-viewing, and anything I might say would only detract from it.
It's a lovely, sad, very moving story; it's kind of my Twilight Zone
story in the B5 universe, with some very strong emotional twists as
we go along. It's not the kind of story I get to do within the B5
structure very often, and I'm extremely pleased with this one (and
Adam Nimoy did a *bang-up* job directing it; he thinks it may be his
best work ever).
<p>
<li> Thanks. Adam did a great job interpreting the script on
that one, and it's definitely one of our most successful
episodes...though today I took a look at another, more
completed version of episode 8, "Messages," and *man* is this
amazing...just a knockout...trouble is we keep raising our own
bar and won't accept anything less...so the pressure becomes
quite astonishing after a while.
<p>
<li> Adam was great in that he's a *very* serious director
who sits down and really thinks through the subtext of the
episode, the thematic aspects, the underlying symbology, and
then sits with the actor and *really* works with them so that
they fully understand the nuances of the scene. A lot of TV
direction can be rushed...you're always under the gun...so
it's rare to find someone who really takes his time and
prepares the cast.
<p>
<li> "Gethsemane" isn't a horror-type story at all, though it does have a
very TZish [Twilight Zone] feeling, so it doesn't owe to any of
those. Best to just let you see it when it airs.
<p>
<li> Brad read the script, fell in love with the part, and dived for it.
<p>
<li> Two things on the upcoming episode ("Gethsemane")....
<p>
1) This is episode #5 in shooting order; I'd originally planned to end
the first batch of new episodes with #4, "Voices of Authority," which
is a major -- and I mean major -- wham episode. But the EFX
requirements were pretty hideous (though not as bad as "Messages"), so
I moved "Gethsemane" into that slot, which is a very strong episode,
though not an arc'er.
<p>
2) On the story question...yes, this was the story that someone else
(don't want to use names, no sense in blaming anyone) had accidentally
suggested while I was working on it early in season two. So I had to
scuttle the script for nearly a year. Finally, very chagrined over
what happened, the individual gave me a notarized form explaining the
situation. At that point, I was able to reactivate the story. So no,
it's not any kind of "it's okay to do this" notion about story ideas;
as it is, the story was tied up for about a year, and might never have
seen the light of day had not the other person made great efforts to
set the situation straight.
<p>
<li> <em>Was there any nod to the person who suggested the idea, and what
was the story originally like?</em><br>
No, no nod to the person who suggested it, since this isn't a
competition, and the suggestion cost me a year where I couldn't do the
story. (So I wasn't in the cutest frame of mind about this for a long
time, even though it wasn't really his fault.)
<p>
Basically, it would've been a one-shot, with two monks arriving to
scope out B5 for the arrival of the rest later on. (You'll notice
that none of the other monks get into the story here; that's a
hold-over from the original outline, which I saw no need to change at
this point.) So this would've been folded into an introduction to the
order as they come to check out B5's facilities.
<p>
<li> They would've gotten the info in a different way, without resorting to a
telepath.
<p>
<li> Carol: *exactly* the right point. In his earlier talk about
Gethsemane, Edward mentioned that old JC had to go through all that to
atone for the sins of others; when he sees Theo later, through the
grate, he uses the same notion of atonement for the acts of another,
in this case, *his* other. The logical parallel parses pretty closely.
<p>
<li> Not sure he *wanted* to die, as much as he felt it was *necessary* in
order to atone for the sins of another...his own "other," in this case.
<p>
<li> <em>Where was Malcolm's mind wiped?</em><br>
We established in "The Quality of Mercy" that the equipment to handle
mindwipes is there on-station, locked away until mandated by a court. A
court assigned telepath is usually brought in to do a preliminary scan
before it happens and to verify the wipe immediately afterward. In that
same episode, Talia was used only because a court teep wasn't available.
<p>
<li> Yes, B5 has a court system, authorized by the Earth Alliance
Judicial System, to conduct trials of this sort (which we've seen
before). And in this case, again, there wasn't a trial per se as
Ivanova noted; he pleaded guilty from the start, quite proud of what
he'd done. So all that remained was the sentencing.
<p>
<li> I'd say there were extenuating circumstances here that made it more than
just a simple murder (and not all murders get wiped, esp. in cases like
second-degree or manslaughter). He'd stalked Edward for years; arranged
to break the mindwipe; and engaged in slow, deliberate, methodical
torture unto death. The degree of premeditation is staggering.
<p>
<li> No, the other brothers aren't mind-wiped.
<p>
You're mis-remembering "The Quality of Mercy." Telepaths do NOT
perform mindwipes. A court appointed teep makes a scan before and after
for purposes of comparison, but the wipe is done by a device held under
lock and key until ordered out by a court. The only reason Talia did it
in QoM was because they couldn't get a court teep there in the required
time (which was also stated in the episode). So here the court
appointed telepath would have come and gone by now.
<p>
<li> <em>Mindwiping was presented too positively.</em><br>
I'm not sure I presented it positively; I just presented it, didn't make
a moral judgement about it. Some of those in the show did, but then we
had Edward saying it *isn't* moral, that it's a monstrous thing to do.
Like any form of punishment it can seem fair to those not facing it.
<p>
<li> There are templates used, with some variations. In a government
monitored situation (which this wasn't, they thought he was dead),
mindwipes are kept in servile positions, not allowed to achieve, as that
would be a kind of reward. Those guys you see along the roadsides
picking up trash and putting them in bright orange bags? Mindwipes.
<p>
<li> Re: mindwipes no longer considered people...this really is not that
much different from prison inmates, who are given numbers, have no real
civil rights, and are treated like cattle. (And many of them deserve
it; a few deserve worse; a few deserve better.)
<p>
<li> <em>About the moral ambiguity</em><br>
Thanks. That's really the intent; to get people to talk about the
issues raised, and to examine the issues. We won't tell you what to
think about an issue, because I don't have an answer myself...but if it
made you stop and consider this stuff, and decide for yourself where
you fall in the discussion, then it's done its job.
<p>
<li> If the Centauri teep had had more time to react he probably would have
gone after Garibaldi...but Lyta came in too fast, and she took his
attention quickly.
<p>
<li> Re: the Centauri...note that Edward wasn't killed where
they found him. He was taken and killed elsewhere, in a area
they'd more or less secured for that purpose. That was the
area he knew about.
<p>
<li> Re: the use of Lyta to extract the info...this is the main reason why
there's a Psi Corps, and there are exacting rules, otherwise it can
easily become deus ex machina. We won't ever do this sort of thing
trivially, and here it was definitely meant to be a little
disturbing...it was a sheer matter of life or death, the guy was a
creep, and somewhere Edward was bleeding to death. Even after so many
viewings, and even having written the thing, I find that one scene
vaguely scary.
<p>
It's the best of the first four, I think. But better is coming....
<p>
<li> <em>Why did it take so long for a med team to get to Edward?</em>
They were in a pretty distant part of DownBelow, and in B5 you don't
have trains or cars; there's just the transport tubes, and the central
core shuttle. Even if they gave a damn about what happens to lurkers in
DownBelow (and they generally don't), it would still take at least 5-10
minutes to get a trauma team down there, and he was dead within about 3.
(I was once mugged half a mile from a police station and a mile from a
hospital; took 'em 30 minutes to get there.)
<p>
Sheridan and Theo didn't *discover* that Edward was using the
computer; Theo was concerned that he was looking into it in general.
And if they had blocked the computer in his quarters, he would have been
able to access one somewhere else. They didn't know he'd actually done
it until after the fact.
<p>
<li> The absolution scene, based on what used to be called the rites of
extreme unction, or last rights, is now called the "celebration" of
passing, and I went to the Catholic church's information office, and
got the actual text. I made a few adjustments here, condensing it a
bit (on the logic that Edward didn't have a lot of time), and
modifying a few small points here and there, on the second logical
point that in 250 years, such might have taken place (as the current
ritual has been adjusted a bit here and there over the years). So if
it felt right, it was.
<p>
<li> One caveat here overall...it's been complimented and commented upon
that I would expose a belief system in my show which I do not personally
agree with (presenting the face of religion even though I'm an atheist).
That I could be this tolerant is apparently praiseworthy.
<p>
I would just suggest that at some point, when and if I should offer
a point of view from another perspective, which one watching might not
personally agree with, the same tolerance is given, since the virtue of
tolerating divergent attitudes has been deemed praiseworthy...and is
something ever to strive for....
<p>
<li> "The themes of faith and forgiveness were worthy of a theologian. Are
you sure there isn't something you'd like to tell us?"
<p>
Never shoot pool at a place called Pop's. Never eat food at a place
called Mom's. The difference between horses and humans is that
they're too smart to be on what *we'll* do.
<p>
And I have lost people. Too many people. Lost them to chance,
violence, brutality beyond belief; I've seen all the senseless,
ignoble acts of "god's noblest creature." And I am incapable of
forgiving. My feelings are with G'Kar, hand sliced open, saying of
the drops of blood flowing from that open wound, "How do you
apologize to them?" "I can't." "Then I cannot forgive."
<p>
As an atheist, I believe that all life is unspeakably precious,
because it's only here for a brief moment, a flare against the dark,
and then it's gone forever. No afterlives, no second chances, no
backsies. So there can be nothing crueler than the abuse,
destruction or wanton taking of a life. It is a crime no less than
burning the Mona Lisa, for there is always just one of each.
<p>
So I cannot forgive. Which makes the notion of writing a character
who CAN forgive momentarily attractive...because it allows me to
explore in great detail something of which I am utterly incapable.
I cannot fly, so I would write of birds and starships and kites; I
cannot play an instrument, so I would write of composers and
dancers; and I cannot forgive, so I would write of priests and monks
and minbari....
<p>
<li> <a name="JS.souls">If there were just one pure and unchanged</a>
universal soul running through everything, there wouldn't be any point
in breaking itself into pieces and investing itself in different
species/people...it would just keep running into identical versions
of itself.
<p>
So the soul form in Minbari is different from the soul form in
humans; also, in their view, having been civilized longer than us,
their soul form is more elevated, more evolved...and thus the pieces
are more precious, to them, and to the Soul Hunters.
<p>
<li> No, there's really just the one Minbari religion, and the warrior
caste tends to follow it, but not lead it.
</ul>

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<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
Draal helps the crew attempt to contact more of the First Ones. Sheridan
works to hide his conspiracy from the Nightwatch.
</cite>
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Shattuck,+Shari">Shari Shattuck</a> as Julie Musante.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Schuck,+John">John Schuck</a> as Draal.
</blockquote>
<pre><a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/049">8.20</a>
Production number: 304
Original air week: January 29, 1996
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Menachem Binitsky
</pre>
<p>
<hr size=3>
<h2><a name="BP">Backplot</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Morden was directly involved in the assassination of President Santiago,
and was in contact with then-Vice President Clark at the time.
<li> There is bad blood of some kind between the Vorlons and at least some
of the First Ones.
<li> G'Kar's operatives have told him something of the Rangers, though
they don't know the whole story. He suspects Delenn is involved
somehow.
<li> The Ministry of Peace is planning to purge a number of high-level
officials from the Earth government on charges of sedition, immoral
conduct, and espionage. It has gained even wider powers recently,
including the ability to investigate people based on past associations.
</ul>
<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Why were the First Ones upset at the Vorlons? Could it be related
to the reason the Vorlons stayed behind when the other First Ones
left? What did they say to Ivanova?
<li> What does G'Kar want Garibaldi to find out from the Book of G'Quan?
The book mentions the Shadows; how detailed is its information?
<li> How did the Machine record the conversation between Clark and Morden?
Is it monitoring all communications in a vast region of space, or does
it concentrate on Shadow-related conversations?
<li> What impact will the recording have?
<li> Will Musante return to the station? What did she make of Zack's
question? Will she link it to the release of the recording?
</ul>
<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> The First Ones at Sigma 957 were annoyed at the mention of the Vorlons,
suggesting that the two races had a disagreement at some point in the
past. Perhaps the Vorlons prevented, intentionally or otherwise, the
final defeat of the Shadows in the previous war. It could also have
something to do with the Vorlons' manipulation of younger races
(<a href="044.html">"The Fall of Night."</a>)
Perhaps the Vorlons didn't depart with the other First Ones because
they weren't allowed to do so.
<li> "When it is time, come to this place. Call our name. We will be
here." But what <em>is</em> their name? Does Draal know? Did the
recognition code the White Star sent call them by name, or is this
an additional hurdle to obtaining help from the Sigma 957 aliens?
<li> Ivanova was able to extract more information from the Great Machine
than any normal human could have, according to Draal, and she managed
to find a pretty specific recording in what must have been huge
mountains of data (literally!) Is that due to her latent psi ability?
What would happen if a full telepath like Lyta were to step into the
machine? (See
<a href="#AN.path">below.</a>)
<li> The Shadows (if that's what they were) sensed Ivanova's "presence"
at Sigma 957. That implies that the Machine was actually projecting
something there rather than passively scanning, and that the projection
was tangible enough to provoke Ivanova to comment that the enemy
"knows my name," an odd remark in itself.
<li> There may be something significant in Draal's use of the term "the
enemy" to describe Ivanova's visitors; he didn't say "Shadows." On
the other hand, given that she heard the typical Shadow chitter and
that the floating lights were in the same pattern as the glowing
Shadow eyes seen by Sheridan in Kosh's vision
(<a href="038.html">"In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum,"</a>
and in the season three title sequence) it's probably safe to assume
that she was in fact being observed by the Shadows.
<li> Just how much contact there was between Ivanova and the Shadows wasn't
clear. Did they find out enough about her to know about the conspiracy
of light? Did they have a hand in her discovery of the Clark recording?
Given their apparent affinity for chaos in the ranks of potential
enemies, the release of the recording and the subsequent upheaval on
Earth might be exactly what they want.
<li> The fact that Ivanova was able to escape the Shadows by returning to
the "path" that connects all living things is perhaps more significant;
what does it imply about the Shadows that they're somehow excluded
from that path? Does that have anything to do with their motive in
participating in war after war across the millenia?
<li> Presumably the machine was projecting Ivanova's consciousness out among
the stars; her greater-than-expected control over the machine, as
mentioned above, suggests that the experience was telepathic in nature.
That implies that to sense her, the Shadows must have some telepathic
abilities as well; or perhaps they have a machine like Draal's that
can provide the equivalent.
<li> <a name="AN.path">The path might be related</a>
to the way telepathy works in the first place;
if all life is connected on some level, then perhaps telepaths are
simply beings who can make use of those connections. The Shadows'
involvement with Psi Corps
(<a href="045.html">"Matters of Honor,"</a>
among others) suggests that they consider telepaths important; that may
relate to their apparent exclusion from the path as noted above. There
may also be a reason they chose to use the Narn homeworld as a base
in the last war
(<a href="045.html">"Matters of Honor"</a>)
--
the Narn have no telepaths of their own
(<a href="000.html">"The Gathering."</a>)
A more sinister possibility is that the Shadow occupation is the
<em>reason</em> there are no Narn telepaths; perhaps the Shadows
eliminated them, leaving the Narn without the genetic code for psi
ability. If that's true, they may be cultivating contacts with the
Psi Corps so they have an easy way to do the same to humans when the
time comes.
<li> The assignment of a "political officer" to military units
is reminiscent of the way in which the Soviet Union
maintained control over military units. Each unit had
its own political officer whose job it was to maintain
ideological purity. These officers were tolerated at best,
and were generally despised and feared.
<li> Another link to Soviet history was Musante's allusion to
purging a number of high officials in a very public and
permanent way. This brings to mind the purges experienced
by the Soviet Union in the 30's -- the great show trials
of prominent individuals, the mass purges of the army
(which wrought such havoc over the military that, by the
time that the Soviets were actively engaged in World War II, most
of the experienced officers had been removed, thus
weakening the Soviet army to the point where the Germans
felt they could easily defeat the Soviets.)
<li> Why would Musante have to be recalled to Earth? Is she the low-level
operative she appears to be, or someone more important? Perhaps the
Nightwatch is simply short-staffed enough that they need all the
manpower they can get to deal with such a potentially damaging
situation.
<li> Delenn's denial of knowledge about the Rangers was an out-and-out lie,
not a deception or a mistruth or a careful omission. Whose honor was
she protecting, or does that rule no longer apply to her?
(<a href="036.html">"There All the Honor Lies"</a>)
<li> Zack's uniform troubles may be a metaphor for his situation; he doesn't
know where he fits in the scheme of things, and is uncomfortable no
matter what he does.
<li> Now that Ivanova has made contact with the First Ones at Sigma 957,
might the forces of light be able to use the quantium-40 (if there
actually is any on the planet) that Catherine Sakai was sent to
investigate in
<a href="006.html">"Mind War?"</a>
</ul>
<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> The First Ones at Sigma 957 were first seen in the first-season episode
<a href="006.html">"Mind War."</a>
Although the existence of the First Ones hadn't been revealed at that
point, G'Kar's description of this race coincided almost exactly with
Delenn's description of the First Ones, an early piece of foreshadowing.
<li> Julie Musante is named after two fans, Julie Helmer and Mark Musante.
<li> Musante's Earth-bound ship is the Loki, named for the Norse god of fire
and mischief.
<li> The silhouetted figure on the Nightwatch poster on the wall during
Musante's presentation bears a striking resemblance to the figure of
Lenin used in Soviet propaganda posters between World Wars I and II.
<li> The same figure also appears to have a raven on its shoulder,
reminiscent of Ivanova's appearance in Sheridan's dream in
<a href="033.html">"All Alone in the Night."</a>
<li> The skeletal spines sticking out of the Sigma 957 aliens' ship are
made of a computer model of a human footbone replicated and arranged
in rows; that earned the ship the nickname "the footbone ship" at
Foundation Imaging. There are also some triceratops parts used in
the model.
<li> Ardwight Chamberlain, who does Kosh's voice (or rather, the English
translation thereof) was also the voice of the First One in this
episode. (See
<a href="#JS.ardwight">jms speaks.</a>)
</ul>
<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> I do plan to do more with Ivanova this season, yes, and get her out
of C&C a bit more often. (Especially in "Voices of Authority," coming
up.)
<p>
<li> <em>Where's this big war we've been hearing about?</em><br>
What we're doing in the meantime is plenty. Originally, the fourth and
final episode in this first batch of four was going to be "Voices of
Authority," which deals with just this question of preparing for the war
in a big way, has major developments, gets into the White Star...but the
CGI requirements of that episode were hideous, so we had to move it to
#5 in the lineup, moving up "Gethsemane." Once we come back with new
episodes, we'll hit the ground running hard on all this stuff.
<p>
Also bear in mind that wars aren't instant; in the real world, you have
to line up support, get into alliances, move all your pieces around
before you can get into it. We're taking a similar path here. Also,
the term "shadow war" refers to more than just the shadows as a race;
they refer to what's going on back on earth as well, as metaphor as
well as plot point, and that's a huge part of the next batch of eps.
<p>
<li> Yeah, I'd intended to end with "Voices of Authority," which is a HUGE
arc episode this week, but the EFX weren't ready yet (huge
requirements), so we put "Passing" in its place.
<p>
<li> It takes us no longer to make the episodes or the EFX really
than it did before. But PTEN will not air shows out of sweeps periods,
for the most part. The episodes on hand now were finished weeks, and in
a couple of cases over a month ago. They sit on the shelf until PTEN
decides to air them. The only thing we did was swap "VoA" with
"Passing Through Gethsemane" to give that one a little bit more time.
That's it.
<p>
<li> "Voices of Authority" - Earth begins tightening the screws on the folks
at B5 to try and exert more control there. Steps are taken to
help prepare for the shadow conflict. (Here, again, the
"shadow war" means both the obvious, and the more subtle
conflict brewing at home; it's description and metaphor.) The
White Star voyages to some territory not seen since the first
episode, Ivanova helms the ship, a major dramatic turning point
is reached, and there is the single funniest scene in probably
the series to date. A strong arc story.
<p>
<li> If you want some fun with your wham, and there's a lot of
fun to be had in this one, go for the first one up, "Voices
of Authority." If you want serious, serious wham, go for
"Messages From Earth."
<p>
<li> As y'all know, next week the latest batch of new episodes
begins to air. The first one up, "Voices of Authority," is an absolute
hoot; if you've been looking to bring in other viewers, that's a good
one to start them with, because it sets up a lot of what's going to
happen in this episode, it has a lot of background, and it's a lot of
fun.
<p>
The next two are somewhat more straightforward, stand-alones
(to some extent; there's some arc stuff there, however, which becomes
more important later). Then the last two in this batch represent some
of the best work we've ever done, "Messages From Earth" and "Point of
No Return." They follow directly on the footsteps of "Voices," so
those three together would be great for new viewers.
<P>
<li> If you're talking about the conference room scene...Draal wasn't
put into the scene digitally. You do a split screen, with the camera
locked off. In one Delenn walks over to a point just short of the
line; in another you get a shot just of the wall; then Draal walks up.
You then use a dissolve technique to fade him into the room on his side
of the split screen. But he's not being put *into* the room, he's
already there, so he's neither bigger nor smaller than he is in real
life, since he IS in real life there, not added in.
<p>
<li> <em>And what about the machine room scene on the planet?</em><br>
We shot two plates, first with him in the machine, then him out,
never moving the camera, so it matched exactly.
<p>
<li> <em>The First Ones sure have fragile egos.</em><br>
The other part, I think, is that they were kind of amused to see
this dinky little ship getting in their face, when they *knew* the
First Ones could blast 'em to bits....
<p>
<li> Ivanova wanted to get in the face of the First Ones, to say,
"Look, you can blow me away, but damn it, listen to me." If she'd said
that "more reverently," as your friend noted, it would've worked
against the logic of the scene and the resolution.
<p>
<li> <em>Would it be fair to say the First Ones weren't pleased to hear
the Vorlons mentioned?</em>
Fair, yes.
<p>
<li> Well, this isn't a *literal* translation, because some words don't
translate, but the *sense* of the sentence would be "the vorlons can
kiss my ____."
<p>
<li> <em>Why didn't they recognize Morden's voice?</em><br>
Who said they didn't recognize it?
<p>
<li> What's fun, for me, about the Minipax lady, is that she *clearly*
knows that this is a game on one level, her comment about just
rewriting the dictionary...she knows the problems aren't *really* gone,
they just defined them away. But when she's in front of a crowd of
folks predisposed to her message, she goes full-tilt. Showmanship.....
<p>
<li> <em>A lot of the Nightwatch members looked pretty disturbed by
what Musante was saying.</em><br>
Now the weeding out process starts.
<p>
<li> <em>What do civilians think of Nightwatch?</em><br>
Some are scared of Nightwatch, others feel it's a good thing, and
darn it, it's about time....
<p>
<li> On the other hand, Zack *didn't* rat out the code 7-R stuff to
her in any detail. He's absolutely caught between the two sides, and
not sure which way to jump.
<p>
<li> <em>Parallels between Nightwatch and the Gestapo?</em><br>
While yes, there are some intentional WW II parallels here, do
bear in mind that you don't have to go all the way back to the Gestapo
to find this kind of mentality...Sen. McCarthy would've been quite at
home in Nightwatch.
<p>
<li> The political officer: improbable dialogue? Most of it was
taken direct from political statements, public ones, made by Goebbels,
Hitler, Joseph McCarthy, Stalin, and other fanatics. The kind of Big
Lie dialogue people continue to fall for today. Go to a Pat Buchanan
rally sometime and tell me it's unlikely dialogue.
<p>
<li> DLyulkin...exactly. You don't just take something and transplant it
wholecloth...you change and modify it. Nightwatch was never meant to be
on a one-to-one corrolation to the SS, or Stasi, or McCarthy...the whole
POINT is that this kind of mentality crops up in new forms from time to
time, in different names, different approaches, but at its heartmeat
core the same thing. By saying it's "That over there," we can relax,
since that specific incident can't recur...making us vulnerable to the
next version.
<p>
<li> Yes, those were shadow eyes; and it was probably a raven on the
poster.
<p>
<li> <em>Can the machine see everywhere, or can it be blocked?</em><br>
No, Varn's people aren't first ones...and the machine can be
blocked.
<p>
<li> My sense was that basically Ivanova jumped onto the wrong path as she
fled...the shadows were in proximity, and she ended up briefly on
their path, which took her to the interception of the transmission.
<p>
The one comment that I find most interesting, repeated here a few
times, is that they didn't buy the Nightwitch (as some have dubbed
her) because in her address to the Nightwatch, she was not exactly
what you might call subtle, and thus nobody'd believe her, and see
her for what she was.
<p>
I find it interesting because we always think we're smarter than
that, when history proves *exactly* the opposite. The Big Lie,
spoken not just openly, but loudly, firmly and with conviction, has
been one of the most successful tactics in history. When Hitler and
Goebbels stood before a crowd and blamed jews for destroying society,
circulated pamphlets with ugly cariacatures, indicated that they
weren't *really* human (this in actual newsreels provided to the
medical profession members charged with eliminating "mental
defectives and jews")...when Joseph McCarthy stood up in front of the
nation waving a list of names of commies in the state department, the
military, congress, showbiz, and the sciences...the public didn't
suddenly wake up, hear the voice of the fanatic, and say, "Hey, this
guy's nuts!"
<p>
They bought it. Because they were primed to believe it. Because
they wanted to believe it. Because they were afraid *not* to believe
it. No, she wasn't subtle. Because there's a time for subtlety,
and there's a time to perform grandly for your hand-picked audience
and go for the Big Lie. If she were addressing a larger audience,
she might softpedal her message. To the Nightwatch, she's got to
hammer them, just as the Hitler Youth were hammered, as the
Anti-Communist Youth meetings were hammered about the Red Peril, as
Croatian or Serbian soldiers were hammered about the need to rape
women of the other "race" to make the resultant babies more
ethnically pure...which happened.
<p>
Most of her dialogue was paraphrased from actual speeches given over
the decades, or longer, by fanatical leaders to their followers.
There's bits of Hitler, of Goerring, of Goebbels...bits of McCarthy,
bits of Stalin, bits of Pat Buchanan and Rep. Dornan.
<p>
Because people fell for it. It did work.
<p>
It does work.
<p>
And it will *continue* to work...for as long as people think that
THEY would NEVER fall for such a thing....
<p>
<li> Never said they're all convinced of it. Just as all Germans weren't
convined of the views advanced by Hitler.
<p>
You don't need all of them. You just need *enough* of them.
<p>
Preferably, enough of them with guns.
<p>
Remember, too, that we just came out of the Earth/Minbari War about ten
years ago, when we stood at the edge of extinction. The threat of a new
alien race makes a good device.
<p>
<li> <em>How much does Nightwatch pay members?</em><br>
Basically, it's a weekly bonus added onto their weekly salary; 50 creds
is a pretty enticing bump, equal to about 50 pounds British.
<p>
<li> <em>Didn't the security people already know about the
assassination?</em><br>
You have to remember that all Garibaldi's people knew was that a
few guys came through the station that may have been involved in the
assassination. That is NOT the same thing as showing that Clark is
involved. There was no apparent connection. We the audience suspect
it, from what happens, but until now there has been no evidence of it.
So yes, they know that Santiago is dead; that there's some indication
that he may have been assassinated...but that's a long way from
pointing to Clark.
<p>
<li> <em>Was that Ed Wasser's voice? (He plays Morden.)</em><br>
It was definitely Ed Wasser.
<p>
<li> <em>Did Musante seduce Zack?</em><br>
No, that wasn't the relationship between her and Zack, much as he
might've wished for it. As for the walkers at sigma 957...the
recognition signal is their name, which is 15,000 letters long (we had
to cut this line for time). So I can't really repeat it here.
<p>
<li> <em>Why did she think seducing Sheridan would work?</em><br>
Her feeling was likely that it has always worked with her in the
past. He's widowed, probably hasn't had any in a long time, he's
vulnerable, a perfect target.
<p>
<li> Basically, like many manipulative people, she projects whatever
she thinks will work best with her audience. Appealing to Zack's
patriotism, trying to find Sheridan's affections by flattering him
mercilessly (on many levels), playing the straight-chinned leader in an
address to security forces...she puts on whatever face she thinks will
work.
<p>
<li> <em>Why didn't Sheridan just get rid of her?</em><br>
This is the difference between TV logic and Real logic. In TV
logic, yeah, she should've tossed her outta there...but we try to be
rigorously real about the B5 universe. She was sent by the Senate
Oversight Committee, as is their province, with the backing of several
governmental offices, in an area over which Sheridan doesn't have
jusrisdiction: the political arena back home. In the real world, you
can't just toss somebody out the door because you don't like them...not
if you're a career military officer who answers to a civilian authority
or government.
<p>
<li> <em>Did I imagine Marcus's line about the French?</em><br>
You didn't imagine it....
<p>
Part of what appeals to me is the idea that the English/French
animosity you often see (though clearly not in all cases) would
continue not only into the future, but outside Earth. Realistically,
if you go into Europe, you find people holding grudges 500 years old,
or more. Seemed appropriate to carry this small one forward as well.
<p>
<li> <em>What does Marcus know about Vorlon theology?</em><br>
Marcus was making that part up.
<p>
<li> Weren't me. It was Marcus. Blame him.
<p>
<li> <em>So the actor ad-libbed that line?</em><br>
Actor? What actor? I'm talking about Marcus here. I just
write down what he says.
<p>
<li> <em>The First Ones had Kosh's voice.</em><br>
I figured that some elements of the First Ones should be consistent
with one another; others should have specific differences. Using
Ardwight subliminally reinforced some of the consistencies.
</ul>

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<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
An addictive drug with telepathic effects is found on the station,
prompting a visit by Bester. G'Kar reaches a turning point.
</cite>
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Koenig,+Walter">Walter Koenig</a> as Bester.
</blockquote>
<pre><a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/050">8.62</a>
Production number: 306
Original air week: February 5, 1996
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by David Eagle
</pre>
<p>
<hr size=3>
<h2><a name="BP">Backplot</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Londo's original assignment to Babylon 5 was at the direct request of
Emperor Turhan, who chose him after everyone else turned the position
down.
<li> Dust, an addictive drug, allows non-telepaths of several races to
probe the minds of others, experiencing all the victim's memories and
thoughts in the space of a few minutes. Unfortunately, this leaves the
victims unconscious, and telepathic victims never recover. The more
often Dust is taken, the more is required to achieve the effect the
next time. Dust was originally developed, and is apparently still
being produced, by Psi Corps in an attempt to induce permanent
telepathy in normal humans; the experiment has been a failure so far.
<li> The Narn used to have telepaths, long ago, but they and their families
were exterminated. The genes for telepathy were too weak in the
survivors to allow the Narn to breed natural telepaths, but their
abilities can still be unlocked, briefly, by Dust.
</ul>
<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> How much does G'Kar know about Londo's association with the Shadows?
Did Kosh stop him before he was able to discover everything?
<li> Why did Kosh stop G'Kar? (See
<a href="#AN.stop">Analysis</a>)
<li> Was Bester telling the truth about the Psi Corps combatting secret
threats to the human race, things ordinary people never hear about?
If so, what are those threats?
<li> What happened to the Narn telepaths? (See
<a href="#AN.narn">Analysis</a>)
<li> Will the Dust have a permanent effect on G'Kar, such as giving him
some measure of telepathic ability?
<li> What did the Corps learn from Talia? Was she actually dissected, or
was Bester just baiting Garibaldi? Did they find out about Ironheart's
gift
(<a href="006.html">"Mind War"</a>)?
</ul>
<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> What is the rest of the Psi Corps' business on Babylon 5? Perhaps
it involves Lyta Alexander; her presence is probably common knowledge
by now.
<li> <a name="AN.narn">The extermination of Narn telepaths</a>
may be connected to the Shadow
occupation of the Narn homeworld in the last war. See
<a href="049.html#AN.narn">"Voices of Authority."</a>
Or perhaps the Centauri were responsible, during their previous
occupation. It's also possible, though perhaps less likely, that
the Narn killed all their own telepaths.
<li> G'Kar asks Londo if being helpless helps him understand the plight of
the Narn. But the reverse effect may have taken place as well; G'Kar
has experienced at least some of the past several years from Londo's
point of view now, and thus presumably understands why Londo did what
he did. Whether that understanding can lead to forgiveness, though,
is another question.
<li> Kosh's intrusion into G'Kar's probe of Londo can certainly be viewed
as manipulation, especially given the use of the image of G'Lan. What
Kosh is trying to achieve by appearing to G'Kar, and why he's willing
to interfere with the Narn and Centauri now when he expressed no
interest in them before
(<a href="001.html#NO.KS">"Midnight On the Firing Line"</a>)
isn't clear.
<li> In addition to the mention of the Narn and Centauri being alone and
dying, reminiscent of
<a href="001.html#NO.KS">"Midnight On the Firing Line,"</a>
Kosh also tells G'Kar, "I have always been here." This echoes Kosh's
statement in Sheridan's dream in
<a href="033.html#AN:dream">"All Alone In the Night."</a>
It's still not entirely clear what he means, however.
Could it have something to do with the "path" revealed to Ivanova in
<a href="049.html">"Voices of Authority?"</a>
<li> <a name="AN.stop">Kosh may have stopped G'Kar</a>
to prevent him from learning too much about the Shadows, on the
assumption that G'Kar would likely speak out about them in public.
Since the forces of light are still gathering, that'd be something
Kosh would want to prevent. It's also likely that Kosh was maneuvering
G'Kar to be of greater use in the future, perhaps testing his ability
to influence G'Kar's behavior through the use of religious visions.
<li> Probably just a coincidence: Kosh ends G'Kar's quest for Shadow
information in Londo's mind by saying, "It is enough." That's exactly
what Londo said to Endawi
(<a href="045.html">Matters of Honor"</a>)
after recalling his dream of the Shadow ships flying overhead on
Centauri Prime.
<li> Did G'Kar overdose on Dust? It is possible that he was about to die,
given the intensity of all the images he was seeing - the drug hasn't
been tested on Narn. And that would be consistant with Kosh's previous
appearances, when Sheridan was in danger of dying
(<a href="033.html">"All Alone in the Night"</a>
and
<a href="044.html">"The Fall of Night."</a>)
Is Kosh's direct manipulation restricted only to near-death
appearances?
<li> Who are the characters in G'Kar's vision? The man on the tree is
his father (which G'Kar mentions, and which fits with his recounting in
<a href="037.html">"And Now For a Word."</a>)
It's not clear who the second person is, the old man. G'Quon, perhaps?
The third person, we know as G'Lan, from Kosh's exclamation in
<a href="044.html">"The Fall of Night."</a>
<li> Kosh's statement about sacrifice can be interpreted to cover the entire
Narn race; he may be saying that the Narn (and perhaps the Centauri,
given his earlier statement about the two races) must die so that the
rest can live. If that interpretation is correct, Kosh is preparing
G'Kar to accept the death of his people as inevitable. Will G'Kar
continue to fight for the Narn?
<li> Vir's position on Minbar was a joke to Londo (strictly a means of
getting him out of his hair) just as Londo's position was originally
viewed. Could Vir parallel Londo's ascension to power, potentially
rising to great importance in the coming war? Given his newfound
affinity for the Minbari, and his distaste for Londo's politics (and
especially Morden,) he could be a great ally of the Army of Light.
<li> Franklin continues to be on edge; could this be a consequence of his
stim habit?
(<a href="047.html">"A Day in the Strife"</a>)
</ul>
<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Dust has been mentioned before; for example, in
<a href="035.html">"Hunter, Prey,"</a>
Max, the kidnapper, asks Dr. Jacobs if he's a dust smuggler.
<li> A possible inconsistency: Bester says the Corps has been working on
Dust for five years. But in
<a href="011.html">"Survivors,"</a>
Garibaldi recalls a Dust problem on Mars 17 years ago. Perhaps the
Corps took over production of an existing drug.
<li> The Dust vendor's two aliases, Lindstrom and Morgenstern, are the
surnames of two characters from the comedy series "The Mary Tyler
Moore Show."
</ul>
<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>
<ul>
<p>
<li> Walter [Koenig]'s first appearance this season will be in "Dust to
Dust," #306.
<p>
<li> An interesting thought...as for Bester's personality, keep an eye out
for "Dust to Dust," episode #6, where you see Bester from a different
and very interesting angle. Some of what you say here, he says. (Not
about the corps, but about doing what's right as he sees it.)
<p>
'Course, whether or not one should *believe* anything he says is another
question altogether.
<p>
<li> Re: Kosh...we'll see him again outside his suit in "Dust to Dust," but
in a somewhat unconventional fashion....
<p>
<li> <em>The end credit music changed!</em><br>
Yes, we did change that. Because we -- I -- forgot to have
Christopher re-score it when we were re-doing the main title.
<p>
<li> "Dust To Dust" - Looks like a non-arc episode initially, but by the end
it has a strong effect on the overall storyline, and makes some
permanent changes in one of our characters. Combines Bester, the
telepathic-assault drug Dust, weapons dealers, and brings to a head a
major part of the G'Kar/Londo thread.
<p>
<li> "Dust to Dust" is what I call one of my "pretty box" episodes.
I set down the pretty box in front of you, and you think you know what
it is. Then something else entirely jumps out of it at your face.
There's more coming here and there. I like pretty boxes....
<p>
<li> <em>It's about time we had some heavy arc episodes!</em><br>
I get this at the start of every season. Let me repeat
what I've said, oh, about two dozen times already before.
<p>
At the start of every season, we have new people sampling the
show. Do you want the show to continue? If you do, then you have to
continue to add new viewers. If viewers tune in and they're lost in
the overall arc, they're going to tune out again. So you give them
some stand-alone episodes in the beginning, shows that are a little
more accessible, but introduce them to the characters, the situations
and the universe so that when the arc begins to move again, they know
enough to get into what's going on.
<p>
Sure, I could've just kept going right with the strong arc
episodes. Which the new viewers, 90% of whom sample shows in the first
few weeks of a new season and not thereafter, wouldn't have been able
to follow well. And they would've tuned out. And it would've been a
very big nail in the cancellation coffin. You can bring in new
viewers, or you can get canceled and never tell the whole story. Pick
one.
<p>
Second, you cannot -- CANNOT -- sustain the kind of intensity
you have in the final four over the course of a season. You need to
have some lighter moments as contrast or people are going to start
sticking their heads in ovens all across the country. So at the start
of a season, I try to do some lighter stuff, to bring people back up a
little, bracing for the next drop in the roller coaster. You need
peaks and valleys to develop any kind of rhythm, or to appreciate the
other side of it.
<p>
I got the same thing in season one, and season two..."Why these
light episodes? What's happened to this arc?" Then by season's end,
the chorus usually turns to "That was a GREAT season!" So my response
is, Unless you think I've suddenly turned stupid, or I've decided to
betray the series I've now worked 10 years of my life to produce...will
you for chrissakes *trust* me once in a while? Show a little patience.
When I introduced Vir, everybody on the planet jumped funky all over
me. "He's just a comic character! It's Flounder! He's dumbing down
the show! Space him! He stinks! Joe's losing it!" And now, of
course, we see what Vir is, and in many surveys he's now one of the
most popular characters.
<p>
You know what the #1 comment from the pilot was, on the nets
and elsewhere? "LOSE the guy with the funny hair! He's just
ridiculous." Londo. Every time I've done something a little different
in the show, I've usually been jumped on, because they're not willing
to trust that I know what I'm doing...until they've seen it for a
while, then they Get It, and it's "Oh, now I see it." Great, thanks,
now that you've been beating on my head for six months. Next time show
a little patience. (And btw, ALL of the comments related above are
real ones, many of them right here on Compuserve, from people still
around here.)
<p>
Every story can't be an arc story at this point; you've got to
see the characters outside the arc, in the way they live their lives,
in other things that happen to them, or else you won't CARE what
happens to them in the arc. No, the Purple/Green Drazi story didn't
move the arc ahead, but it showed you a lot about Ivanova, didn't it?
So now if and when something should happen to her in the arc, you care
about her. It's the difference between just being chess pieces, and
being *people*.
<p>
Okay, here's the breakdown. Season 3. You had arc episodes
only a bit in the first batch. "Honor," "Voices" and now a little in
"Dust." You've got one more stand-alone next week, "Exogenesis."
That's the last one for a LONG time. Episodes 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15,
16, 17, 20, 21 and 22 are ALL arc stories, most of them heavy, none
less than moderate.
<p>
I said, from the start, that each season would have
stand-alones and arc stories. About 20% in year one, 35% in year two,
50% in year three, 70% in year four, and 100% in year five. And the
stand-alones tend to get pushed toward the beginning of a season for
the reasons stated. Is nobody paying attention when I say these
things? Because if so, then why do I get gigged each season at the
start by people saying "HEY! HOW COME THESE AREN'T ARC EPISODES?"
(And as it looks now, year 3 has closer to 13-14 arc episodes, so we're
ahead a bit.)
<p>
Before people start making sweeping generalizations about the
season, it might behoove you to see the season first. If anything, my
concern in looking at what's been done for year 3 is that we're too
GRIM for the larger portion of it, and maybe a bit complex...so I'm
working to clarify a few things here and there as I do these last few.
<p>
<li> RE: Bester...thanks. I'd decided a while ago that the next time
we saw him, he either had to win, or he had to be right. If he lost
again, it'd cut his credibility out. This gave me a chance to do some
interesting things with him. He's a fascinating guy...a creep, and I
wouldn't trust him for a second, but fascinating nonetheless....
<p>
<li> <em>Wouldn't the telepaths have tipped Bester off that something was
going on between Sheridan and the Minbari?</em><br>
Simple fact is, the rules of the
Psi Corps would forbid them from engaging ANY human telepath for this
purpose. So the only other recourse is non-humans.
<p>
<li> <em>Did Bester read Franklin when he was injected?</em><br>
I think you're misremembering; Bester nudged up his right sleeve with
his left hand and held it out; Franklin stuck the needle in. I don't
believe he held his hand (which was gloved in any event).
<p>
<li> Londo knows G'Kar knows, yes. He couldn't not know.
<p>
<li> <em>Was the music during G'Kar's rush of images from Londo new?</em><br>
With some thematic exceptions, most of the music Chris composes
for us each week is unique, and tailored for that episode. So yes,
it's all mainly new.
<p>
Re: the coat of welcoming...here's a little tidbit...we had to
make up an entire alphabet for most of our major races (and I've been
gradually building up a dictionary here and there for languages). So
they came and asked if they could embroider something in Minbari on the
shirt Vir's wearing when he comes back. I said sure. Did I have
anything in mind? No, not really.
<p>
So I'm on the set that day, and I see the embroidered shirt, and
I ask what these five letters spell, since I don't offhand read Minbari
yet. He looked up at me and smiled. "It spells out ALOHA."
<p>
We have a very demented crew.
<p>
<li> <em>Kosh would rather sacrifice all the Narn through manipulation
than take direct action?</em><br>
Exactly. I mean, in three years, what the heck have the Vorlons
actually *done* to help "our side?" Let the others do it.
<p>
<li> Actually, I tend to agree with that assessment. They've guided
and instructed and pointed, yes...and manipulated...but they still
haven't had to step up to the plate in other areas.
<p>
And I don't think the Narns have sacrificed nearly enough yet.
You can always sacrifice more.
<p>
<li> A person can be sincere and still manipulative, in Kosh's case.
If he believes he's right, perhaps he's willing to manipulate anyone
toward that goal, if it's worth it.
<p>
<li> <em>Why <strong>not</strong> sooner?</em><br>
Because G'Kar needed to hit bottom, real bottom, before he
would be receptive to the message...because time doesn't mean to the
vorlons what it means to us...and because he was finally mentally
receptive due to the dust.
<p>
<li> Well, G'Kar doubtless *thinks* he saw a spirit, possibly the
spirit of his father, possibly something else...revealed later as
G'Lan, of course, taking that image in order to give him a revelation.
<p>
<li> Correct. They see reality, and time, and space somewhat
differently than we do.
<p>
<li> No, I wouldn't say that the shadows and vorlons see space, time
and reality in the same ways.
<p>
<li> <em>What did G'Kar shout out?</em><br>
And what G'Kar said was, "Dear G'Quon, no more...."
<p>
<li> <em>Did G'Kar recognize Morden?</em><br>
G'Kar probably has not yet put that together; remember, he only
met Morden once, for about 4 minutes, a couple of years previous to
this.
<p>
<li> <em>Does Kosh find it easier to appear to people when they're in
altered mental states?</em><br>
Yes, it helps if the person's mind is in a different state --
asleep, exhausted, in a heightened state of awareness -- for the
Vorlons to make contact, which is why their presence is often
associated with dream imagery.
<p>
<li> <em>The sign behind Kosh says, "WARNING!"</em><br>
Yes, the sign does indeed say warning. Look for another sign
right behind somebody at the end of "Severed Dreams."
<p>
<li> <em>G'Kar really beat Londo up.</em><br>
Implying more than one sees is something that you kinda have to
learn over time. It can be very effective, as here.
<p>
You just have to kinda put yourself out on a limb, as a writer
or as an actor.
<p>
This scene *should* be very affecting. It goes to Joe's Theory
of Violence on TV. To wit...that we need more of it, but it has to be
realistic violence. It has to show consequences. You glorify or
desensitize violence when you shoot somebody, and they just go down, no
yelling in pain, no sobbing as their guts fall out onto the street.
It's just gunfire, loud noises, excitement and fun. If you're going to
show violence, then show it for what it *is*, and show it the way
people would react to it. Make the audience understand that this is a
*person*, not one in a series of body counts.
<p>
<li> Actually, just to clarify the legalese, the judge sentenced him
to *no less* than 60 days; that's the minimum, it could be more.
<p>
<li> The female Psi Cop here *was* the same as in ARTDP, played by
Judy Levitt, who is also Walter's wife.
<p>
Yeah, everyone turned in great performances in this one, very
intense and layered. And as a result of G'Kar's attack, the next
several episodes will find him still in prison. In the B5 universe,
you don't just go in for a long time at the end of an ep and next thing
you're out again. He has to serve his time, and now we'll see him in a
cell for a while.
<p>
And yes, you'll learn more about what happened to the Narn
telepaths in coming months.
<p>
<li> With Ivanova, I've tried to construct a small emotional arc, in
that when she arrived, she was the new kid, she was a bit uncomfortable
with the job, and responded by being very formal, very businesslike, a
bit on the snide side. As she's gotten more comfortable with the job,
and the people around her, she's relaxed a bit around her
co-workers...but if somebody crosses her, as Bester tends to do, she
lets fly with some pretty sharp lines.
</ul>

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<!-- TITLE Exogenesis -->
<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
Marcus and Dr. Franklin combat an invasion by parasitic aliens that attach
themselves to humans. Ivanova investigates the possibility of bringing a
new member into the conspiracy.
</cite>
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Cox,+Joshua">Joshua Cox</a> as Corwin.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Morris,+Aubrey">Aubrey Morris</a> as Duncan.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Warwick,+James">James Warwick</a> as Matthew Duffin.
</blockquote>
<pre><a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/051">7.34</a>
Production number: 307
Original air week: February 12, 1996
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Kevin Cremin
</pre>
<h3>Watch For</h3>
<ul>
<li> Signs on the wall in the Brown Sector marketplace.
</ul>
<p>
<hr size=3>
<h2><a name="BP">Backplot</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> A race of symbiotes, the Vindrizi, has existed for half a million
years. They were created as
recorders, observing events all over the galaxy so that others
can learn about the past when all the books and records have been
swallowed by the next dark age. They survive by passing from host
to host, always seeking volunteers who have nothing left to live for
and want to live out their lives participating in a grand endeavor.
<li> The Shadows have been building up forces in sector 800, near the border
of Centauri space.
</ul>
<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> What is the "package" from Mars that Marcus is waiting for?
<li> Why are the Shadows building up their forces in sector 800?
<li> Will Corwin prove problematic for the conspiracy of light?
<li> Who created the Vindrizi half a million years ago, and what made
them think such living histories would become necessary?
</ul>
<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> It's never made clear how much time has passed before the Vindrizi's
departure, but it's odd that Sheridan and company didn't jump at the
chance to get all the information they could about the Shadows and
the previous wars while the Vindrizi were still aboard. Of course,
it's possible such discussions took place, but they're never mentioned.
<li> Now that Sheridan and his people know about the Vindrizi, perhaps
they'll call upon them in the future.
<li> What came in on the ship at the beginning of the episode? The two
people waiting for the ship were quite happy to see it arrive. Were
they not yet joined with the Vindrizi, or did the ship simply carry
more of their kind?
<li> <a name="marcus">Marcus seems a good deal less concerned with</a>
secrecy than his
coconspirators; he was talking to Garibaldi openly, and loudly, about
his network of contacts in a public place. By contrast, Ivanova and
Sheridan didn't even want to be <em>seen</em> with him at the
Earhart's party for fear of raising questions.
<li> Why is Ivanova so hostile toward Marcus? Have her last few romantic
experiences made her want to discourage any new developments in that
area? (For example,
<a href="007.html">"The War Prayer"</a>
and
<a href="041.html">"Divided Loyalties."</a>)
<li> During the medical staff meeting, Franklin mentions that there's a
need for Drazi blood. Is the station being flooded with Drazi refugees,
much like it was with Narn refugees while the Narn-Centauri War was at
its peak? If so, is Babylon 5 becoming a sort of haven for refugees
of all stripes?
</ul>
<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Duncan's line, "I don't like being poked by doctors," is also spoken
by the main character Alex in Stanley Kubrick's
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/title-exact?title=A+Clockwork+Orange">"A Clockwork Orange."</a>
<p>
<li> The ship carrying the Vindrizi is called the Dyson, most likely named
for physicist Freeman Dyson.
<p>
<li> <a name="NO.macbeth">Marcus quotes from Dickens'</a>
"A Christmas Carol" to Garibaldi, and from
Shakespeare's "Macbeth" when he wakes Duncan up. Note that Marcus
refers to Macbeth as "the Scottish play," and replaces "Macbeth" with
"Marcus" in his quote -- there is a superstition
among actors that referring to Macbeth by name is bad luck. (See
<a href="#JS.macbeth">jms speaks</a>)
<p>
The particular Macbeth quotes are from Act II, scene 2:
<blockquote>
Methought I heard a voice cry "Sleep no more!<br>
Macbeth does murder sleep" -- the innocent sleep,<br>
Sleep that knits up the raveled sleave of care,<br>
The death of each day's life, sore labor's bath,<br>
Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course,<br>
Chief nourisher in life's feast.
</blockquote>
<p>
Then, a moment later:
<blockquote>
Still it cried "Sleep no more!" to all the house.<br>
"Glamis hath murdered sleep, and therefore Cawdor<br>
Shall sleep no more. Macbeth shall sleep no more."
</blockquote>
<p>
Glamis and Cawdor are two earl titles that Macbeth holds.
<p>
<li> Marcus refers to his fighting staff as a "Copeland J5000" while trying
to convince the Vindrizi it's a medical instrument. That's most likely
a reference to producer John Copeland.
<p>
<li> The Vindrizi's musing about what they've experienced is reminiscent of
Batty's dying words at the end of the movie
<a href="http://kzsu.stanford.edu/uwi/br/off-world.html">"Blade Runner."</a>
</ul>
<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> "Exogenesis," which we just started filming this week, is probably our
most "ordinary" story of the batch, though it puts a new spin on
several traditional story elements.
<p>
<li> "Exogenesis" - The last non-arc episode for some time. Puts Dr.
Franklin and Marcus together investigating some odd happenings in
DownBelow that may indicate some kind of alien influence. Does,
however, introduce a thread that will play out over time.
<p>
<li> Another "oh, yeah, I nearly forgot"...for those out there who have
young kids, or if you're a bit on the squeamish side yourself...there's
one EFX shot at the end of the teaser for "Exogenesis" that you may want
to avoid. When it was finished, John Copeland brought it into my office,
fired it up on my TV, and looked away, saying, "You look, it creeps me
out too much to look at it again." It's...pretty strong. So you'll miss
the minimum possible, here's the sequence: first there's the Screaming
Man (a), then a cutaway to two people (b), then back at the Man for the
first part of the shot (c), the two people again (d), the man (e), and
finally the two people. What you want to avoid, if there are real young
kids in the room, are shots c and e. That's it for the whole episode.
For non-netted folks, it'll go by pretty fast, but I figured it'd be
worth mentioning as an added piece of info for the netted amongst us.
<p>
<li> Thanks. Yeah, Exo is the last non-arc episode for a long time,
and the last chance to catch one's breath before the big fall.
<p>
My personal evaluation of the episode is that it's okay. The
second half, I think, isn't as strong as the first half. Halfway
through writing the episode, we had a problem come up in production
that unexpectedly took me away from the script for about a week.
(Nothing major, but it had to be dealt with and it took time.)
Usually, I write copious notes on a script before I begin writing it.
In this case, the story was so crystalline clear in my head that I just
dived in, and was blasting away terrific when the hit came midway
through. By the time I got back, I'd lost some of the fingerprints of
the story, and had to kind of re-find them again. Mainly, I think the
expository sequence at the end could've been done better.
<p>
Needless to say, that's the last time I trusted myself without
notes, no matter how well I "see" the episode in my head. It'd be a
great script for second or first season, but we have to keep raising
the bar, every aspect has to be better than the last thing we did, so
for my money it's not quite up to that standard. Happily, it's the
*only* episode this season that I feel that way about...the rest are
all just nifty.
<p>
That said, I think it has some great moments for Marcus, Franklin
and others...and yes, there's a lot more planned with Franklin coming
up this season, particularly toward the latter third of the season.
<p>
<li> Thanks (I think). Yeah, I've said from the git-go that in my
view the second half of Exo isn't up to the first half. It is, in my
view, the weakest of this season's 22. On the flip side, that means
the other 21 are pretty nifty.
<p>
Agree with you on Marcus. I'm finding I have the same problem
with him I have with Londo...getting him to shut up once I wire him up
and let him go. He's a lot of fun to write, in that he can do the
physical action stuff very well, he can do comedy, more dramatic
emotional stuff...the whole range. I can take him places and do things
with him that I can't in some ways for the other characters, in that he
has only one responsibility, whereas the others have larger
responsibilities to more people.
<p>
<li> <em><a href="#NO.macbeth">About the avoidance of the name "Macbeth"</a>
</em><br>
<a name="JS.macbeth">Just figured I'd use that description of it</a>
rather than Macbeth, to make it a bit more obscure, but also some
actors do have a problem saying the name Macbeth or being around it
when it's said (note: Jason isn't one of them). so it was also a
courtesy. (Later on, while shooting "A Late Delivery From Avalon,"
one of the hair dressers made the error of referring to Macbeth out
loud in front of Michael York, and had to go through the whole
undo-the-curse routine, walking around the stages three times, etc.)
<p>
<li> I like Marcus quoting literature, Shakespeare included. So
it's something I've peppered through his character, though trying to
avoid too much of it.
<p>
<li> Yes, Marcus and Ivanova should get along
well...assuming one doesn't kill the other first....
<p>
<li> <em>Was that Sean Connery's voice at the beginning?</em><br>
It was a voice in the walla group that basically came out
sounding that way.
<p>
<li> <em>Where did Franklin's stim abuse problem go?</em><br>
It hasn't come to a head yet. Any abuser of substances has moments
when he's up, and moments when he's down, moments when he seems fine,
moments when he's not.
</ul>

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<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
As the Senate continues to investigate President Clark,
an archaeologist brings news of a development back home that forces Sheridan
to act against the Earth government. The Nightwatch tightens its grip on the
civilian population.
</cite>
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Stafford,+Nancy">Nancy Stafford</a> as Dr. Kirkish.
</blockquote>
<pre><a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/052">9.06</a>
Production number: 308
Original air week: February 19, 1996
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Mike Vejar
</pre>
<p>
<hr size=3>
<h2><a name="BP">Backplot</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Seven years ago, an archaeological team working for Interplanetary
Expeditions (see
<a href="004.html">"Infection"</a>)
discovered a disabled Shadow ship buried 300 feet under the Martian
surface, underground for at least a thousand years. Another Shadow
ship, apparently with the cooperation of Earth, finished excavating
the first, and both flew away. Garibaldi was witness, and recovered
a Psi Corps badge from the site. See comic issue 8,
<a href="/lurk/comic/008.html">"Silent Enemies."</a>
Most of the archaeologists have died or disappeared since.
<li> More recently, a second Shadow ship was discovered under the ice on
Jupiter's moon Ganymede.
<li> A Shadow ship requires a living being at its core; the two merge,
becoming one entity. If the pilot isn't properly prepared, the
result is a confused, insane ship.
<li> Translating the Book of G'Quan is considered sacrilege by the Narn.
"It must be read in the mother tongue, or not at all," says G'Kar.
<li> Shadow forces have continued to build up on the edge of Centauri space.
</ul>
<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> What were Shadow ships doing on Mars and Ganymede a millenium ago?
Was Earth involved in the last war?
<li> How does Delenn know that Shadow ships have sentient beings at their
core? What else does she know about them that she hasn't told
Sheridan?
<li> What kind of preparation is needed to properly merge with a Shadow ship?
</ul>
<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Sheridan's unwillingness to fire on the Agamemnon may be a sign of
trouble to come; he's not ready to think of Earth's military as an
enemy. How long that loyalty will last is unclear, but at some point,
if conditions on Earth continue to escalate and Sheridan continues to
act covertly against the government, he'll be forced to choose
between firing on his own people and death or capture.
<li> The White Star is a Minbari vessel, yet Sheridan believed the Agamemnon
would be able to track it. (See
<a href="023.html">"Points of Departure."</a>)
Perhaps that was simply because the White
Star was in Jupiter's atmosphere; it was thus unable to outrun the
Agamemnon, and could be tracked via atmospheric disturbances.
<li> The White Star is a formidable vessel, in any case; it has as much
firepower as several Narn heavy cruisers, judging by its attack on
the Shadow vessel (see
<a href="042.html">"The Long, Twilight Struggle,"</a>) although
this Shadow ship might have been smaller than those faced by the
Narn. The Agamemnon was able to damage the White Star, but only
after it had been grazed by a Shadow weapon and subjected to
atmospheric conditions far outside its safety limits.
<li> G'Kar's book should make for interesting reading now that he knows
what's going on from Londo's point of view as well as his own
(<a href="050.html">"Dust to Dust."</a>)
Given his visitation by what he believes to be G'Lan in that episode,
will he consider his writings to be on the same level as the Book of
G'Quan? More importantly, will other Narn feel the same way, and
become followers of the Book of G'Kar?
<li> Dr. Kirkish says of Earth, regarding the Shadows, "They want us to
become more like them." What does she mean by that? How can humans
become more like Shadows, and what would that entail?
<li> Someone on Earth wanted to go behind the Shadows' backs; if the
Shadows discover that (assuming they don't already know,) the
consequences for Earth could be disastrous. Assuming, of course, that
the Shadows didn't tell Earth about the second ship for their own
reasons.
<li> The events on Mars make it clear that the Shadows were awake to some
degree before the Icarus visited Z'ha'dum
(<a href="038.html">"In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum."</a>)
The Icarus visited Z'ha'dum in 2256, but Kirkish saw a functioning
Shadow vessel seven years ago, in 2253. The Psi-Corps connection
also implies that the Shadows were aware of humanity at the time.
<li> Given Marcus' apparent disregard for secrecy
(<a href="051.html#marcus">"Exogenesis"</a>)
Ivanova would be well-advised to make sure his chart is destroyed
or hidden lest a Nightwatch sympathizer stumble across it.
<li> Perhaps the Shadows bury their ships underground intentionally. Since
the ships are at least partially alive, it's even concievable that
the Shadows bury an egg or something similar, then dig up the fully
grown ship later on. In that case, where else are such ships buried?
Do the Shadows know, or did they lose track of their ships in the
last war?
<li> Now that the Agamemnon has observed the White Star at close proximity,
Earth Force will presumably treat it as hostile on sight in the future.
That will probably severely limit Sheridan's ability to finesse his
way out of another fight.
<li> The Shadows are far from alone in requiring living beings to merge with
their machinery. In fact, it seems to be a staple of advanced
technologies in the B5 universe:
<ul>
<li> The Ikarran weapon in
<a href="004.html">"Infection."</a>
<li> The anti-agathic drug in
<a href="009.html">"Deathwalker,"</a>
which required an extract from another living being.
<li> The Great Machine in Epsilon 3, which goes berserk without a
core
(<a href="018.html">"A Voice in the Wilderness."</a>)
<li> Shadow ships, as shown here.
</ul>
<p>
Are Vorlon ships similarly powered? They show up as living beings
in scans, though that isn't conclusive one way or the other.
</ul>
<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Narn is written from right to left.
<li> "Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom" is a variation on a quote
from Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States
(1801-1809.) The original meaning was that people should closely watch
their governments to avoid excessive encroachment on personal liberty;
its use by a Nightwatch member is especially ironic.
<li> The events on Mars were first revealed in the comic series, issues
<a href="/lurk/comic/007.html">"Survival the Hard Way"</a>
and
<a href="/lurk/comic/008.html">"Silent Enemies,"</a>
six months before this episode's first airing. Garibaldi also made
a reference to the story contained therein in the first-season
episode
<a href="004.html">"Infection."</a>
<br>
<img align=right alt="" width=160 height=120 src="/lurk/gif/052/city.gif"
hspace=5 vspace=5>
<li> <a name="NO.city">In the middle</a>
of the White Star's jump to hyperspace, there's a single
frame of note. The frame takes place as the White
Star emerges into hyperspace, as it heads toward the camera. The
hyperspace background changes to what looks like an alien cityscape.
Apparently it's a shot from
<a href="http://www.hypernauts.com/">Hypernauts,</a>
a children's sci-fi show whose special effects are being done by
B5's effects company. (See
<a href="#JS.city">jms speaks.</a>)
</ul>
<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!
<p>
For a couple months now, I've been looking down the road at episode #7,
because I couldn't quite see the shape of it...I knew what I had to do
in it, but I couldn't break the spine of the story...until ten minutes
ago, and it hit me with all the force of a meat axe right smack between
the eyeballs.
<p>
Hot damn...if I can pull this script off, it may well be the best one
of the series to date. Granted it'll probably give Ron a cardiac
infarction, but what the heck, he's had it too easy lately.
<p>
Oh, man, is this gonna be cool, assuming I can pull it off.
<p>
Working title: "Messages from Earth."
<p>
<li> <em>A bit of a bland title?</em><br>
Whether it's "bland" or not depends on what the messsages might be,
yes? The only thing I'll say for the episode is that it may be one of
the biggest whams of the first half of year three, and one of our most
ambitious episodes of the series. Generally, my feeling is that titles
should augment the episode, or add something, or collapse something into
a thematic whole. When you see what convictions are at hand, the
episode "Convictions" as a title works better; ditto for "Messages."
<p>
Besides, a nice, quiet, inoffensive little title gives me a better
chance to sneak up behind you and whack the heck out of you....
<p>
<li> "Messages," for my money, is so far the best we've ever done, though
I'll be more able to lock that down once I've seen the final CGI. It
and "Dreams" are real CGI blowouts; in the latter, there are literally
100 shots -- CGI, live action, and compositing -- in *four pages* of
action. This is an all time record for us (and that doesn't count the
stuff earlier in the episode).
<p>
I don't usually go this far, but folks, let me give you my personal
guarantee: you're in for one hell of a ride come mid-season, with these
three episodes.
<p>
<li> Not only did "Messages From Earth" come out as well as I'd hoped or
thought it would, it came out *better*. It is, potentially, either
one of the best or the best thing we've ever done in the whole series
to date. There are some episodes that come close this season, like
"Point of No Return," "A Late Delivery From Avalon," "Sic Transit
Vir" (for absolutely different reasons), and parts of "Dust to Dust,"
but so far -- at least until the CGI for "Severed Dreams" is
finished, which has at least a shot at knocking "Messages" out of the
box -- "Messages" is as close to perfect as we've ever come.
<p>
Like "The Coming of Shadows" there's a real sense of a *story* being
told, and major events happening at breakneck speed. It's just a joy
to watch.
<p>
<li> I'd suggest, btw, that if there are any folks you've been waiting to
bring into the fold on B5, you may want to consider 8 and 9 in the new
cycle, the last of that bunch in February. Eight is potentially one of
the best, possibly the best episode we've produced to date.
<p>
<li> Here's something that occured to me today. Any time you have
someone you're trying to convince about the quality of a show, and you
say, "Here, just watch it next week," that's always the one that comes
a-cropper.
<p>
"Messages From Earth" airing this coming week is possibly the
best thing we've done to that point. It's guaranteed to grab anybody
who watches it. So this would be a good one to use.
<p>
Pick ten friends who you know haven't yet tried B5, or are
diffident about it, and give them a call. Tell them to give THIS one a
look. Then all you have to do is sit back, and wait for the jaws to
drop.
<p>
<li> "Messages From Earth" - This begins the three-episode mini-arc within
the larger arc that, by its conclusion, totally changes the
structure of the B5 universe. A mega-wham episode. Because so
much comes to a head so quickly, little can be said about it
without spoiling stuff. Our characters begin making the final
and irrevocable steps that will put them on a collision course
with everything they have believed in until now. There are
four or five episodes this season that push the limits of our
effects and CGI to the absolute wall; this is one of the
biggest.
<p>
<li> Re: an "edge" to the show....I suspect you're going to get all the edge
you could possibly want with episodes 8, 9 and especially 10.
<p>
Be *very* careful what you wish for.
<p>
<li> Randy, I honestly don't think, after episodes 8-10 have aired,
that you're going to have any problems with how fast the main story is
progressing. And do bear in mind that the "main story" isn't just the
war; if you wanted to do that, you'd just do Space A&B. It's operating
on a whole lot of other levels. Nonetheless...this entire season is
much faster overall in developing than the two before. The first two
seasons we were mainly putting the guns into position. Now we're
pulling all the triggers.
<p>
<li> Thanks. Bruce did an excellet job in this episode, I agree.
As did everyone else. This is, in my opinion, about as flawless an
episode as we have ever made. It's one of those cases where the sum is
even greater than the sum of its parts...and the sum of its parts ain't
bad.
<p>
From here on through the next batch, the intensity level
continues to crank up.
<p>
We definitely pushed the envelope in terms of EFX this time
out; mixing and matching, and in sheer amounts of shots, and their
complexity. But the result, I think, is eminently worth the effort.
<p>
<li> I entirely agree; I think she did a dynamite job as Kirkish. Totally
convincing. When she walked into the audition, and did the part, there
was no question...it was her.
<p>
<li> <a name="JS.city" href="#NO.city"><em>About the alien city</em></a><br>
The executive producer thinks, "He's mistaken, has to be; it must be
a series of patterns in the image that look like a city." Being a
thorough person, however, the executive producer fires up his copy of
the tape, and fast forwards to the shot in question. Pauses, then
advances, frame by frame.
<p>
Then stops. The executive producer stares at the screen for a very,
very long time. Eventually, words form. The executive producer knows
that if he posts those words here, not only will they throw him off the
system, they will come to his house, burn it down, and sow the ground
with salt.
<p>
The executive producer knows what that single frame is, knows that it
has nothing to do with his show, knows that it's a frame from Hypernauts
that somehow crossed into the EFX shot in double-exposure via a computer
glitch while rendering. No one saw it. No one noticed it. Until now.
<p>
Tomorrow morning, the executive producer is going to make phone
calls, and say all the words he can't say here. When he is finished,
twenty seven miles of telephone coaxial cable are going to hang melted
from the telephone poles. Shortly thereafter, the executive producer is
going to put a gun to his head and blow his brains out, in the sure
knowledge that if he does not do so, he will most assuredly do it to
someone else.
<p>
The executive producer thanks you for bringing this to his attention,
and would write further, but is currently modeming from a laptop
computer on top of his roof, from which he is considering jumping, and
the wind up here is causing line noise.
<p>
<li> <em>Where's the press during all this Nightwatch buildup?</em><br>
You'll find more on this in the next three episodes.
<p>
<li> You need a clear and present danger, and with a
population that nearly got wiped out by the Minbari, who are skittish
to begin with, you drag out the possibility of someone else doing the
same thing and it makes it a lot easier to do what you want to do.
<p>
<li> Basically, it's the cost involved in transporting something as
basically trivial as eggs. Yes, it can be done, but the cost per egg
would be quite substantial, given limited space in ships. Space flight
is still very expensive.
<p>
And yes, a shadow vessel has one "core" sentient, and once in,
it's very difficult for that person to ever get out again.
<p>
<li> <em>What was the blue goop?</em><br>
Actually, I think it was blueberry yogurt.
<p>
<li> <em>Any relation to the moment of perfect beauty in
<a href="036.html">"There All the Honor Lies?"</a></em><br>
Yes, the way Sheridan removes his EA pin here is an
echo, or a shadow, so to speak, of his moment in "Honor." The latter
is meant to sort of indicate what might be ahead for him, what he may
have to do at some point along the line. He has to give up things that
mean something to him. (We'll get more of this philosophy in a few more
eps, I don't want to get too specific here.) Visual foreshadowing.
<p>
From here on in, things get very interesting....
<p>
<li> Yes, what he's writing will, in time, become the Book of G'Kar.
<p>
And correct, I went for a different feel in this episode, on
the theory that a little change is a good thing, if used to a purpose.
It's built like a series of waves, with quite moments in between.
<p>
This is the second so far to strongly tie into the comic, yes.
<p>
<li> <em>Does G'Kar consider his book on par with G'Quon's?</em><br>
No, he hasn't thought of it that far yet...but it will find
that role.
<p>
<li> IXP has been in business, in one form or another, for between 50-80
years.
<p>
<li> <em>Who was the human in the Shadow ship?</em><br>
It doesn't really matter in the long run; some poor shlub who
got conned into it.
<p>
<li> <em>Would a human be sane after piloting a Shadow ship?</em><br>
Almost certainly not.
<p>
<li> <em>Could someone on Sheridan's side "pilot" a Shadow ship, or are
the ships intrinsically evil?</em><br>
It's certainly a *very* good question.
<p>
<li> No, I wouldn't say there's a corrolation to life force and the shadow
ships; they need a living organism as the central processing unit
because an organic unit can think faster than most computer systems, and
react faster in terms of formulating strategy and the like.
<p>
<li> <em>Is a Shadow ship itself a kind of Shadow?</em><br>
It's not a kind of shadow, no.
<p>
<li> <em>Is there an official name for the Shadow ships?</em><br>
I just call them shadow vessels. For now.
<p>
<li> <em>Why didn't Sheridan use the jumpgate trick again?</em><br>
Because there wasn't a jumpgate he had access to, only a jump
point created by the White Star. In the prior situation, he blew up a
standing jump gate. The only one in the vicinity would be at the
transfer point near Io, which if destroyed would seriously harm Earth
interests.
<p>
<li> <em>How could the Agamemnon detect the White Star?</em><br>
It can be for a number of reasons. The White Star was moving
through a highly charged atmosphere, which would leave detectable
trails; it was being fired at by the shadow vessel, which would've
attracted considerable attention from the flares; diving at that speed
and coming back up there would be considerble heat on the surface of
the ship (not normally a problem in space); and it was pretty much
shaken up/partially damaged during the fight. Also, at that range,
once you're near enough, you can pick it up visually as it gets close;
it's not a cloaking system, only a stealth system.
<p>
<li> Neither situation relied on introducing new technology, only on
taking advantage of what's known currently. It's a simple equation:
ship A is more powerful than ship B. In a head-to-head situation, ship
A (shadow) will destroy ship B (white star). If you can't directly
confront a stronger enemy, you have to find some way to work around it,
outsmart it. (And fortunately, this one was flawed, "insane," as
Delenn put it.)
<p>
And the minbari know more than they're saying. But then that's
generally true of them.
<p>
And yes, the shadow ship arrived with a new "core" for the
buried ship.
<p>
<li> <em>How does Delenn know so much about Shadow ships?</em><br>
The info came from the Vorlons, and from the last war the Minbari fought
against them.
<p>
<li> The ship was hidden there to avoid it being destroyed during the war.
May or may not see General Franklin again anytime soon.
<p>
<li> There are no shadow vessels buried on Narn, no. The shadow influence
on the Psi Corps has been growing for about 7 years now.
<p>
<li> <em>How is Sheridan going to defeat a Shadow ship head-to-head?</em><br>
Exactly. The goal would seem to be impossible. So how do we
do it? Is there a vulnerability that's been laid out but not picked up
yet? Is there an advantage we don't necessarily see yet?
<p>
We have to be smarter. Humans are at our best when against the
wall. And we have to do it ourselves, in the final analysis, nobody
else can do it for us.
<p>
<li> <em>Was the spine that the White Star shot off the Shadow vessel
recovered?</em><br>
Nope.
<p>
<li> Given that we're looking at a high-energy weapon capable of
burning through a four-mile wide Narn orbital base as though it were
made of butter, it's putting out enough energy, I figured, to lead to a
reaction with the hydrogen, whether it's a fusion reaction of some
other.
<p>
We're talking a concentrated level of energy equal to a
thermonuclear reaction on a controlled level, or a fusion weapons
system with an energy output well beyond contemporary science to
calculate (particularly since this system is capable of delivering the
energy, undiluted, to targets tens or dozens of miles distant).
<p>
<li> Yeah, perhaps a better word than ignite could've been used.
But hey, the guy was being shot at...I'd be sitting in a corner going
bibble-bibble...
<p>
<li> <em>About the massing Shadow forces</em><br>
The forces will continue to build over the course of this
season. The White Star would be detected because it was inside the
atmosphere, where it could be picked up by its emissions, the
disruption caused in the air by the engines, and frankly by plain
sight.
<p>
<li> <em>What's the symbol at the front of the White Star bridge?</em><br>
The symbol on the WS isn't on the floor, it's the top of a
console that can be used for holographic tactical displays.
<p>
<li> <em>The shot of G'Kar writing was flipped!</em><br>
Not a gaffe; we flopped the shot because the writing was done
left to right, instead of right to left, which is Narnish script.
<p>
<li> Thanks. We've featured Minbari script going straight up and
down like Japanese, right to left with Narns, and other variations.
Because they would naturally occur.
<p>
<li> Also, bear in mind that Sheridan went into Earth-space knowing
the risks. For him to fire on the Aggy would be selfish, and wrong; he
knew full well that this could be a one-way ride.
<p>
If you're going to have a situation where Sheridan fires on EA
ships, it has to be the ONLY way of dealing with the situation, and it
has to be SUPREMELY motivated, so that it's not just him or one of our
guys who's at stake. It has to be a big situation to merit taking the
lives of fellow officers, in the same service.
<p>
<li> I think they know the White Star (aka the unidentified ship)
got away, but they put the best face on it back home. Which is one
more reason why Clark's declared martial law. Things are spinning out
of control, he's in increasingly hot water back home, and he has to
seize control. Whoever was in that alien ship knows too much about his
operations...if that were to come out, he's finished.
<p>
<li> <em>Are we near the end of the Nightwatch plot thread?</em><br>
The thread will diminish for a while, then return down the road
in later seasons, after the story takes its third major turn.
<p>
<li> <em>Why does anyone on Earth believe Clark?</em><br>
It all depends on how you frame the issue...i.e., the attacks
are groundless, baseless, and part of a campaign to destroy the
government, he's the attacked innocent....
<p>
<li> <em>Sheridan's conspiracy should be falling apart about now.</em><br>
Of course it can't hold. And they're going to go through
plenty of fire. Remember, this is the first of three that accomplish
that. Each escalates upon what went before. Don't worry...you'll get
your wish.
<p>
<li> Yes, the current mini-arc (8-10) is the second major turn in
the storyline. The third starts with the last episode of this season,
going into the fourth year. Then you've got one more big turn about
the last quarter or one-third of year four, and then a bit of a flip at
the end.
<p>
<li> <em>We already knew everything this episode revealed.</em><br>
If I can, let me address one aspect of this, for your
consideration.
<p>
Back when I was working on MURDER, SHE WROTE, we'd sometimes
get letters saying, "This wasn't a good episode because I figured out
the ending. It wasn't a surprise." (Which is, to some extent, your
point here.)
<p>
The problem we had with that particular letter was this: of
COURSE you figured it out. Because you were paying attention to all
the clues we had put out there in the episode.
<p>
There seems to be this notion that nobody should be able to
jump ahead, or else something's wrong or bad about the episode.
Absolutely not true. If you're going to play fair with the audience,
whether it's B5 or M,SW, you've got to put enough bits of information
out on the table so that the person who's really following it can
figure it out...so that at the end, those who *didn't* figure it out
can back up the tape, watch for the clues or leads, and see where it
all came from. That's playing fair.
<p>
If NObody gets it, you haven't done your job right.
<p>
If EVERYbody gets it, you haven't done your job right.
<p>
The best case scenario is a bell-shaped curve. Some don't have
a clue what's coming, some manage to figure it out, and the majority
have a kind of vague sense where it's going, but there are still
surprises along the way. If the bell-curve shifts one direction or the
other, then you're in trouble.
<p>
So far, B5 seems to be hewing right to the bell-curve. For
every person who says "okay, this was expected," there's been another
saying, "I had no *idea* this was going to happen here, or so fast."
(Many of these have been right on this forum, in fact.)
<p>
Finally, do bear in mind that you have an advantage here that
99% of all the viewers don't: the discussion here on CIS, and direct
comments from me. For instance, I just noted elsewhere that we've got
major turns at the end of this season, and one 2/3rds into year 4.
Now, if at those points, somebody says, "Well, I knew this was coming,
that's bad," I intend to whap them, because the reason they likely knew
it was coming was because I *said so* right here.
<p>
But that same 99% doesn't have this advantage.
<p>
This is the main difference I've noted in the mail that's come
in: the net-folks are constantly trying to figure out what's coming up
next, treating it like a mystery story (which, really, it's not, any
more than ANY novel is a mystery in that you don't necessarily know its
turns and twists as you're reading it), whereas the non-netted folks
tend to just take it as it comes.
<p>
See, that's the other part of this. People on the nets tend to
treat it as though it's a mystery novel, and when it doesn't hit that
aspect, say it's flawed as a result...when it was never INTENDED to
function as a mystery novel. It's a novel period. A mystery novel
depends absolutely on the riddle at the center of it. This is a saga,
which uses a different structure. It isn't a mystery any more than
Lord of the Rings is a mystery, even though when I first read it I was
wondering what was going to happen next.
<p>
Also, a mystery novel is done when the mystery is finally
unraveled. Not so the B5 story. By the end of this season, most of the
mysteries will be unraveled, and the pieces laid on the table for all
to see. It then becomes a matter of what the characters *do* about it
thereafter.
<p>
If I'm doing my job right, and setting up things to come
properly, and giving all the clues to it, then by definition a certain
number of people HAVE to figure out what's coming. As long as it's the
smaller portion, that's as it *should* be. So you'll understand why I
tend to get in here for a moment when that's held up as something bad
or poorly done. (And, again, even you note that the only reason you
knew about the shadows on Mars was via reading it here, or others read
it via the comics. Again, that's a very small portion of the audience;
most I've heard from had NO idea about that aspect of it. If you
hadn't read it here, you likely would have been surprised by it.)
<p>
Anyway, just something to consider in all of this....
<p>
<li> <em>Why didn't Garibaldi mention he was with Sinclair?</em><br>
There was an outsider, Kirkish, in the room. Yes, she's helped him, but
he's still going to hold back some info because he doesn't know what
impact it might have on Sinclair. He's protective of him.
<p>
<li> Yes, Kosh should've been there. Kosh wasn't. Kosh hasn't been carrying
his weight, if you ask me. I hope this doesn't cause a problem
somewhere....
<p>
<li> Don't have the shadow dimensions offhand; and yes, you'd think Sheridan
might begin to wonder about Kosh's level of involvement.
<p>
<li> <em>Weren't the cameras at Ganymede recording?</em><br>
Of course. But who controls those cameras? Answer: the very
folks who wouldn't want it to get out what they had there.
</ul>

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<!-- TITLE Point of No Return -->
<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
As the Earth Alliance plunges toward civil war, internal strife threatens to
shatter the command structure of B5. Zack's loyalties are put to the test
when the Nightwatch is ordered to take over station security. Londo receives
another glimpse of his destiny.
</cite>
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Barrett,+Majel">Majel Barrett</a> as Lady Morella.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Teague,+Marshall">Marshall Teague</a> as Ta'Lon.
</blockquote>
<pre><a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/053">9.31</a>
Production number: 309
Original air week: February 26, 1996
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Jim Johnston
</pre>
<strong>Note: this episode is more momentous than most. Think twice before
proceeding to the spoilers; it's worth seeing unawares.</strong>
<p>
<hr size=3>
<h2><a name="BP">Backplot</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> After the death of a Centauri emperor, custom states that his spirit
lives on in the body of his consort, who speaks both for herself and
her late husband.
<li> Londo is destined to become emperor. That part of his future cannot
be avoided, according to Lady Morella. Vir is also destined to
become emperor. One will become emperor after the other dies, but
it's not clear which.
<li> Londo has already passed up two chances to avoid the destiny he fears
awaits him. There will be three more. He must save the eye that does
not see. He must not kill the one who is already dead. And failing
those, at the last, he must surrender himself to his greatest fear,
knowing that it will destroy him.
<li> One result of G'Kar's Kosh-inspired revelation in
<a href="050.html">"Dust to Dust"</a>
is the belief that humans are the key to the salvation of the Narn
race. He also believes, as Kosh suggested, that the Narn must give
up their pride and their vengeance or risk being completely destroyed,
and that his people must sacrifice themselves by the hundreds or
even the millions if all are to benefit in the end.
</ul>
<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Is General Hague on his way to the station?
<li> What impact will Sheridan's new security forces have? Will they
immediately turn Earth against him?
</ul>
<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> One of Londo's two squandered chances was undoubtedly his action in
<a href="031.html">"The Coming of Shadows,"</a>
which sparked the Narn-Centauri War. The other is less clear.
Perhaps it was his initial meeting with Morden, or the attack on the
outpost in
<a href="022.html">"Chrysalis."</a>
It may also have been his decision to ask the Shadows to defend Gorash 7
(<a href="042.html">"The Long, Twilight Struggle,"</a>)
without which the Centauri wouldn't have been able to crush the Narn
as thoroughly as they did.
<p>
<li> "The eye that does not see" might refer to the Eye, the
symbol of Centauri nobility that marked the start of Londo's association
with Morden
(<a href="013.html">"Signs and Portents."</a>)
It may also refer to G'Kar's eye, which appears to be injured or missing
in Londo's dream
(<a href="031.html">"The Coming of Shadows."</a>)
<p>
<li> The one who is already dead might be Morden, or perhaps G'Kar,
whose old life is certainly gone. It's also possible that it refers
to the memory of someone who is to die; Londo may be presented with
an opportunity to discredit someone who would otherwise serve as a
martyr. Along similar lines, it may refer to the wishes of someone
already dead; for instance, destroying the chance for peace that
Emperor Turhan sought before his death, something that would have
been the Emperor's legacy.
<p>
Another possibility is a connection to the transfer of
Minbari souls to humans; the owner of a particular previously-deceased
Minbari soul (perhaps Sinclair) may prove troublesome to Londo in the
future.
<p>
<li> Londo's greatest fear might be the downfall of the Republic,
or perhaps his own death.
<p>
<li> It's likely Londo will squander at least the first two of his remaining
chances, given the fact that there will be a third -- assuming Morella
is correct.
<p>
<li> What did Sheridan and the others say to convince Zack to go along with
their ruse? It may have been as simple as convincing him that the
order from the Political Office was illegal, just like Sheridan told
the trapped Nightwatch members. Using that to convince him would
have been the safest course of action, since as a loyal officer
he'd be inclined to go along with the plan even if his sympathies had
shifted toward Nightwatch.
<p>
<li> What were all the non-security Nightwatch members doing during the
crisis? Were they unaffected by the takeover order in the first place,
and thus largely unconcerned with what was going on?
</ul>
<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>
<ul>
<li>
An official
<a href="/lurk/misc/barrett-release">press release</a>
about Majel Barrett's appearance is available.
<li>
Many of the Nightwatch members in this episode are production staff
members, including the production secretary and an assistant director.
</ul>
<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>
<ul>
<li>
<em>Posted to the CompuServe Star Trek forum</em><br>
Before you hit the *kill* button...a thought or two in your general
direction. First, if you're eager for the actual news part of this message
-- and it is kinda important -- it appears at the end of this message. If
you've got a second, stick around.
<p>
In every interview he's given on the subject, Walter Koenig has spoken
glowingly of BABYLON 5, as a show he feels is fighting for genuine quality
SF in television, with serious, mature stories for fans who grew up on STAR
TREK and are looking for more of that quality...none other than Majel
Barrett Roddenberry has gone on record at conventions, including Toronto
Trek and the recent Wolf 359 convention, as saying that BABYLON 5 was "the
only other intelligent science fiction series out there" besides the ST
shows, and urged ST fans to support it.
<p>
If you've tried the show, and it wasn't to your tastes...fair enough.
No one should be expected to like everything. If you'd like to give it
another shot, that's fine, but there is no need to defend your opinion; we
respect it. Not every show works for every viewer.
<p>
If you *haven't* tried the show...if you liked the original ST and the
work of Majel and Walter and Harlan and others involved in it...if you like
the work of Peter David, who has written for B5 and supports it...you may
want to give it a shot in October/November.
<p>
The final four episodes from year two will be broadcast starting the
week of October 11th, with the new year three episodes beginning the second
week of November. These nine episodes in a row contain some of the best
work we have ever done. Acting, writing, directing, effects...we stand
behind all of them. (The year two Final Four were held back from earlier
broadcast to lead into the debut, so these are new to the US, although they
have already aired to substantial praise in the UK.)
<p>
If perhaps you have been turned off by some of the more vigorous
messages from B5 viewers, I'd only ask that you consider those comments in
light of the fact that Paramount (NOT the people doing ST, but the studio
itself) has done everything possible to hinder the progress of B5, which
engenders certain reactions from everyone; and that to a man or woman,
virtually all of the more vigorous posts have come from those who have long
considered themselves fans of STAR TREK, voicing many of the concerns which
are stated right here in this forum by current viewers...which they had long
before there was a B5... as well as some of the praises found here.
<p>
The ironic thing is that there is no problem between those who make B5,
and those who make ST..Jeri Taylor is a friend, Majel supports the show,
when ST does an episode with great EFX we call them, when we do a good one
they call us...it's almost entirely a matter of perception.
<p>
So for what it's worth, direct from those of us who make BABYLON 5, if
you haven't checked out the show before, or if you're curious to see where
we stand now...I would like to personally invite you to check out the new
batch of episodes starting around October 11th. If you want to give us all
nine episodes, that's great; if less, that's fine too. If not at all,
that's also fine.
<p>
Over a late dinner with Majel, I observed that after the original STAR
TREK, which for the first time presented truly *human* characters, with all
their flaws and frailties and bravery and nobility, in a science fiction
series, the ball was dropped, and no one picked it up again for years. She
agreed with this...and it is my hope that you will find this coming season
of BABYLON 5 to be that show.
<p>
Because it isn't an either/or, sum/zero game...one can watch, and
enjoy, BABYLON 5 and STAR TREK equally, for different reasons, since their
approaches are very different. And this is the perfect time to come into
B5, since these episodes encapsulize a lot of background, and will take you
quickly into the background, the universe and the characters.
<p>
Which is why, I'm pleased to announce, Majel Barrett will be appearing
as a guest star on BABYLON 5 this coming season...a gesture of support from
her, and a gesture of respect from all of us at B5. The deal has been
signed, it's a done deal...she'll be appearing in episode #9, "Point of No
Return," as Emperor Turhan's third wife, Lady Morella. We're very much
looking forward to her appearance in the B5 universe.
<p>
For all these and other reasons, I hope you'll give BABYLON 5 a try.
<p>
<li>
She'll be playing a Centauri female, the Lady Morella, Emperor Turhan's
third wife; also a prophetess and seer.
<p>
<li>
When we first announced casting Walter Koenig on B5, lots of people
moaned, "Oh, no, not Chekov on B5." What you got was Bester, who has
become one of our most noted and discussed characters. It's unfortunate,
but some people confuse the role with the person. "...the worst character
ever in the entire ST universe" has nothing to do with the person, or the
role she will be portraying: the Lady Morella, Emperor Turhan's third
wife, a prophetess and seer. It's a *very* serious, significant role,
absolutely unlike anything she's done before.
<p>
This, btw, is called "typecasting," which is one of the primary
reasons why so many talented actors who helped to create Star Trek and
other series couldn't get work for so many years...they did so good a
job that they forever *became* that character. Let's not be guilty of
that crime here. Majel's character will no more be Troi than Bester is
Chekov.
<p>
<li>
Ellen: thanks. As for the episode in question, it's entitled "Point of
No Return," and the role of Lady Morella was written specifically for Majel.
I hustled to get it finished prior to the Wolf 359 convention, where I gave
her a copy of the script. She read it overnight, and fell in love with the
story, the character, and what it was going to do with and to the BABYLON 5
universe (to wit: start turning it upside down). Next morning, she said
"I'm in." And she is.
<p>
Yes, it's a jms script, and is one of the most pivotal of this season,
episode #9, which with the one before it, "Messages from Earth," builds to a
major turning point in #10, so it should be a very popular, intense and
memorable episode in every respect.
<p>
<li>
I'd just like to say that Majel did a great job for us
on B5, and we are hoping we can come up with other opportunities
for the character to return. I know that Majel is
interested in pursuing other acting gigs outside ST, and I
wish her all the best. I think other shows would do well to
utilize her abilities; everyone had a great time working with
her, and she should be recognized for work other than ST.
<p>
<li> <em>Was Morella's speech about greatness intended as a tribute to
Gene Roddenberry?</em><br>
There's probably a fair amount there that could apply to Gene, yes...
<p>
<li>
If a word comes out of a character's mouth, it's usually mine.
The bit about greatness was one of them; had a number of different
subtexts going on behind it.
<p>
<li>
Of course, there are many who don't see such people in a Good
Light; even Washington had people out smearing his name every day
(which, among more altruistic reasons, was why he didn't want to stay
in charge forever). We are never so greatly appreciated as when we're
safely and conveniently deceased.
<p>
<li>
Btw, on the topic of titles...it's important for the season title to
accurately reflect the events of the season. And as I've watched more and
more of season 3 being filmed, it becomes increasingly clear that "I am become
Death, the destroyer of worlds" isn't as apt, emotionally, for what's going
on. (I've actually felt this for a while, which is why I've been hesitating
on locking down the title publicly.) The single most emblematic title, and
single episode, for the whole season, really, is "Point of No Return," because
on every level, that's what happens this season.
<p>
<li>
Thanks...it ratchets things up a bit more, certainly. The big
stuff's just around the corner.
<p>
<li>
Most of the Omega class of destroyers are given Greek names,
such as Achilles, Alexander, Agamemnon and others.
<p>
<li>
Correct, the Alexander would've come off the assembly line a
bit after the Aggy.
<p>
<li>
We could've easily played the EFX full-screen, as WB used them in the promos,
after all. But it's a slow tease, a reveal. You do it big in Messages, hold
it back just a bit, at arm's length, in PoNR, then bring it all REAL close
again in the next episode. By putting it at some remove in PoNR, it makes
the viewer almost like one of those in the Zocalo, fighting for a better
look, stranded out far away, trying to figure out what's going on.
<p>
<li> <em>Which side is Dr. Franklin's father on?</em><br>
Stephen's father is a by-the-book guy; he doesn't think his job
is to set policy, only to implement policy.
<p>
<li>
I think Zack was mainly nervous in that last bit,
which may account for his twitchiness. And yes, Morella often
prophesied for Turhan.
<p>
<li> <em>Aren't those Nightwatch posters a bit too much? Wouldn't people
object?</em><br>
It's not always as simple as that. You also take a uniquely
Western perspective. Look around at Russia, Cuba, 1930s Germany and
the beer hall putsch, Iraq, Iran...a leader can survive all kinds of
opposition if he has sufficient control of the armed forces. After the
Gulf War, it was generally assumed that Saddam would be gone within a
few months; now his position is stronger than ever.
<p>
Also, Clark didn't (ostensibly) declare martial law to protect
himself, he did it because of an imminent alien threat which was
detected long before these allegations came out, we just had Ganymede
attacked and that's spitting distance from the primary Earth jump gate
at Io...there is indication of collaboration and conspiracy among some
in the Joint Chiefs (and in fact that's correct, from his point of
view, given Hague's activities)...there's enough ammo there to justify
martial law. Dissolve the Senate? Just happened a couple years ago in
Russia, when we had tanks firing on the Senate building. Some might say
that Yeltsin was in the same position as Clark in that his motives
might be saving himself.
<p>
(The majority of our posters, btw, are taken from genuine WW II
propaganda and war-support posters that were actually in use. We make
some slight modifications, but the gist is there. Yes, we do fall for
these things, we do go for these things. We always have.)
<p>
As for the USA-western perspective...during WW II we saw
Japanese civilians interned in camps along the West Coast...afterward
we saw people prosecuted for being Reds, saw careers and lives
destroyed by even the hint of "commie" influence. If you look at
newsreels and documentary footage from the time, you see a populace,
fresh out of a war, who survived by focusing on the Enemy, given a new
enemy. Might they have gone along with some kind fo martial law if
they thought that if they *didn't* cooperate, the nation might be
vulnerable to Russian nukes or invasion? I think the climate was
perfect for it.
<p>
Could it happen right here, right now? No, because the
surrounding climate isn't right. Could it happen if the conditions
*were* right? Of course it could. We're not genetically or
evolutionarily different from the Germans or the Russians or the Cubans
or the Iraquis. If we think we'd never fall for that, we place
ourselves in *exactly* the position of guaranteeing that we *will* fall
for it. Because we won't recognize it when it happens. We can justify
and rationalize it as something else.
<p>
Yeah, people back on Earth still have guns. What of it? Right
now, with martial law, the streets are quiet, the news is more positive
than usual for a change, the quarrelsome jerks in the senate have been
given a good kick in the butt, the president's getting things *done*,
we've all still got our jobs, the muggers are hiding out, life goes on
except for the lawbreakers. You gonna go out on your own and start
shooting at Earthforce troops armed to the teeth with *vastly* more
advanced weaponry? On whose behalf? The aliens? The troublemakers?
What're we rallying for? Or against? This'll blow over soon, it
always does. It never lasts. Right now, just ride it out, wait and
see what happens. Who knows...maybe Clark's right? Who wants to be
perceived as a traitor?
<p>
Those are the thoughts of any populace in this situation. Just
as when Yeltsin declared martial law in Moscow, as when Mayor Daly sent
in the shock troops in Chicago, on and on.
<p>
Here's the number one rule: a population will always stay
passive for as long as they perceive that they stand to lose more by
opposing the government than by staying quiet. It's when they have
little or nothing left to lose that they rise up; the politicos first,
then, more reluctantly, the general population.
<p>
<li>
Here's something to consider in this.
<p>
It's easy -- safe and reassuring -- to dismiss Nightwatch and the whole
political climate on Earth at this time as referring to Nazi germany...SS,
Stormtroopers, informers...but if we know our history, it shows that this is
not so isolated as we might think. If we say it was just the Nazis, then
it's a non-repeatable phenomenon, we needn't worry about it again.
<p>
But, of course, it does happen again...it did, and it will, to varying
degrees. Go back to the Inquisition, and forward to Joe McCarthy and the
House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) which destroyed lives and
reputations based on association, past history, social contacts and party
affiliations (the items specified by Musante to the EA folks in Nightwatch).
Stalin and to a lesser extent Lenin would have been right at home in
Nightwatch. Several of the leaders speaking for parties in the ruins of what
was once Yugoslavia would also fit.
<p>
It's easy, and safe, for us to say, "Oh, we would never do that, only THEY
did that." But the "they" in this ARE the we on the other side...and "we"
have done it, are doing it now, and will continue to do it. Only when we
*know* the history of such things, when we recognize the rhetoric of control,
when we oppose blacklisting and scapegoating and dead-catting do we help to
assure that they *won't* arise again. Remember the quote: "Those who do not
remember history are condemned to repeat it."
<p>
There's a great deal of generalized historical and political metaphor in the
show, never one-to-one because that's too easy, but disguised in one form or
another, transumted. The Centauri Republic isn't a real republic by any
stretch of the imagination...any more than the Roman Republic from which it
draws some of its political structure, particularly the Centarum, the ruling
body. There's a great deal of Japanese political and social structure to the
Minbari, in their culture and art and some of their philosophy. You can find
parallels to the story in World War II, and the bible, among a few dozen
others.
<p>
Too little of TV these days is *about* anything...it's all context, no
subtext. This show is about a lot of things...but never in the mode of
telling you what to think. We'll ask *that* you think, that you consider the
world around you, and your place in it...but defining that is your business,
not ours.
<p>
<li>
"I don't believe a conservative nightwatch would be tolerated
either."
<p>
Senator Joseph McCarthy. The House Un-American Activities
Committee. You can look it up.
<p>
Also, there was a PBS documentary this past week on the
blacklist; I suggest that ANYone who thinks we would never fall for
something like the Nightwatch should take a look at it. It makes the
Nightwatch look pale by comparison.
<p>
<li> <em>The House Un-American Activities Committee wasn't that powerful.</em>
<br>
I disagree. When even Truman was loathe to take on HUAC and
McCarthy, you've got a real problem. You make the impact sound
minimal; but people committed suicide when their careers were ruined by
HUAC and Tailgunner Joe. I personally know writers who were at the top
of their form and their careers who never worked again because they
were blacklisted or greylisted.
<p>
It was also the climate created by HUAC that threatened much
more widely than the actions of the committee itself. Take Red
Channels, a sleazy little rag published by the owner of a *SUPERMARKET
CHAIN* in which he listed those he considered -- based on whim or
divine revelation -- reds or sympathetic to reds. Even a publication
like that had tremendous destructive power. I know one of the writers
listed in Red Channels; the networks grey-listed him instantly. It was
*years* before he could work again.
<p>
The whole red-baiting hysteria of the 50s came as close to
destroying the American dream as any threatened invasion. If it had
been led by someone a little less self-destructive than McCarthy, I
hate to think what would've happened.
<p>
<li>
"Even in the USSR the military would not support an attempt of
martial law."
<p>
You mean like when Yeltsin called up the military, dissolved
the Senate, and had tanks open fire on the Senate building to keep from
being ousted in a coup...you mean like that?
<p>
<li>
Yes, right to assemble, free speech rights, they're all open to abridgement.
Travel can also be restricted.
<p>
<li>
Thanks. No, I understand the point, I'm just getting into the
details a bit. One last point I forgot to mention was that even for
the US, there has never yet been a situation where we as an entire
*species* stood on the brink of extinction by an alien race. That'll
definitely affect your mindset a bit....
<p>
<li>
"Zack is the key figure here. He's the one questioning if he's on the right
side and just what his allies are up to. I've heard some good analogies to
present days situations kicked around on these boards, but It seems mostly
Republicans want to accuse democrats and vice versa. What we need is more
Republicans willing to criticise fellow republicans and democrats willing to
criticise fellow democrats."
<p>
A very good point. Zack is, to all intents and purposes, the Everyman
character in this; he wants, desperately, to do what's right. But he doesn't
exactly *know* what's right, because he's getting conflicting
information...or rather, a lack of *real* information and a plethora of
agendas. Who is he to believe? Which way does he jump when he's not sure
which pit holds the lion?
<p>
When a culture become factionalized, when it becomes us vs. them, everyone
starts setting up consistently smaller camps...first it's democrats vs.
republicans...then it's mainstream republicans vs. conservative
republicans...then it's conservative republicans vs. religious right
republicans (with the democrats having equal problems on their side). As
soon as we forget that we're *all* US, it begins to fall apart.
<p>
<li>
Corwin's question is really one that hits a lot; you see things
starting to fly apart, but you keep thinking it's gonna work out..then it all
goes to hell, and you're standing there trying to figure out how it all
slipped away. It's a very innocent, yet universal question.
<p>
<li>
"...I wanted Sheridan &Co. to cut themselves free of Earthgov,
and they didn't."
<p>
'Course, if you were to do anything that monumental, you'd
spike right smack in the middle of your three-part story.
<p>
One of the things about these three episodes that's again worth
stressing is that they're really one story, linked carefully. Each of
the three begins *one frame* after the other. After they've aired, if
you sit down with a VCR and edit them together, you'll find that they
flow absolutely SEAMLESSLY from one to the other. So PoNR is at the
dead center of the piece that propels you toward the last third, like
the second act in a three-act play (which was my structure for this).
<p>
That may help.
<p>
<li>
We knew that at some juncture they'd be split, so numbering
them as parts 1, 2 and 3 would be awkward. And distribution hates
having to market multi-parters, for reasons of their own. So...three
episodes.
<p>
<li>
Glad you enjoyed "Point." It sets everything up, so we can
knock it all down in "Severed Dreams." Now everyhing I need is right
where I need it to be....
<p>
<li>
Certainly G'Kar has had...a revelation, I suppose is the best way of putting
it, and that tends to transform you. What form emerges from this remains to
be seen.
<p>
<li> <em>Ta'Lon's line about answers and replies</em><br>
No, I don't think that's a quote from anywhere but the show, at
least insofar as I know.
<p>
<li> <em>Was bringing Ta'Lon back something you wanted to do from the
start?</em><br>
I liked Ta'Lon, and definitely wanted to bring him back.
<p>
<li>
We've already established in the episode that the bodyguard is the same as in
"All Alone." We did that when the two had a drink in the zocalo. It was in
dialogue.
<p>
<li> <em>I liked Londo's line about politics.</em><br>
Thanks, and I agree with those scenes. (For me, the Vir/Londo
scene in the tag is just hysterical.) Re: "politics has nothing to do
with intelligence," yeah, I kinda liked that one. I have fun....
<p>
<li>
Centauri are always suspicious, and if you knew you might be
emperor after the other is dead, you might be encourage to...help that
process along, however you might like someone. It's just good
business.
<p>
<li>
When we come back, the very next episode has a very funny scene
re: Londo and Narn security. And yes, that was the Schwartzkopf.
<p>
<li> <em>Is the fact that Hague was on the Alexander a reference to Alexander
Haig?</em><br>
Y'know, I think this was one of those subconscious things the
brain does sometimes...I hadn't put it together when I put him on that
ship. It's a sad thing when you can't even trust your own brain
anymore.
<p>
<li> "Ok, at the end of this ep. Susan explains that 4 of the 5 cruisers with
Gen. Hague where distroyed. So did Earthforce get them or did Clark have the
shadows do it?"
<p>
It was an ambush by Earthforce ships. (Actually, only 3 were destroyed,
the other two took off separately, trying to throw off a united pursuit.
But you know how ISN's been lately....)
<p>
<li>
Delenn was taking care of some business on Minbar.
<p>
<li>
There's not a lower house in the EA, in the sense that each
nation/state has its own various houses, and its own leader, but that
leader is also part of the EA senate. One per nation/state. Each
nation/state has its own constitution, but must not contravene the
larger principles of the EA constitution.
</ul>

970
guide/bak/054
View File

@ -1,970 +0,0 @@
<!-- TITLE Severed Dreams -->
<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
When President Clark tries to seize control of Babylon 5 by force, Sheridan
is faced with the prospect of severing the station's ties with Earth. Delenn
receives disturbing news from a Ranger.
</cite>
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+McGill,+Bruce">Bruce McGill</a> as Major Ryan.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Miyori,+Kim">Kim Miyori</a> as Captain Hiroshi.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Parks,+James">James Parks</a> as Drakhen.
</blockquote>
<pre><a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/054">9.81</a>
Production number: 310
Original air week: April 1, 1996
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by David Eagle
</pre>
<p>
<hr size=3>
<h2><a name="BP">Backplot</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> The former Minbari leader, Dukhat, died in Delenn's arms. Before he
died, he named her as his chosen successor.
<li> Clark has been filling command positions with his people since taking
office, thus enabling him to retain control of most of Earth Force;
many officers who oppose his policies feel forced to go along, since
their superiors will accuse them of treason otherwise.
<li> The Shadows have formed alliances with many of the non-aligned worlds,
allegedly to protect them from Centauri aggression; later, they've
prompted those races to attack their neighbors with the belief that
association with the Shadows is a guarantee of victory.
</ul>
<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Was Londo finally able to leave the station? Where was he going?
(Or, if he was coming aboard, where was he coming from?)
<li> Is there more to the prophecy of the return of the Shadows, or has
it now played itself out, leaving the future uncertain?
<li> What <em>does</em> Sheridan's mother do with her time?
<li> What has ISN known for a year but been unable to talk about? Did
they find out about Santiago's death, or perhaps about Earth's
involvement with the Shadows?
</ul>
<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Sheridan said he wanted to keep Draal a secret, and thus didn't ask for
help defending the station. But anyone with two eyes now knows he has
some interesting non-human technology at his disposal; he used the Great
Machine to broadcast his holographic image all over the station. While
Earth has free-floating holography (such as the Knights' image of
Sinclair at the beginning of
<a href="008.html">"And the Sky Full of Stars"</a>)
it's a far cry from what Sheridan did.
<p>
<li> Five hooded Councilors followed Delenn from the council chamber;
presumably the remaining four were all warrior caste, as established in
<a href="033.html">"All Alone in the Night."</a> (Only three are
visible onscreen, but the whole Council wasn't visible at the start
of the scene, either.)
<p>
<li> Where did the religious and worker castes get three Minbari warships
and the crews to pilot them? Are there more on Delenn's side, or just
those? In
<a href="045.html">"Matters of Honor,"</a>
Lennier implied that the religious-caste crew of the White Star was
rare, if not unheard-of. Did some of the warrior caste side with
Delenn? (See
<a href="#JS.ships">jms speaks</a>)
<p>
<li> Delenn's confrontation with the Grey Council is counter to her own
stated goal of laying low so the Shadows aren't forced to attack
immediately. She accused them of standing by and doing nothing in
the face of Shadow encroachment -- but doing nothing was exactly what
she insisted on in
<a href="038.html">"In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum,"</a>
among other places. If the warrior caste had moved to prevent some
of the non-aligned worlds from warring, as she seemed to be suggesting,
it surely would have alerted the Shadows to the fact that their return
has been discovered.
<p>
On the other hand, it may be that she was accusing them of not even
preparing for eventual open conflict with the Shadows; perhaps she
believed their current indifference would continue even after the
army of light was fully assembled.
<p>
Finally, she may have wanted them to simply take a stand in the local
conflicts without addressing the Shadows' presence directly.
<p>
<li> Sheridan's secession from the Earth Alliance plays directly into Clark's
hands in some respects. Clark can use the secession, and the Minbari
involvement, to paint a picture of an alien-supported military coup
against an elected civilian government, further proof of the need for
martial law, the Nightwatch, and other draconian measures. No doubt
he'll be able to make that version of the story believable to a large
number of people back home, thus solidifying his power base.
<p>
<li> Why did only four destroyers jump into Babylon 5 space for the
initial attack? Perhaps the fleet commander didn't want to
increase the chance of casualties from friendly fire, but that
seems dubious at best; or perhaps he didn't know there were more
ships on the way.
<p>
<li> Which side of the war does the Agamemnon and its crew support? Will
Sheridan be forced into conflict with his old ship, something he
definitely doesn't want?
(<a href="052.html">"Messages From Earth"</a>)
<p>
<li> Given the reason for the Minbari surrender during the war
(<a href="023.html">"Points of Departure"</a>)
would Delenn have made good on her threat to fire on the Earth ships?
Minbari religious beliefs would forbid her from doing so, though she
might well consider it a necessary evil.
<p>
<li> During the initial attack on the Alexander, Major Ryan claims that
they can't jump to hyperspace without losing their fighters. But
fighters have been shown jumping alongside a larger ship before --
some emerged with the destroyers to attack Babylon 5 later in the
same episode -- so what would have kept the fighters from jumping
with the Alexander? (See
<a href="#JS.jump">jms speaks</a>)
<p>
<li> The Shadows are apparently perfectly willing to double-cross the
Centauri, at least in words. By offering to protect the League
worlds from Centauri aggression, when the Centauri are using the
Shadows to act out that aggression, they've effectively taken
control of both sides of any potential Centauri border conflicts.
What they'll do with that control, and why they want it, remains to
be seen.
</ul>
<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> The new Starfury in this episode is called a "Thunderbolt."
<li> Many of the Nightwatch members in this episode are production staff
members, including the production secretary and an assistant director.
<li> Minor effects mismatch: A group of Starfuries attacks a friendly
destroyer. Its name is clearly visible as the Churchill. But the
scene immediately cuts to Major Ryan reacting to the hit -- even though
he's on the Alexander, not the Churchill.
<li> Four ships emerge from the jumpgate at the end of act three, two
Omega-class destroyers and two older Hyperion-style heavy cruisers
(<a href="019.html">"A Voice In the Wilderness, part 2."</a>)
But we only see and hear about two, the Agrippa and the Roanoke. One
possible explanation is that the destroyer rammed by the Churchill
isn't supposed to be the Roanoke; since Sheridan offers assistance to
the Roanoke at the end of the battle, that's plausible. However, the
rammed ship's name is (barely) visible as "Roanoke" during the
collision.
<li> One of the two destroyers in the second wave was called the Nimrod;
the second was either the Olympia or the Olympic.
<li> The Roanoke is named after an early English colony in Virginia.
After a hard winter, a ship came to check on the colony and
found it totally deserted, no sign of the inhabitants or of a
struggle, just the word CROATAN carved into a tree. The fate of
the colonists was never discovered.
</ul>
<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> The number of scenes varies depending on the amount of action
required. On balance, the average TV script has about 60-75 scenes or
shots in it. From time to time, in B5, we've gone as high as 130 shots
in episodes like "Twilight" or "Fall." I think we just blew out our
record here with "Severed Dreams," which has close to 140.
<p>
Number of scenes shot on any day depends on how long the scene; you
can do 4 really long shots or 8 fairly short scenes. The amount of
rehearsal varies depending on the scene, how many extras or what kind of
action/stunts are required. The more action, the more you rehearse, to
ensure nobody gets hurt.
<p>
<li> Much as I'd
have wished PTEN would've aired 10, the final part of the 3-episode arc
that changes direction on the show, a week after 9, even though it'd be
out of sweeps period...it's probably for the best. When producer George
Johnson saw the scrpt for #10, "Severed Dreams," he laughed, walked over
to me and said, "Boy, this is the best episode we're never gonna
deliver. ARE YOU NUTS?!"
<p>
As an example of "ARE YOU NUTS?!" in "The Fall of Night," in the
sequence between the first Garden shot and the end of Sheridan's rescue,
about 6-7 pages of script, there were, I think, about 60 or 65 EFX and
practical shots. In just the span of 4 pages in 310 there are roughly
100 EFX and practical shots. In EFX terms, it's probably one of the
biggest shows we've done, so it's better to give Foundation a little
extra time to get it right rather than rush them.
<p>
<li> All I'll say here is that there were *so* many EFX here that we
mixed the episode a few days before delivery, and got it down there 2
hours before the process for uplinking the episode to stations. It was
the hardest thing we've ever done...but it was worth it.
<p>
<li> <em>Why are these three episodes not marked as a three-parter?</em><br>
For the most part, it's a matter of how the episodes feel to
me, what length they feel as if they require. When I did the big three
this year -- Messages, Point and Dreams -- I hadn't really figured
they'd be as tightly connected as they ended up being. I knew they'd
relate strongly to one another, but in a sense, they're reallly a three
parter. The War Without End story I knew was WAY too big for one
episode, but due to the structure of the story wouldn't take being
extended for one more episode; at that point you'd just be dragging it
out.
<p>
It's all instinct, I wish I had a more concrete answer.
<p>
<li> <em>Why the title?</em><br>
If B5 was a dream given form, and the EA had the potential to be
something more than it has become, and the two part ways, then you have
severed dreams. (I had a much more elegant and interesting reply, but
obviously it entered Vorlon space and hasn't been allowed out again.)
<p>
<li> "Messages," for my money, is so far the best we've ever done, though
I'll be more able to lock that down once I've seen the final CGI. It
and "Dreams" are real CGI blowouts; in the latter, there are literally
100 shots -- CGI, live action, and compositing -- in *four pages* of
action. This is an all time record for us (and that doesn't count the
stuff earlier in the episode).
<p>
<li> Have begun shooting episode 11, "Messages From Earth," a hideously
complex episode, outmatched only by #10, "Severed Dreams," which is the
single most visually ambitious episode we've done in the three years of
the show. It's just totally outrageous, and it'll probably kill us in
sheer man-hours to produce...but the result should drop jaws all over
the place.
<p>
<li> Re: Foundation "adding a new flame effect"...sort of. One
night, we just went out into the parking lot, set up a camera pointing
up behind a plexiglass screen, and set off a bunch of explosions above
it. Went great until one of the blasts was so big it melted through
the plex *and* the camera lens....
<p>
Looked good though, didn't it?
<p>
<li> <em>The PPG blasts looked different.</em><br>
That was because there were so MANY of them; our PPG bursts
usually take a great deal of work. If we'd given all of them in this
scene that amount of work, we'd still be doing them.
<p>
<li> <em>How did you do the lighting as Ivanova's ship tumbled?</em><br>
We fixed a light atop a gimble, and pre-determined the
rotation of the starfury, then moved the lighting to match. Gives it a
much more realistic feel.
<p>
<li> Funny thing is, how much as you note the show corresponds to some of
the things Mira's been through...some of it intentional, knowing that
if I dig into this area, it'll come out of her with the ring of
truth...some of it quite unintentional. When I finished writing
"Severed Dreams," and the actors got it, Mira's first words to me were,
"So...how long DID you live in Yugoslavia?" The parallel wasn't
intentional...but it fit.
<p>
<li> Toni: thanks. All of the characters shine in this one, Mira in
particular as Delenn. It's a nice contrast; her speech to the Grey
Council is an intense piece of work that goes on for a while; her
declaration to the EA ships is short, to the point, and absolutely
deadly. The right tool for the right job.
<p>
I'm utterly pleased and proud of the job we did here. Partly
because it's just so nifty on its own terms, and partly because it
gives us a new level to try and beat. Up until now, I've been looking
to top "Coming of Shadows;" now the goal is to top this one...and I
think it's possible there may be one or two even this season that'll do
that, but tonally I think they're different enough that it might end up
as a tie.
<p>
I definitely wanted the close-in, hand-to-hand fighting to
personalize what's going on. It's also very logical strategically.
You send in your forces to disable or overwhelm C&C, distract them,
slip in a cadre of troops to a station that (you hope) didn't know you
were coming...then they race to C&C and seize control from inside,
shooting anyone they have to en route. If Sheridan et al hadn't known
the ships were coming in, this could've gone very differently. But
once they were in, they were in close quarters, and you want to get in
closer if you're on the defensive side so that they can't use their
weapons without cutting down their own people. After that you have to
hope you can overwhelm the intruders with sheer force of numbers. It's
an ugly, awful way to win a fight, because it *guarantees*
casualties...but what war doesn't?
<p>
Something to bear in mind when rewatching, btw...it was during
this scene that Jerry fell and broke his right arm and right wrist.
And they still had one last scene to film. He stuck it out and they
rolled film, to get the shot of him and Zack at the end of the fight.
Next time you watch it, keep an eye on the right arm as he releases the
helmet...it bends in directions never intended by evolution.
<p>
<li> I agree, but Jerry was determined to do it, and more time
would've been lost arguing about it than it took to do the takes.
<p>
<li> We shot that last scene with Garibaldi *after* we'd shot the sequence
showing his injured leg. We don't shoot in sequence. So we had to
cover it in the next episode.
<p>
<li> We shot the last scene with the cane *before* we shot the scene
in which Jerry broke his arm. It costs way too much to go back and
reshoot. At the time we shot the later scene, he hadn't yet broken his
arm.
<p>
And G'Kar isn't all the way in yet; he wants to be, but so far
he's still being held at arm's length a bit...he may make an issue of
this.
<p>
<li> Actually, though, because he *did* have his hand in his pocket,
it let me handle the break in the next episode without stretching
credulity too far. It was...well...I guess you'd call that part of it a
lucky break.
<p>
<li> <em>Is General Hague shown?</em><br>
Foxworth was slated for "Severed Dreams" when he bailed on us.
<p>
<li> We had booked Foxworth
long in advance. Later, out of the blue, a rep for the actor said that
by accident he'd been double-booked on B5 and DS9 for the same
period...and even though we had prior claim, because the other was a
two-parter, more money, they went for that. One can only wonder when
the other offer *really* came in....
<p>
<li> The Foxworth bail resulted in a change of about three lines,
that's about it. You'll know which lines when you hear them.
<p>
<li> We'd booked the actor long, long in advance. At the last
minute, he bailed to do a DS9 episode playing, essentially, the same
character, despite our having first dibs.
<p>
So I killed off the character. Didn't change the story by the
smallest measure. May actually have helped, since it raised the stakes
in the story right from the start.
<p>
Rule #1: Never honk off the writer.
<p>
<li> Regarding Hague...it's much harder to hold an actor on a once-in-a-while
basis. Every show is hostage to that. It's a reality of life. We
don't have contracts with folks who play one or two parts a year.
Screen Actors Guild doesn't allow that; you make deals as they come up.
You can't stop an actor if he wants to jump ship under those conditions;
and if you try, you have an unhappy actor on your set who'll just walk
through it because he or she doesn't want to be there.
<p>
<li> Re: Foxworth...it was really the only thing to do. I'd created
the character *specifically* to have him available for this episode,
after which he'd basically fade away while others took up his standard.
It was all leading up to this. Without being in this episode, there
was nothing more to do with Hague, hence I felt quite comfortable with
his fate, it changed nothing.
<p>
<li> <em>Major Ryan was overstepping his rank.</em><br>
Except, of course, you now have an extraordinary situation in
which the Major, through the death of his CO, was now the commanding
officer of the Alexander. In ordinary circumstances, this would mean
he'd be given a field promotion.
<p>
Second, I don't recall any situation where the Major was "giving
orders to a commander." The aide on the deck of the Alexander was a
Lieutenant, as I recall. Also, if Hague indicated that he was to be
given command as he died, that would likely be honored. Finally, yes,
the Major was involved in the discussions of strategy, but in *every
case* he presented Sheridan and Hiroshi with options, and because it
was Sheridan's neck of the woods, it was left to Sheridan to give
orders. He coordinated the defense, and was the only one speaking
directly with the Agrippa.
<p>
<li> I think Sheridan was kinda up to his ears in matters graver than
the Major's field promotion, though you're right, he had one coming (as
I noted in an earlier message). Given that they'd just broken away
from Earthforce, and walked away from the rank structure to some
extent, it would seem a rather indulgent exercise, since Earth
certainly wouldn't recognize the field promotion of a renegade officer.
<p>
<li> "...hit between the eyes." Yeah, that's the correct reaction,
I'd say.
<p>
Yes, it's easy to fire on the enemy when it's a faceless
entity; not as easy when it's someone you know. Kinda brings it home,
makes it personal.
<p>
<li> Exactly. If you're going to do something as monumental as what
Sheridan does here re: B5's status and Earth, it can't be done lightly
or frivolously or without sufficient cause. It has to be an absolutely
last resort. If we'd done it any sooner, it would've been less
effective, and more of a cheat.
<p>
And yes, after two breather stories, "Ship of Tears" starts the
arc moving again, and with very few exceptions doesn't let up for the
rest of the season.
<p>
<li> <em>About the warning sign in
<a href="050.html">"Dust to Dust"</a></em><br>
Yes, the sign does indeed say warning. Look for another sign
right behind somebody at the end of "Severed Dreams."
<p>
<li> Actually, yes, I tend to ask for musical counterpoint in the
show from time to time. For instance, when Sheridan et al were going
to the area where the crowd was waiting, I told Chris to fool us...give
us an ominous sounding sting going into what's going to be a very "up"
scene. In the battle earlier on, when you'd normally do something fast
and exciting, I asked him to give me something more somber, to pull out
the Requiem theme in a few places. Sometimes, in other shows, I ask for
music that works against a scene to control the emotional core of it;
if it's a bit too silly, perhaps, then I go for a more serious musical
cue to balance it out. Where a scene would seem to ask for major keys,
I go for minor chords.
<p>
It's all just part of the tapestry.
<p>
(BTW, a little secret...just for fun, I wrote a couple of songs
that you'll be hearing in an upcoming episode. I used to write songs
here and there, even did a couple for an ABC prime-time special, and
figured I'd try it again. I wrote the lyrics, discussed the music with
Chris, and he took care of the score, and it's about what I first
conceived. Came out pretty well, actually.)
<p>
<li> <em>Where was Kosh during all this?</em><br>
Yeah...Kosh seems to have retreated a bit so far...worrying,
that.
<p>
<li> <em>Why didn't Sheridan ask for help from Draal or Delenn?</em><br>
The other thing to bear in mind about all this is the question of a
"clean fight." If Sheridan were to bring in alien forces at his order
to kill humans, it would pretty much destroy his credibility. Delenn
came in at the end but only after he'd made his stand on his own.
<p>
One of the things that kicked off the French Revolution was the
allegation that the King had brought in or was bringing in
Prussian troops to help put down dissenters. As long as it was
all more or less in the family, that was one thing...but to
bring in outsiders was an absolute affront to them. (One of
the singular incidents that started the fighting itself was a
group of Prussian soldiers sighted sitting in a cafe having
lunch, which caused this rumor about outsiders coming in to
spread like wildfire, and led to the some of the first major
incidents of rioting.)
<p>
Two brothers may fight one another, but let a third unrelated person
come in and shove one of the brothers around, and they'll *both* turn
on him.
<p>
During the worst days of the civil war, even Lincoln was offered
assistance in troops from at least one other country; he declined,
because it was an internal matter, and had to be resolved by those
involved, not outsiders.
<p>
Sheridan's logic was exactly the same. It had to be a clean fight.
<p>
<li> Yes, the push in on Delenn revealed her in the White Star, and
yes, a fair number of the new 'furies B5 inherited are Thunderbolt
class.
<p>
<li> <em>Aren't Starfuries space-only craft?</em><br>
Yes, the Thunderbolt furies were seen both on Mars and
attacking B5.
<p>
A normal Starfury can't function in an atmosphere environment.
The new Thunderbolt models have airfoils/wings that are folded back
over the body of the ship for non-atmospheric maneuvering, and then
extend out to full sized wings when entering an atmosphere. (You'll
get to see in detail how this works back and forth in "Ship of Tears.")
<p>
<li> <a name="JS.jump">If you're opening a jump point,</a>
usually you make it a habit to have all
your fighters on board or else risk leaving them behind. A jump gate
can be more easily used and held open for fighters. When you arrive at
your destination, you can launch your fighters as you emerge.
<p>
<li> "Why was it impossible to jump into hyperspace (in the beginning of the
show) and not take the Starfuries with the ship? We've seen it done
before."
<p>
No, I don't believe so. You've seen a jump GATE used, but that's
different from a jump POINT which basically closes right behind the ship
like a rabbit pulling its hole in after it. If the ships stayed behind
to protect its rear, they'd be left behind. Ships coming out of a jump
point into normal space sometimes will let their fighters zip out AS
they're coming out, alongside the main ship.
<p>
<li> <em>Why didn't they shut down the jumpgate? Why did the EA ships
use it?</em><br>
The answer to both your questions is about the same. It takes
about a day to power down, or power up a jump gate. It operates more
like a fusion reactor than a light bulb. So not only wasn't there
enough time, even if they *had* had enough time, you'd want to leave
the gate up and running in case you needed to evacuate for any reason;
otherwise you'd cut off your main escape route.
<p>
For the incoming fleet, knowing the gate was active was the way
to go, since it would let them launch their fighters prior to coming
in; if you use a jump point, you kinda have to launch while you're
coming out to avoid anyone being stuck behind.
<p>
<li> <em>What good are small fighters if it's the big ships that decide
the battle?</em><br>
A lot more ships came in with the Roanoke and the Agrippa, support
ships and others. Probably more breaching pods. They took out those.
They're also used to keep the enemy starfuries from disabling the
defense grid on the station, leaving B5 free to use its weapons on the
larger target/worse threat. They're often used to soften up the enemy,
harrass them like a pack of hounds falling on a prey. In "Fall of
Night," we saw a Centauri vessel in large measure taken out by the
Starfuries with some B5 support. So they definitely play a part.
<p>
<li> Starfuries serve a *lot* of functions which we've shown before
on the series.
<p>
They can take out a ship's defensive screens and
countermeasures, allowing access by the big ships' armaments. In a
group, they can take out a good sized ship on their own (a la the
Centauri cruiser in "Fall of Night"). They also serve to protect the
station's defense grid from aggressor starfuries.
<p>
Also, a number of small support ships, including a Hyperion
class ship came through as part of the "carrier group" that went after
the station. It was up to the starfuries to take care of those ships
while B5 and the other destroyers took out the biggest threats.
<p>
<li> <em>What about all the debris from the battle?</em><br>
We've shown clean-up crews before outside, including a hazmat
station that goes out to clear away fuel cores or other toxic material.
They would've been dispatched for this.
<p>
<li> Fighters re-enter via the main docking bay and are recharged
and lowered into the fighter bays.
<p>
No question, spare parts would be a problem, and they'll have
to cannibalize a lot (plus whatever they scrounged up from the fighters
blown apart outside).
<p>
<li> Bear in mind that if we had gone over to the other captains and
what was going on in the other ships, to make room for those scenes we
would've had to cut anywhere from 3-5 minutes of the other stuff. You
can't just add to the show's time; if that goes in, something else has
to come out. So you'd probably have to cut the scene between Sheridan
and his father since that was the only stand-alone set piece.
<p>
Any time you write something, you must decide "who is it
about?" This episode was about *our characters*, the ones we've come to
care about, and how they deal with this. To take away from that and
spend time with people we've never seen before, and won't see again,
would be to cheat our characters of the time on screen needed to pay
off all the things we've set up over the years.
<p>
Would it have been an interesting aside to show the other
captains? Sure. In a movie, with an open-ended running time, I
probably would have. But there's nothing I would want to cut out of the
episode as it now stands to make room for it.
<p>
<li> Garibaldi wanted to hold up, cut off the boarding party at a bottleneck,
but the Narns, *being* Narns, raced right into the battle. At that
point Garibaldi had to follow them in or let them get wiped out for no
good reason.
<p>
<li> <em>About the Narn sacrifice</em><br>
What you also have to bear in mind sometimes is that *this* is
the only way to get things done. When the Allies stormed Normandy
Beach, they knew that German bunkers and machine nests and fortified
positions were right there on the beach waiting for them. But they
stormed out, onto the beach, and the first lines were cut down, one
after another after another, hundreds, literally thousands of soldiers.
But those behind were able to get through, take up position as best
they could. Some of them clung to the edges of cliffs as Germans above
laughed and threw down grenades into their midst.
<p>
Sometimes there's no other way. But you do it because those who
command you have the moral authority to say "You probably will not come
back, but the cause is just, and fair, and necessary."
<p>
Thus do we go off to die.
<p>
<li> <em>Themes of personal sacrifice</em><br>
"It's all this stuff that I think really makes the show. The mystery
certainly helps, but the puzzles are no longer my main reason for
watching."
<p>
Aaron: exactly. This was something I said a lot around the
first part of the second season, that this really *isn't* a
mystery novel, in any conventional sense, no more so than any
novel whose ending is yet to be revealed.
<p>
You picked up on exactly the themes that are present in the
show, with some more to come shortly. Personal sacrifice for a
cause -- perhaps a good cause, perhaps not, depending on how
wisely we make our decisions -- is probably the dominant theme
at this point in the story.
<p>
It's worth mentioning that this story was initially
conceived in the midst of the Me Generation, the decade of
"I've got mine, jack, screw you all." Since then the culture
has gotten increasingly factionalized, groups of Me's pulling
and tugging at the fabric not only of the country, bvut of the
planet itself. The idea of personal sacrifice, of personal
service to a cause, seems to have become...passe. Old
fashioned. Silly.
<p>
We have an obligation to one another, responsibilities and
trusts. That does not mean we must be pigeons, that we must be
exploited. But it does mean that we should look out for one
another when and as much as we can; and that we have a personal
responsibility for our behavior; and that our behavior has
consequences of a very real and profound nature. We are not
powerless. We have tremendous potential for good or ill. How
we choose to use that power is up to us; but first we must
choose to use it. We're told every day, "You can't change the
world."
<p>
But the world is changing every day. Only question
is...who's doing it? You or somebody else? Will you choose to
lead, or be led by others?
<p>
(Y'know, there are moments I look at the preceding
paragraphs, and I realize that it wa said more succinctly, and
better, and more movingly in "Lost Horizon," with this simple
sentence: "Be *kind* to one another.")
<p>
<li> The easy thing to do, the TeeVee thing to do, would've
been to go from Sheridan's line "All ships return to base," to the
exterior with the big ships, and fade out. But I try to keep this show
from doing the easy thing. Yes, you had a victory. Yes, it was
necessary. But what's the cost? We shouldn't glamorize these things.
Even at the end, as you notice, even at the end of the reception...we
go out on an ominous note.
<p>
<li> <em>Did the Earth ships recognize the White Star as the ship from
the incident on Ganymede?</em><br>
Probably not.
<p>
<li> Well, President Clark would know it [the White Star], from the Aggy
records, but the general population wouldn't know it yet, since those
records weren't released. But it does give him a card to play at some
point in the future.
<p>
<li> <em>Any relation between Captain Hiroshi and the Hiroshi on Garibaldi's
staff from
<a href="046.html">"Convictions?"</a></em><br>
No intentional relation, no.
<p>
<li> <em>Why wasn't the boarding party coming up through the floor?</em><br>
I figured that they'd come in through the outer hull, secure the inner
hull area, then go up in and through a side wall, which would be faster
for purposes of a mass entrance. If you blow a hole in the floor,
everybody has to crawl out one at a time; you blow a hole in the wall,
bunches can come through at once. There was a fair amount of distance
between where they came in, and the hull.
<p>
<li> Yes and no. They came through the "floor" which would be the
outer hull. Like any good ship, the station has two hulls for
protection, an inner hull and an outer hull. Once breaching the outer
hull, they moved into the inner hull, then angled up for a wall they
could blow out.
<p>
I figured this would make more tactical sense because if they
just blew through the floor, they'd have to *crawl* out one or two at a
time, whereas if they angled in safely and then came in through a wall,
they could pour in more quickly, en masse, and be less vulnerable.
<p>
<li> <em>Was there not much blood in the on-station fight because the guns
were firing plasma?</em><br>
Correct, PPG bursts, being superheated helium, tend to
cauterize the wounds as they go through.
<p>
<li> No, it's a different scene than the flash-forward in Babylon
Squared.
<p>
<li> Thanks. That's exactly the impression I wanted...you do the
dolly/zoom move, isolating Sheridan visually...you don't cut back to
the others as they speak, just let the camera stay on him, put the
other voices down under the music and off to the side, just *HOLD*
there...works great.
<p>
<li> I'm always getting this confused in my own mind, but basically it's
using two contradictory moves with the camera. You dolly in (push the
camera toward the object) and push out with the lens (or vice versa...
that's the part I'm forever getting confused about...like remembering
battery connections, is it positive to positive or positive to
negative...?). In either event, you're basically going in and out/away
at the same moment. It's a nifty effect.
<p>
<li> "There is a certain sweetness between Sheridan and his father.
Sheridan's father is certainly the one that I wish I had. Is he yours,
JMS?"
<p>
Not by the farthest stretch of the imagination, which is all I'll say on
this.
<p>
<li> <em>Was that Ashan (from
<a href="036.html">"There All the Honor Lies"</a>)
blocking Delenn?</em><br>
That wasn't Ashan, no.
<p>
<li> <em>Why isn't the Council on Minbar?</em><br>
We've hinted at it...the Grey Council always stays on its ship, being
part of the universe, giving it an exotic, distant feel for its
people...as though among the gods.
<p>
<li> The Grey Council could've taken a lot more action to be
supportive behind the scenes, getting the warrior caste more involved
with the rangers, giving aid to the non-aligned worlds...there was a
LOT they could have been doing all this time that wouldn't have
required tipping their hand. Instead they sat and did nothing. And
now, with B5 on the edge of falling, to say it's not their problem was
too much. Now is the time they have to start coming forward.
<p>
<li> Basically, the warrior caste doesn't think it's their war;
there's also a certain amount of resentment in it, I think...they *led*
the last war, they *did* their job, and got yanked back and forced to
surrender. That was a terrible blow to their pride, caused in part by
an alien race, so their attitude now tends to be more or less, "Screw
'em."
<p>
<li> <em>How did Delenn know B5 needed help?</em><br>
Real simple. Lennier was still on-station. All she had to do
was check in with him en route and find out. Also, she went to the
council for the purpose of getting military support because she knew
heavy stuff was coming down, in one form or another. Knowing that "the
humans are fighting one another" as she said to the council, it's
evident that if they didn't come to B5 that day, they'd come shortly
thereafter.
<p>
<li> At this point, with the Council broken, Delenn isn't currently
running Minbar...there's a vacuum of power. The system can carry on
for a while, the balance between the castes is pretty efficient, but
this is going to have to be resolved, and some in the warrior caste may
suspect Delenn of doing this so she *can* rise to power.
<p>
<a name="JS.ships">
As part of Valen's covenant, to prevent one caste from taking
</a>
over the other, each caste has access to its own warships. This was
done to create trust a thousand years ago, and since then, since there
hasn't been any conflict between Minbari, the three castes own their
own warships still, but in general are assigned to Warrior caste as a
courtesy, which can be revoked. As Delenn noted, the worker and
religious castes control 2/3rds of their forces.
<p>
<li> Each caste populates the ships in their jurisdiction with their
own people. Which is why those on the Minbari warships that came in,
which we'll see shortly, are religious caste, no warriors among
them...but even the religious caste is well trained in combat, as part
of their education in temple. We've seen some of this already in
Lennier's abilities in a fight.
<p>
<li> No, 5 left the council with her. And one can wonder, Did she
turn down the position of leader of the Grey Council, which would be a
balance for that role, in order to eliminate the council and become
primary ruler? (That is what some of the warrior caste are bound to
begin wondering after a while.)
<p>
<li> <em>Was the brief pause as one of the council members left a sign
of a single caste breaking apart?</em><br>
No, just a member of the warrior caste making sure one he
considered a friend *really* wanted to do this....
<p>
<li> I was living in Delenn's head when she uttered those lines for the first
time.
<p>
She wasn't bluffing.
<p>
Delenn *never* bluffs.
<p>
<li> Thanks, and yes, there's definitely fire and steel in Delenn,
which she calls upon when she needs it. And nobody crosses her when
that happens.
<p>
<li> Now that she's gone through her own personal fire,
she's a much stronger character, and very interesting to write.
There's steel, and there's humanity and compassion, and she feels no
need to defend or justify any of those traits. What she is, she is.
<p>
<li> <em>Sinclair survived a battle with Minbari warships.</em><br>
Her exact line was, "No human captain has ever survived battle with a
Minbari fleet." Sinclair wasn't a captain.
<p>
<li> Dukhat was killed at the start of the Minbari war (that
*caused* the Minbari war), and the Council did without a leader for a
long time. She was taught and sponsored by Dukhat.
<p>
<li> <em>Does Delenn feel responsible for Dukhat's death?</em><br>
No, she doesn't feel responsible; it's an artifact of the way
they approach certain things. "His word is on my lips, his spirit is
in my eyes." It's almost a way of saying he's speaking through me, back
off.
<p>
<li> <em>About Sheridan asking the Roanoke to surrender</em><br>
Yeah...the reference was kafuffled. There was so much going on,
so many EFX shots, so much rearranging of shots to make everything work
(we literally delivered this 2 hours before the process for uplinking
started) that this slipped past. I'll assume that Sheridan got excited
and said the wrong name. It'd happen to anyone. Right? Right?
<p>
<li> Roanoke is a place rich with history. Some of it a little
odd, given the colony's disappearance, but rich nonetheless. (Clark
has edged away from giving Omega class destroyers and others names from
Greek mythology and history, toward more conventional names like the
Clarkstown and the Roanoke.)
<p>
<li> President Clark got away from the tradition of using Greek
names. And the Roanoke was a Virginia colony that disappeared in the
1600s.
<p>
<li> <em>What about the disappearing destroyer?</em><br>
That would've been killed off-camera. We tried to fit in every
ship getting nailed, but finally realized it would've required another
half an act.
<p>
<li> <em>What did ISN know?</em><br>
I'm sorry, but we cannot answer your question at this time. We
are experiencing temporary transmission problems with ISN, but hope to
have the situation remedied very soon. Meanwhile, you can direct any
inquiries for information to the Ministry of Peace, and the Ministry
for Public Information, which has been aiding all public information
broadcasts for almost two years now.
<p>
At the tone, please leave your name and identicard number.
Don't worry about calling back. We'll find you.
<p>
&lt;beep&gt;
</ul>

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<!-- TITLE Ceremonies of Light and Dark -->
<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
The Nightwatch orders its members on Babylon 5 to target Delenn in an
attempt to undermine Minbari actions during the recent crisis. Londo
presents Refa with an ultimatum.
</cite>
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Forward,+William">William Forward</a> as Refa.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Perri,+Paul">Paul Perri</a> as The Sniper.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Stroud,+Don">Don Stroud</a> as Boggs.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Strauss,+Kim">Kim Strauss</a> as Lenann.
</blockquote>
<pre><a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/055">8.30</a>
Production number: 311
Original air week: April 8, 1996
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by John Flinn III
</pre>
<h3>Watch For</h3>
<ul>
<li> <a href="#NO.wet">A wet floor.</a>
</ul>
<p>
<hr size=3>
<h2><a name="BP">Backplot</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> In the old days of the Centauri Republic, poison was a common political
tool.
<li> Some humans learned the Minbari language from POWs during the war.
<li> The rebirth ceremony in
<a href="005.html">"The Parliament of Dreams"</a>
was just a small part of a much larger renewal ceremony, traditionally
performed in response to, or in anticipation of, a great change.
Lennier believes B5's inhabitants are currently between two such
changes.
<li> The Minbari prophecy foretells fire and darkness after the two halves
of the Minbari soul unite to combat the ancient enemy.
</ul>
<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> How many more Nightwatch members are still on the station?
<li> Did Garibaldi's people get rid of the artificial intelligence?
<li> What else is buried in B5's computer system? (At least one unfriendly
thing, as shown in
<a href="028.html">"A Spider In the Web."</a>)
<li> Who does Lennier believe Delenn is fated for? Sheridan? If so, is
that due to his observation of the growing relationship between
Delenn and Sheridan, or due to something in the prophecy?
<li> What was Delenn planning to give up and to tell someone at the ceremony?
</ul>
<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Londo is playing a dangerous game with Refa; Refa will no doubt not
take kindly to having his life threatened, and may retaliate against
Londo either overtly or behind the scenes. Refa seems to have
much of the royal court in his pocket while Londo's influence has
waned since he broke off his association with Morden. Londo may find
that he's bitten off more than he can chew.
<li> However, the extent of the risk he's taking is a good indication that
his realization of the dark nature of his former pact with Morden is
complete; after this it will be very hard to turn back. It's
interesting to note, though, that his basic goal hasn't changed,
only his methods; note that he tries to dissuade Refa by talking
about how dangerous the current Centauri policies are to their people.
Londo is still first and foremost a patriot, not unlike G'Kar (at
least until Kosh's revelation in
<a href="050.html">"Dust to Dust."</a>)
<li> Londo and Sinclair have something in common; Londo's poisoning of
Refa bears a passing resemblance to Sinclair planting a transmitter
in G'Kar's intestinal tract. Or rather, claiming to -- which raises
the question, did Londo <em>really</em> poison Refa, or just say so?
Like Sinclair, Londo might figure that the poison that doesn't exist
can't be flushed out by doctors.
<li> How did the Nightwatch get so much information about the Minbari,
especially the details of Delenn's means of getting the war cruisers
to Babylon 5? It may be as simple as Earth's normal intelligence
channels, which, under Clark, presumably make at least some of their
findings available to the Nightwatch.
<li> Boggs' claim that the Minbari "think [Delenn]'s the second coming!"
indicates that many among the Minbari agree with Delenn's assessment
of herself as the chosen one, the vehicle of prophecy (see also
<a href="043.html">"Comes the Inquisitor."</a>) Marcus also hints
at this when he tells Delenn that his brother believed in the Rangers
and in her; apparently her involvement with them is richer in
symbolism than has previously been hinted at. How, and whether, that
relates to the nature of Sinclair's involvement remains to be seen.
<li> This isn't the first time Delenn has been referred to as "the second
coming," at least indirectly. G'Kar quoted a passage from the Yeats
poem of the same name in
<a href="024.html">"Revelations,"</a>
a passage visually accompanied by Delenn's first look at her new
appearance. Ominously, <em>that</em> Second Coming refers to the
Antichrist.
<li> The Army of Light is now dressed in black uniforms. Whether that's
an intentional contrast on Delenn's part, or simply her fashion sense,
only time will tell.
</ul>
<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> The voice of Sparky the Computer, the artificial intelligence,
is Harlan Ellison. Sparky's name is visible both in the ending
credits and, very briefly, as the last line item in the computer's
status messages when it reboots.
<li> The recording Londo shows Refa is slightly wrong; Morden was sitting
when he mentioned Refa's name
(<a href="045.html">"Matters of Honor."</a>)
<li> The station logo on the wall in C&amp;C has changed. It used to be
a 5 with a pair of olive branches overlaid, presumably signifying
peace; now it's a 5 over a sword. The new logo can also be seen on
the top of the conference room table in the scene with Delenn and
the officers from the Minbari ships.
<li> "Dem Bones" was also sung in the final episode of "The Prisoner."
<li> The formation in which one of the Starfuries peels away
as the squadron performs a fly-by of the caskets is called
the Missing Man formation. It is used today whenever a flyby
is part of military honors at a funeral.
<li> <a name="NO.wet">As Delenn and Marcus wait for Lenann,</a>
a "Wet Floor" sign can be seen in a corridor in the background.
<li> Sheridan's closing line, "Babylon 5 is open for business," echoes
Laurel Takashima's in
<a href="000.html">"The Gathering."</a>
In both cases it marked a new beginning for the station.
</ul>
<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> As it happens, episodes 8, 9 and 10 ("Messages," "Point of No Return,"
and "Severed Dreams") are kind of a triptych, linked at the hip and
designed to pull together/blow out several major hanging plot threads
once and for all, and send the show spinning off in an entirely
different direction. The hardest one to write was 10, because it's a
very emotional episode for the characters, and for me.
<p>
And next is #11, which I begin to write this weekend...and #11, year
three, is the *exact* midpoint of the 5 year story. This is the hump,
the dead center of the journey. It took so long to get here, and
suddenly we're halfway finished.
<p>
<li> The episode is in the halfway mark, and that IS its significance,
because it signals a major change.
<p>
When we were midway through that episode, the halfway mark of the whole
series, John, Doug and I were given these spiffy leather script books
with silver inlaid initials by the crew, to commemmorate the event. It
was really nifty.
<p>
<li> <em>About Delenn and Lennier</em><br>
As for Lennier...it's an unusual relationship, which you'll learn a
LOT more about in "Ceremonies of Light and
Dark." Which is all I can say for now.
<p>
<li> I was kind of afraid that after the big Stuff Blowing
Up Episode, anything afterward would be a let down because it couldn't
have the same level of huge action (without killing everyone making the
show). So the way to deal with that is to go in an entirely different
direction; I was hoping that'd work, and glad that so far it has.
<p>
<li> Earthgov sees B5 in much the way China now sees Taiwan. (Though on
reflection that may not be the best metaphor....)
<p>
<li> You only send an ambassador if you recognize something as legitimate,
and EA will never recognize an independent B5.
<p>
<li> <em>Why didn't G'Kar join in the ceremony?</em><br>
Because he saw the actual co-running of security, and their
duties, more important...that is physical, and concrete, and he feels
is his surest way to win a seat in the new council. Actions, not
ceremonies. He's very direct that way. (Which is pretty much what he
said at the time.)
<p>
<li> <em>Was this one of Londo's chances for redemption?</em><br>
No, this wasn't an opportunity for redemption. It would be
flagged as much more important than this.
<p>
<li> I don't think Londo feels he needs to be redeemed; his reasons
as stated were quite sincere.
<p>
<li> <em>Is Delenn being "destined for another" part of the prophecy?</em>
<br>
It is now.
<p>
<li> <em>Is Lennier really satisfied with Delenn's destiny lying
elsewhere?</em><br>
Well, there was certainly that little catch in his voice, that
hesitation, before he added "...in my heart."
<p>
<li> "...note on Lennier: "a pure, higher love"? Pshaw, I've heard that
before and seen the results in my own life. Are Minbari so different?"
<p>
One would certainly hope so.
<p>
And there are such different kinds of feelings even among
humans; yes, you're right, often it doesn't work out that way...and
sometimes it does.
<p>
<li> I didn't see or intend any element of Lennier being racist;
but there are definitely differences in culture and physiology between
Minbari and humans. Minbari are very careful about personal space, and
they don't like to be talked to a certain way. Marcus momentarily
forgot himself, and acted inappropriately. Lennier corrected him.
<p>
<li> <em>Delenn, Lenann, Lennier. What does "len" mean?</em><br>
Basically, I went through and came up with common suffixes and prefixes
for Minbari names, the way Russian names have combinations of certain
letters (-ovna, -ova, -vich), and associated various backgrounds and
castes and houses (fanes) to them. So you have Delenn, Rathenn, and
others of similar name.
<p>
<li> <em>About the slow buildup of the Delenn/Sheridan relationship</em><br>
What you say about relationships is quite true. The
slow process of getting to know somebody, the courtship, the parries
and feints and false starts are 85% of the fun. It's the process of
getting into somebody's mind, discovering who they are. And that's
what these two are doing. It's an awful lot of fun.
<p>
<li> The "romance angles" aren't "late additions," but you don't
just leap into a romance right off. You couldn't have had the
Delenn/Sheridan thing right in the beginning of year two, it had to be
built, and grow gradually. Things are introduced as it is time for
them to be introduced. The shadows weren't even named until season two,
and didn't make their first appearance until late in season one. Is
that a late addition?
<p>
<li> I'm doing a lot to deepen up Marcus and Lennier, to let
people see parts of them we might not have seen before. Everyone grows
on the show; even at this point, compare Lennier to the wide-eyed
innocent who first arrived at the station and couldn't even bring
himself to look Delenn in the eyes.
<p>
The computer voice, Sparky, wasn't really a nod of
any kind to Hitchhiker's. (And 2001's HAL beat them to the punch a
long time before that in any event.) No, I just figured, if the
computer system had a glitch, what would it sound like?
Answer...Harlan.
<p>
<li> Actually, we had 3 more quickie scenes with the computer voice,
but the ep ran long over time, and we were locked into some
walk-and-talks where we couldn't make other trims.
<p>
<li> <em>Is the name Sparky a reference to anything?</em><br>
No, just figured it'd be a great name.
<p>
<li> I also like the look between Marcus and Delenn as they stand in
the customs area...he looks like he desperately wants to say more, and
she like she desperately wants to hear it...but he turns and walks
away, the moment lost.
<p>
<li> <em>The Nightwatch members looked a lot more sinister than in the past.
</em><br>
I went just a little here for a kind of metaphorical
approach; prior to this, Nightwatch folks have always been presented as
starched, scrubbed, visually appealing...the face they wanted others to
see. Now we see their true face, the scarred, dark, empty eyes, no
longer pretending to hide. So we kinda cast in that direction.
<p>
<li> <em>Boggs' scar wouldn't have moved like it did.</em><br>
The physical dynamics of the scar *would* have worked as seen,
actually, mainly because that wasn't a piece of makeup, that's a real
scar, and it does work that way.
<p>
<li> The scar is real. He had some rough times a few years
ago. (Actually, he also appeared with the scar as it's seen here in
"TKO," as Garibaldi's corner man, though there it was hidden a bit.)
He's still doing a lot of work though.
<p>
(The funny thing was seeing the occasional comment on the nets
saying how fake they thought the makeup looked, and why couldn't we
manage to do something a bit more realistic looking?)
<p>
<li> Actually, no, the song in "Ceremonies" was not intended as a
Prisoner riff or homage of any kind. If the song originated with The
Prisoner, that'd be one thing, but the song goes back a long, LONG ways
before The Prisoner was even thought of.
<p>
What happened, actually, was this...I'm a big fan of the Red
Clay Ramblers, a terrific group that does sort of bluegrass but very
offbeat. I was writing that episode, and I was playing with the
torture aspect, and had one of their albums on. At just the moment I
got to that scene, up came their rendition of "Ezekiel in the Valley of
the Dry Bones." The notion was perfect, so I went back to the original
version of the song, which is public domain (rather than their
variation on it), and used it. Synchronicity.
<p>
<li> <em>About the uniforms</em><br>
I wanted it to have a crossed look, certain
Minbari elements and textures, lines that are reminiscent of the
Rangers, but also of Earthforce. Hence, the result.
<p>
<li> In general, it's my understanding that the cast really like the new
uniforms. They're lighter, easier to move around in, cooler under the
lights, and they like the styling, the rogue element to it, and the
Minbari aspect.
<p>
<li> <em>Couldn't Refa just have all his food and drink tested?</em><br>
Of course the flip side of this is that you'd have to check
every single thing you ate or drank every day, every week, for the rest
of your natural life. Not the kind of life *I'd* like to live.
</ul>

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<!-- TITLE Sic Transit Vir -->
<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
Londo introduces Vir to a surprising new acquaintance. A heavy influx of
Narns to the station raises suspicions.
</cite>
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Thomas,+Carmen">Carmen Thomas</a> as Lyndisty.
</blockquote>
<pre><a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/056">7.53</a>
Production number: 313
Original air week: April 15, 1996
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Jesus Trevino
</pre>
<p>
<hr size=3>
<h2><a name="BP">Backplot</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Ivanova has been in the military for 13 years.
<li> The Centauri are attempting to pacify the Narn homeworld's population.
Among other techniques, they send troops to Narn villages to root out
aggressive citizens and "put them to sleep." Sometimes entire villages
are found to be aggressive and are burned to the ground.
<li> Vir, using his power as head of the diplomatic office on Minbar, has
been running a Schindleresque underground railroad for Narns. He
created a fake persona in the Centauri government, "Abrahamo Linconi,"
and faked death certificates for over two thousand Narn after "Linconi"
ordered them transferred to work camps on Centauri Prime.
<li> The Centauri consider marriage for the sake of love rather than politics
a radical act.
<li> Vir's uncle doesn't think highly of him, claiming that Vir is capable
of "a well-deserved humility."
<li> Vir has an interest in human history.
</ul>
<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> How was Ivanova able to flesh out Vir's fake official, whose records
were presumably in the Centauri Republic's private databases?
<li> What did Vir and Lyndisty do with the bound Narn? Obviously Vir didn't
kill him, but what did he tell Lyndisty?
<li> Will Lyndisty's family cancel the
arrangements now that Vir has been demoted?
<li> Does G'Kar know of Vir's efforts? Will he be able to forgive Vir
in spite of himself
(<a href="043.html">"Comes the Inquisitor?"</a>)
</ul>
<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> If Ivanova and Allen could follow the paper trail to discover that
Vir apparently sent thousands of Narn to their deaths, others might
be able to as well. Vir may find himself a target if any
Narn who aren't in on his secret manage to access the records in
question. Certainly Lyndisty is still in danger; lots of other Narn
would undoubtedly like to get their hands on someone with her history.
<li> Vir can still help the Narn if he chooses, though it'll be riskier.
He presumably has retained his post as Londo's attache, which should
have some authority in itself. And by tempering Londo, however
slightly, he may do more good than he did on Minbar.
<li> Vir isn't alone in wanting to help the Narn; he referred to others
working with him. Will those others be able to continue, especially
with Ivanova's assistance? The presence of other Centauri might
explain how she was able to access the Centauri government's files.
<li> Given Londo's feelings about bugs, what will his reaction be when he
sees an arachnoid Shadow warship for the first time? Perhaps his
fear of insects (and spiders) stems in part from his dream
(<a href="045.html">"Matters of Honor."</a>)
<li> There may also be a parallel between Londo's insect hunt and the
typical Centauri attitude toward the Narn, who they regard as little
more than bugs on two feet. If that parallel is intentional, Londo's
line about the insects "evolving before my eyes" might have some
relation to the Narns' changing position in the universe -- with
G'Kar's help (and some prodding from Kosh) they're becoming something
quite different than they were mere months earlier.
<li> Evidence of the pressures of independence are starting to appear:
B5's officers now drink an unidentified liquid instead of morning
coffee and the ambassador of a major race -- albeit an ally of the
government the station opposes -- can't get a maintenance crew to
his quarters. The loss of Earth funding and support is likely to
grow worse over time.
<li> Vir's smuggled Narn are considered dead by the Centauri -- perhaps
making one of them the subject of Lady Morella's prophecy to Londo,
that he "must not kill the one who is already dead"
(<a href="053.html">"Point of No Return."</a>)
</ul>
<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> The title is something of a pun; it's Latin for "thus passes the man"
(roughly speaking.) It's probably a reference to the saying "sic
transit gloria mundi" ("thus passes the glory of the world.")
</ul>
<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> <em>Why were this episode and
<a href="057.html">"A Late Delivery From Avalon"</a>
swapped?</em><br>
We flipped them around because after "Ceremonies" we NEED something
lighter, and because York's episode in the new slot now coincides with
the first week of sweeps. They were written to play in either order.
<p>
<li> <em>Can you tell us more about Vir's family?</em><br>
I can, but I'd rather show it; you'll find out a lot more about Vir and
family relations in "Sic Transit Vir" in mid-april.
<p>
<li> Yes, it's sort of a double pun in that respect...thus passes
the man, which can have many meanings, also entering manhood, or dying,
or going away, or the more Vir transitioning, or going...lots of
variations.
<p>
<li> Just an advisory...I finally saw the trailer for "Sic Transit Vir," and
I'd suggest anyone who wants to enjoy the show *not* watch the trailer,
as it gives away stuff that shouldn't be given away.
<p>
I.e., if the trailer for The Maltese Falcon said, "...and see the
surprise when the black bird is discovered to be an imitation."
<p>
<li> <em>About Vir</em><br>
He's a much stronger character than anyone
might think. He's sort of the "God's Fool" character, to get literary
for a second, who somehow manages to make it through it all.
<p>
<li> At this point, with the rethinking going on back home, he's
bethrothed and promised, the marriage arranged, but not yet fully,
*formally* married. There's still ritual to go through. The other
family could still choose to withdraw the arrangement.
<p>
<li> Even the babble is pretty tightly scripted. The hesitations and
occasional stumble-restatements are the actor's delivery. There's
occasionally a very tiny bit of improv in that kind of scene, but very
little.
<p>
<li> Londo is a very sharp, cunning character. He does what he
does for sheer patriotism, to serve his people. *Whatever* that may
entail. And Vir gets whipsawed a lot...he's a great character, with a
wide range of characteristics I can play with, from comic to tragic.
<p>
<li> When Londo goes to Delenn earlier this season to ask about having Vir
appointed to the Centauri diplomatic mission, he mentions then that the
mission has been closed for some time, "some trouble I believe with our
previous liaison." This just paid that off; those Minbari are just a
darned bad influence, I guess.
<p>
<li> <em>What happened to the Narn? And what were the Narns doing in Vir's
room?</em><br>
I could've *sworn* there was a line there about the Narn
recovering; I'm going to have to check this. I hope I didn't
accidentally cut it for time while doing something else. (It was a
LONG editing session.)
<p>
I figured the Narns were there to discuss the fates of their
families back home, but yeah, to a certain degree it was there as a
great end for the teaser.
<p>
<li> <em>Who said the line that was cut?</em><br>
It was in the observation dome scene with Ivanova; I realized
that we'd cut a small piece for time that was expendable, but in the
back and forth went one line too far without realizing it. Sigh....
<p>
<li> <em>What was the line?</em><br>
The only line was that "the Narn is recovering in Medlab,"
something to that effect. Sigh....
<p>
<li> <em>Did the Centauri politician know Vir's secret?</em><br>
No, he didn't know, and would've been horrified if he had.
<p>
<li> <em>What was the saucer-shaped ship outside the station?</em><br>
It's a Vree ship, which we've seen before.
<p>
<li> <em>About the patches on the sleeves of the new uniforms</em><br>
One of the patches is a Ranger patch; the other is the new B5
sword and shield logo.
<p>
<li> It's been established that Minbari can and do lie when it's done to save
the honor of another. Here, Delenn saved face for Sheridan at dinner.
<p>
<li> Londo and the bugs had nothing to do with any notions about the Shadows.
<p>
Sheridan is a war historian, with his main interests in the civil war,
where one of his ancestors fought. He's very big on Lincoln.
</ul>

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<!-- TITLE A Late Delivery From Avalon -->
<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
As Sheridan and Ivanova try to gain recognition of the station's new status
among the alien governments, a traveler arrives with an unbelievable story out
of distant legend.
</cite>
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+York,+Michael">Michael York</a>.
</blockquote>
<pre><a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/057">7.79</a>
Production number: 312
Original air week: April 22, 1996
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Mike Vejar
</pre>
<p>
<hr size=3>
<h2><a name="BP">Backplot</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> G'Kar has been using a human courier to get messages back and forth
between the station's Narn and the homeworld.
<li> The first Earth vessel to encounter a Minbari warship was the
Prometheus.
As the Minbari ship approached with gun ports open, a sign of respect
(<a href="017.html">"Legacies"</a>)
the Prometheus' captain ordered its crew to open fire. The resulting
battle destroyed two Minbari warships and killed the leader of the
Grey Council, Dukhat.
<li> 20,000 people were sent to defend Earth in the Battle of the Line.
Only 200 survived. (Presumably the bulk of the 20,000 were aboard
large ships, not individual fighters.)
</ul>
<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Given how badly outmatched humans were during the war, how did the
Prometheus manage to inflict so much damage? Simply a matter of the
element of surprise?
<li> How much truth is there in Marcus' joking speculation about the
Vorlons? Or in his drawing of parallels between the B5 crew and
Arthurian legend? (If there's a lot of truth there, then who
<em>is</em> the Morgana Le Fay figure?)
<li> What is the "dawn of a new age" Marcus referred to when he told
Franklin about the Ranger pin? Any relation to the Third Age of
Mankind as mentioned in the opening monologues of seasons one and
two?
</ul>
<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Relying on a large number of races for the station's defense may turn
out to be a logistical nightmare. Ivanova will have to deal with
questions like the structure of the chain of command (does she have
the authority to order a Vree ship to fire?) and what to do about
races who've agreed to participate but whose enemies haven't, which
could lead to a situation like the one in
<a href="044.html">"The Fall of Night."</a>
Still, as a simple show of force and a deterrent, the arrangement may
well end up being sufficient.
<li> How did Marcus know about the events in
<a href="043.html">"Comes the Inquisitor?"</a>
He arrived on the station after that was all over. Perhaps Sheridan
or Delenn told him. Is the fact that the Vorlons have visited Earth
in the past now common knowledge?
<li> The Prometheus didn't destroy all the Minbari ships, since Delenn
held Dukhat in her arms as he died
(<a href="054.html">"Severed Dreams."</a>)
<li> At what point did the Soul Hunter
(<a href="002.html">"Soul Hunter"</a>)
show up during the battle between the Prometheus and the Minbari ships?
From Arthur's description, it sounded like the battle didn't last
long; the Soul Hunter would almost have had to be onboard Dukhat's
ship before the fighting began.
<li> The Drazi ambassador now speaks for the League of Non-Aligned Worlds,
whose membership seems to have gotten much smaller than a year ago.
Perhaps many of the races have been taken over by their neighbors
already, with Shadow help
(<a href="054.html">"Severed Dreams."</a>)
</ul>
<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> For more information about Arthurian legend, see
<a href="http://reality.sgi.com/employees/chris_manchester/arthur.html">
Avalon: Arthurian Heaven.</a>
<li> The Minbari name for the Ranger pin is Isil'zha.
</ul>
<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Michael York is currently shooting with us in "A Late Delivery From
Avalon," and doing an amazing job. This may turn into one of our best
episodes, from a performance and emotion perspective. I had a few
doubts about the script -- it has a kind of writing style I don't use
very often, and very stylized in appearance -- but it's coming out
great.
<p>
<li> York finished with us quite some time ago. Great episode, and a nice
man. Very friendly, very polite, nothing of the "I'm a STAR"
attitude one often gets with...well, *stars*. He was even very nice
when I gleepily asked him to sign my laserdisk of CABARET.
<p>
<li> York's a major film actor who's starred in many films,
including one of my personal favorites, "Cabaret." Also in the
"Logan's Run" movie.
<p>
<li> I *really* like this episode a lot. The performance,
the music, everything works; I tried to get a little artsy, try out
some different kinds of stuff, stretch some muscles I haven't used
enough, and it came out very nicely. It's just nifty.
<p>
<li> I like this one a lot. Not really an arc episode,
except in going into some backstory elements, but just nicely done.
I'm quite proud of this one.
<p>
<li> The Delenn/Arthur moment played out very well; no
lines, not a word, just the images, and the emotions under the surface.
<p>
<li> <em>About the title</em><br>
I often labor a long time on these
things, to try and give them many layers, or turn the title in on
itself, or do a play on words. I can't start work on a script until I
have a title, because the title sets the mood.
<p>
<li> <em>Did Arthurian legends influence the heroic-epic style of B5's
storyline?</em><br>
Well, if you're going to look at heroic epic, sure, the
Arthurian story is a classic...but the earliest and best of these
remain the Illiad and the Odyssey. Homer was definitely hitting all
cylinders with that.
<p>
If there's an aspect that informed B5's development, it's the
arc of that heroic epic, which if you look at it dispassionately, is as
much about the people *around* the hero as the hero himself. And all
too often, the hero achieves the goal, but falls or falters or is
changed by the end of it. Much of what passes for contemporary "heroic
epic" assumes that it means the Good Guys Win. Heroic here as a term
goes back to its much earlier origins, a "heroic effort" is something
that takes everything you have, against terrible or impossible odds.
<p>
Yes, you achieve the goal...but you fall in battle in the
fields of Troy. Yes, you create Camelot, but in the end you are
destroyed and Camelot falls. There's tragedy and mistakes side by side
with the glory and the gains. The accounts of Arthur's meeting with
Mordred at Camlan field, and how the final battle began is classic
ironic drama, a tragedy of great proportions...and an aspect of that
fed directly into the development of the B5 backstory, as you'll learn
later this season.
<p>
Histories are written about the soldiers who won their battles;
but songs are sung about the soldiers who fell in battle struggling for
a greater cause. What inspires us is the unfinished work, the dream of
picking up the fallen standard and taking it ten more feet up the hill,
knowing that even if you fall, the next man in line will take it
another ten feet, until finally the hill is taken. Humans are
constantly throwing their lives away on causes logic tells us are
hopeless...but which in time become real for that reason.
<p>
It's a dangerous romance with myth, heroism, and death. On the
one hand, it inspires an Arthur...on another, it inspires a car bomber
to blow himself and 27 bystanders to bits en route to an appointment
with Allah.
<p>
What makes the heroic epic work is that it taps into all the
myths and archetypes that have been with us for all of recorded
history, and much of its oral history. Where B5 gets into this area is
in trying to look at the kinds of myths and epics that have gone
before, and finding not the specifics, but the themes which are
universal, the *sense* and the feel of it, which are intangible, and
which is what makes doing an epic so hard. Either you feel the
structure, or you don't; if you try to hammer it down into a formula,
a step-by-step process, it turns to quicksilver in your hands and slips
away. You have to take it all in, then listen to the inner voice and
write accordingly.
<p>
I remember a stanza from a poem I read a long time ago; "Love
will die if held too tightly; love will fly if held too lightly;
lightly, tightly, how do I know, whether I'm holding or letting love
go?" This kind of fiction operates on the same basis. Substitute the
word epic or story for love, and the logic holds.
<p>
So the epic hero or story can't be a *model*, to use your
phrase; it can only be an inspiration for what has gone before...an
echo in the back of your mind that whispers and guides you through all
the dark places.
<p>
<li> <em>Where did the 515 date for the Battle of Camlan come from?</em><br>
I dug through a number of recent Arthurian texts, and that date come out
the most often; I've heard the other date, which was about 20 years
later, but the one most often used is the 515 date, at least in what
I researched.
<p>
<li> <em>Was the Excalibur in the episode a real sword?</em><br>
Yes, it's a real sword...I'm trying to remember where we got it,
it may have been a vendor in these things, one of many that frequent
catalogs and Ren faires.
<p>
<li> <em>Was some of the music by Clannad?</em><br>
No, we can't use any outside music; it all has to be done via our
composer (unless we purchase the rights, obviously). Here, though, it's
all Chris. We had a long conversation about the kind of music I wanted,
I encouraged him to think in terms of Celtic music, natural
instruments primarily instead of synth or electronic instruments, that
sort of thing. But no, no Claanad was used.
<p>
<li> <em>How is the station supporting itself now that it's seceded?</em><br>
We'll establish in coming episodes that they have to become more
self sufficient; the Minbari will help some, others will also have a
reason to help support the station for the advantages it gives them,
the services it provides, and eventually docking fees will have to rise
if they can make a go of it.
<p>
<li> Marcus and Franklin make a good team, it's a
nice balance. And Marcus did fit in well with the whole Arthur
storyline (it's kind of an obvious but well-fitting match).
<p>
As for Marcus' line...sometimes offhand remarks are only offhand
remarks...and sometimes they aint....
<p>
<li> Because we've played back and forth with this
stuff before, a la the Inquisitor, it *could've* been him, which made
it all the more interesting. Certainly Marcus *wanted* it to be
him....
<p>
<li> You basically had two large convoys meeting one another. Two Minbari
ships were hit and destroyed, a third damaged badly; this was the one
carrying Dukhat and the Grey Council, including Delenn.
<p>
Just for the record, what happened after that...the Minbari ships opened
fire, and a number of the Earth ships were fragged. The rest fled as
the Minbari ships hesitated, waiting to see what happened to Dukhat.
When it
was learned that he was killed, they took off and pursued the ships back
to an Earth base. Initially, one of the Earth captains explained that
they had encountered hostiles (trying to cover his ass), and when the
Minbari ships appeared, all hell broke loose.
<p>
It was shortly after this "cowardly attack" on their ships, and the
assassination of their leader, that the Minbari declared what is in
essence a jihad, a holy war, against Earth. The worker class went along
with it, even though the religious caste was unsure...but divided, they
couldn't raise sufficient objections to the war to stop it initially.
<p>
<Li> The contact was made late in the year, and while that was the
first blow, it takes a while for any war to really get going; you
aren't at war instantly. The Minbari had to pull their forces
together, make the open declaration of war, establish supply lines and
all the other elements needed for warfare.
<p>
<li> There's a small clue about the third age in the discussion
between Marcus and Franklin about the ranger pin. I mean, it's really
pretty blatant.
<p>
<li> The name of the Ranger pin is spelled Isil'zha.
<p>
The Minbari term for Ranger One, btw, is Entil'zha.
<p>
Z'ha'dum is where the shadows live. Odd, that reversal....
</ul>

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<!-- TITLE Ship of Tears -->
<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
Bester finds himself at odds with others within the Psi Corps and seeks
Sheridan's help, offering information about the Shadows in return.
G'Kar presses for admission to the conspiracy of light.
</cite>
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Koenig,+Walter">Walter Koenig</a> as Bester.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+McMurtrey,+Joan">Joan McMurtrey</a> as Carolyn.
</blockquote>
<pre><a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/058">8.70</a>
Production number: 314
Original air week: April 29, 1996
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Mike Vejar
</pre>
<p>
<hr size=3>
<h2><a name="BP">Backplot</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Telepaths who refuse to take sleeper drugs to suppress their
abilities, or to join the Psi Corps, are sent to reeducation camps,
one of which is on Mars. The Corps refers to them informally as
"blips."
<li> The Shadows killed most of the Narn telepaths a thousand years ago.
They were driven off by G'Quan and the remaining telepaths.
<li> Telepaths can disrupt the link between Shadow ships and their
non-telepathic pilots. The Shadows have thus been infiltrating
Psi Corps, taking control of it from inside to prevent it from
being used as a weapon against them. They are also capturing
rogue human telepaths and altering them with cybernetic implants,
possibly with the intent of using them as telepath-proof pilots.
<li> Telepaths can locate ships by focusing on the occupants' thought
patterns. Their range is greatly expanded in hyperspace. Psi Corps
kept that a secret to prevent the Earth military from putting its
members on the front lines.
<li> Psi Cops are trained to pilot all the latest Earth Alliance vessels.
</ul>
<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Were Franklin and Bester able to save Carolyn?
<li> Are the rest of the telepaths still in cryonic suspension and on B5?
Where were they taken, if not?
<li> How much more does Bester know about the Shadows and their involvement
with the Corps?
<li> Who were the aliens in Carolyn's flashback and on the bridge of the
cargo ship?
<li> Was Carolyn telekinetic, or did her modifications give her that
ability? If the latter, are the Shadows telekinetic too?
</ul>
<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Delenn still isn't being completely open with G'Kar -- she neglected
to tell him about Kosh's involvement, for instance. Perhaps she knows
of Kosh's manipulation of G'Kar
(<a href="050.html">"Dust to Dust"</a>)
and doesn't want the illusion shattered.
<li> Even someone as highly ranked as Bester isn't immune from the Corps'
rules about arranged marriages. On the other hand, given his obvious
sense of genetic superiority, he may feel it's his duty to the future
of the human race to help breed a better telepath.
<li> The mere presence of Bester stopped the Shadow warship from attacking
the White Star (assuming it didn't stop to avoid risking damage to
the "weapons components.") Was that because it couldn't get close
enough to attack without Bester interfering with its pilot's bond?
In any case, the effect is consistent with Talia's experience in
<a href="038.html">"In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum,"</a>
in which she was able to sense, even see, the Shadows without
consciously probing for them.
<li> A telepath who consciously chooses to disrupt a Shadow ship might be
even more dangerous to them, though that isn't clear.
<li> Is there a reason the Shadows are choosing human telepaths in
particular? Sheridan speculated that "they're using humans to pilot
their ships." Is that universally true, or are humans simply one
of a large number of races being used for that purpose? Would, for
instance, a Centauri telepath be any good against a Shadow ship with
a human pilot? The events on Narn suggest that telepathy's effect on
the Shadows isn't race-specific.
<li> If telepathy is a weapon against the Shadows, Sheridan may want to
stock up on Dust
(<a href="050.html">"Dust to Dust."</a>)
And given that the Psi Corps produces the stuff, Bester may be able
to arrange that.
<li> The Shadows may also be looking for telepaths for use as hyperspace
trackers; presumably they know about the scanning abilities revealed
by Bester.
<li> Is detecting other ships in hyperspace something peculiar to human
telepaths? If not, do other races use telepaths for that purpose?
It seems odd that the ability would remain a secret for so long if all
races with telepaths can use them to scout in hyperspace. On the
other hand, each race who's discovered the effect might consider it
a military advantage and thus keep it under wraps.
<li> Did Bester find out about Ivanova when she slapped him? Physical
contact intensifies psi ability (established as early as
<a href="000.html">"The Gathering"</a>)
but the slap was probably too brief to be of any use. However, he did
take care to make her angry, which, as she herself has observed
(<a href="050.html">"Dust to Dust"</a>)
makes scans much easier.
<li> Does Ivanova's latent telepathy provide any protection against attack
by a Shadow ship? Ivanova has only encountered a Shadow ship once, in
<a href="045.html">"Matters of Honor,"</a>
and it fired at the White Star -- but it didn't <em>hit</em> the
White Star. Perhaps Sheridan was wrong about why the Shadows missed.
On the other hand, given the behavior of the Shadow ship in this
episode, it's unlikely the ship in the previous encounter would have
pursued the White Star like it did.
<li> As the only major race without telepaths, the Narn may be in for even
more bloodshed and loss; they will be unable to protect themselves
from the Shadows as they were (barely) able to before.
<li> The cybernetic implants were perhaps put in place at the Mars facility
destroyed by Garibaldi and Sinclair in comic #8,
<a href="/lurk/comic/008.html">"Silent Enemies."</a>
If so, it implies that the Corps, or some component of it, was abetting
the Shadows in their quest to make human telepaths useless as weapons.
However, the presence of the unidentified aliens, both on the cargo
ship and in Carolyn's flashback, strongly suggests that the operation
was performed elsewhere, or without the Corps' assistance.
<li> Carolyn's entanglement is slightly reminiscent of Draal's attachment
to the Great Machine in Epsilon 3
(<a href="049.html">"Voices of Authority."</a>)
When she said that telepaths prevent her from "hearing the machine,"
was she talking about Shadow ships, or something similar to Epsilon 3?
The Machine does seem to be affected by telepathy; witness Ivanova's
ability to pull extra information out of it when she was there.
<li> What effect will Carolyn's modifications have on her unborn child,
assuming the Shadows' agents allowed it to live?
<li> The White Star can no longer be considered even remotely secret now
that Bester has been allowed to wander around the bridge. Even if
he truly opposes the Shadows, his primary motives might prompt him to
tell others about the ship.
<li> Bester is presumably still safely in his position at the Psi Corps;
even if he's unable to get any Corps telepaths to help combat the
Shadows, he'll likely be able to arrange for Franklin's
underground railroad to continue its work unmolested, providing the
army of light with a supply of telepaths with which to man its ships.
<li> His discovery of the Shadows and their involvement with the Corps,
though, indicates that he's not above unauthorized scans of his own
people if it suits his purposes. Presumably he's very careful to
only scan people he's confident won't be able to sense him; or he
scans them on some other pretense and they're unable to tell that
he's pulling Shadow information from their heads too.
<li> Bester claimed he last saw Carolyn four weeks earlier, but never
elaborated on what happened to her after that. Was she spirited off
on official pretenses, or did the Shadows or their agents kidnap her
out of the middle of a Psi Corps installation on Mars?
<li>@@@831919911 Bester's entrance into the army of light bears similarity to Marcus'
and Sheridan's. All three vowed to fight on the side of light after a
loved one was killed or taken by the Shadows. And now Londo has had
the same experience -- will it cause him to turn to the side of light
as well?
<li> Now that G'Kar is a full member of the war council, perhaps he'll
save Garibaldi the trouble of poring slowly through the Book of G'Quan
for clues and will tell the others everything his people know about
the Shadows and how to defeat them.
</ul>
<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> The title may be a reference to the Trail of Tears, the forced march
of thousands of American Indians away from their ancestral lands
onto government-apportioned reservations half a continent away.
<li> Vorlons also dislike telepaths, according to Garibaldi in
<a href="009.html">"Deathwalker."</a>
<li> Bester quotes from Edgar Allan Poe's
<a href="http://www.literature.org/Works/Edgar-Allan-Poe/amontillado.html">"The Cask of Amontillado."</a>
</ul>
<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> <em>How does Bester fit into the Shadows/Psi Corps connection?</em><br>
This question will be dealt with in "Ship of Tears," around mid-season.
<p>
<li> The Christmas hiatus ends after the 1st, so we're back at work on
the 2nd shooting "Ship of Tears," with Walter Koenig returning as
Bester. Expect some major revelations about Bester's background, and
where his character is going.
<p>
<li> <em>Where did the prop for the book come from?</em><br>
The book was made by Mark Walters of our prop department; and
when all is said and done...it'll likely end up in my office....
<p>
Creation hath its perks.
<p>
<li> <em>Where did you put the war room set?</em><br>
Since we're not using the casino much this season -- not a lot
of room for frivolity -- we yanked it out and put up the war room on
stage C.
<p>
<li> <em>How were the reflections on Sheridan's faceplate done?</em><br>
The reflections you cite were all done real-time with an LCD projector.
<p>
<li> <em>Was Bester's first name a reference to Alfred Bester, the writer?
</em><br>
Yes, it's certainly a tribute to Alfie, a giant in the field.
<p>
<li> Who's behind the shadows? Nobody. The shadows are the shadows (though
that's not the name by which they call themselves), a race of their own.
Question is, why are they doing what they're doing?
<p>
You'll find out by season's end.
<p>
<li> <em>Why did Garibaldi need a computer to read the Book of G'Quan?</em>
<br>
To follow the book, there still has to be a knowledge of the language.
You need to have a dictionary around, which is what was used.
<p>
The comparison, I suppose, would be those who say that Jorge Luis
Borges' work can only be most truly appreciated in the original
Spanish. There's a *translated* version, which someone has gone through
and made the translation for you, written it all out in English...or
you can learn the language, and then read the original manuscript.
<p>
Garibaldi doesn't know Narn, so how other than with a dictionary could
he read the original material, except by sleeping with it under his
pillow and praying for divine intervention.
<p>
<li> <em>How could G'Quan and the Narn telepaths fight the Shadows if the
Narn telepaths were all killed?</em><br>
Those were the last remaining ones, the older telepaths, their
children all killed, too old now to produce any further children, and
the technology of cloning or genetics was still way beyond them.
<p>
The story of the last crusade of G'Quan is actually quite
interesting; I hope to get it into the show at some point. Right now
it's mainly background, even though I've worked it out fully.
<p>
<li> <em>How about an episode showing G'Quan's crusade?</em><br>
No, because that would mean doing a story without our main
characters, since G'Quan's story took place about a thousand years ago,
and I don't think I could sell that. (Unless I did another time travel
number, and I only intend to go to that well once, with the B4
storyline.)
<p>
<li> That's one of the things about the show that makes it
very appealing to write; you can go from fall down funny, broad comedy
in "Vir" to something more emotional, almost lyrical but serious in
"Avalon," then right into something vaguely horrific in "Ship." You
get to use all your muscles, not just the same ones over and over. I
like to stretch, try something I haven't tried before. Which means
from time to time I fall on my face, but that's okay; it's the only way
to learn. I have absolutely no qualms about making an ass of myself
and failing if it means that the next time, I can do it right.
<p>
I didn't give Mira or Andreas any instructions on that scene
except what was in the script, which was minimal. When you have two
performers that solid in the room, just give them the lines and run
like hell.
<p>
Speaking of going back and rewatching episodes...part of this
goes right back to the *pilot*, where, you'll recall, G'Kar tried to
seduce Lyta, mentioning that there are no Narn telepaths, and they feel
very strongly it's important to their survival that they start breeding
them at the first opportunity.
<p>
Ding....!
<p>
<li> <em>Did the lack of Narn telepaths give the Shadows an extra advantage
during recent encounters?</em><br>
Certainly, that there were no teeps on Narn made them easy
targets, as were their ships. They would also have a vested interest
in subduing them because of the knowledge they have, revealed here. If
you'll remember, in "Matters of Honor," they mention to Morden that
they've only been able to track down some Narn legends. Morden's
reply: "Well, we've taken care of that problem." Had G'Kar not been
out and about, they might have succeeded.
<p>
<li> Minbari telepaths can also have an effect, as we'll see
soon.
<p>
<li> Everybody's agendas remain the same...but for the
moment, they are on the same alignment. As soon as it's over, as
Ivanova says, he'll turn on them, no mistake. Enlightened
self-interest, nothing more.
<p>
The new command center was cobbled from what's on the station,
with some additional Minbari funding. And yes, by now, pretty much the
whole crew knows what's at stake with the shadows. And now that
they're not hiding anymore, the whole *thing* is out in the open.
<p>
<li> <em>Was the cargo ship's pilot the same species as the surgeons?</em>
<br>
Yep. Same species.
<p>
<li> There's no relation between the aliens working for the shadows
and the Streib. The ones you saw in the flash were "doctors" of a sort
doing the work; there was no abduction required except of course the
covert kidnapping from the Psi Corps Re-education Center. As for
Bester's look behind, he was just looking to the guards behind him, and
the ones in front of him.
<p>
<li> The implants are part of the preparation process Delenn
referred to in "Messages."
<p>
<li> <em>Did Bester read Ivanova when she slapped him?</em><br>
I think the contact would've been too fleeting, and too much a shock
(and it likely hurt like the dickens) that by the time he knew it was
there, it was too late, and she would've sensed it in either event.
<p>
<li> <em>Why didn't Bester stay with Carolyn?</em><br>
Logically, he can't just go away indefinitely, and it's going to
take a long time before they can get Carolyn in shape. A very long
time. If he stays, he'd be noticed and hunted down by the Corps, which
ends his usefulness. His staying served no purpose.
<p>
<li> It'll be a long time before Bester's ladyfriend comes anywhere
near being whole again.
<p>
<li> <em>Will Bester covertly help B5?</em><br>
Yes, that'll be something Bester will do now.
<p>
<li> <em>Was this change of heart planned from the start?</em><br>
Yes, this was definitely intended from the start with Bester.
<p>
<li> "If the theme of the relationship is "All Bester needed was to love
and be loved, or he wouldn't have been the slimeball he is today", I
will be a bit disappointed."
<p>
Then you won't be.
<p>
"It's just a little too simplistic."
<p>
Absolutely.
<p>
One mongoose can love another; that won't change its attitude toward
pythons.
<p>
<li> <em>Bester's connection to Carolyn was too much of a coincidence.
It would have worked better if they'd brought him a list of names and
he'd seen her there.</em><br>
Yeah, they could've brought him a list...and he'd have seen the
name instantly, and wouldn't have been hit with his own "blip" careless
attitude right in his face...also, she needed to be already being
defrosted at that point, and you can't defrost all of them at once.
<p>
Yeah, it was a coincidence. Synchronicity. It happens. It
doesn't happen much on this show, hardly ever. I figured she'd be one
of the last in, and thus the first out. Synchronicity and coincidences
*do* happen. How many times have you reached for the phone to call
someone to find the phone ringing, and it's them on the other end?
What're the odds of Oedipus killing his father and marrying his mother
out of all the possible kingdoms in the area? It happens. As long as
it doesn't happen to excess, it's not something I'm worried about.
<p>
<li> There are a number of medlabs, which are broken into various
areas; each has a larger wing attached to it, which we've seen on
occasion, such as when the young girl in "Legacies" is in the infirmary
in bed, same with Shon in "Believers." They each have a pretty fair
capacity for patients.
<p>
<li> <em>Why aren't other TV networks available? What happened to the two
reporters at the ISN desk when it was shut down?</em><br>
ISN is one of the only interstellar networks bounced via the
tachyon relay systems from Earth to the outer colonies and beyond.
There are lots of other channels back home, but to get this far out you
need the support of the government.
<p>
The other two reporters are, to say the least, in deep guano.
<p>
<li> That's Brakiri space they attacked; more on that in the next
episode. (They're a League world.)
</ul>

373
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<!-- TITLE Interludes and Examinations -->
<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
Sheridan tries to rally support for his cause as direct confrontations with
the Shadows begin in earnest. Friction increases between Londo and Morden.
</cite>
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Wasser,+Ed">Ed Wasser</a> as Morden.
Jonathan Chapman as Brakiri.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Balgobin,+Jennifer">Jennifer Balgobin</a> as Dr. Hobbs.
</blockquote>
<pre>Production number: 315
Original air week: May 6, 1996
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Jesus Trevino
</pre>
<strong>Note: this episode is more momentous than most. Think twice before
proceeding to the spoilers; it's worth seeing unawares.</strong>
<p>
<hr size=3>
<h2><a name="BP">Backplot</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> During the last war with the Shadows, a thousand years ago, they did
roughly what they're doing this time, seemingly attacking at random
in the form of quick strikes. The intent may be simply to keep the
major powers off guard, so they never know when the next attack will
occur.
<li> Vorlon ships are linked closely to their individual owners.
</ul>
<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Who will replace Franklin as head of medlab?
<li> Why did the Shadows wait until the Vorlon attack to move against Kosh?
They could presumably have done it at any time. (See
<a href="#AN.kosh">Analysis</a>)
<li> Do the Shadows know that the Vorlon attack was just a one-time thing,
or do they now believe that the Vorlons are on the march? How will
that affect their strategy, if at all?
<li> How did Delenn know there wouldn't be a body?
<li> What was the flash of energy that coursed through the station after
the fight was over?
<li> Does Lyta know about Kosh? How will she react when she finds out?
</ul>
<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Londo's new pact with Morden may foreshadow the loss of his second
chance for redemption
(<a href="053.html">"Point of No Return."</a>)
With Londo's poison coursing through his veins, Refa certainly qualifies
as "the one who is already dead," and now Londo has vowed to kill him.
Along similar lines, Kosh qualifies now too; Londo may attempt to kill
Kosh's replacement, not realizing it's another Vorlon entirely.
<li> Londo played right into Morden's hands. Morden was obviously
responsible for Adira's death (he paid off one of the ship's crew,
and he found out about her arrival from the Zocalo vendor) and it's
unlikely Refa even knew about her, much less participated in her
poisoning. But any such protest on Refa's part will likely fall
on deaf ears if Londo speaks to him.
<li> On the other hand, it's also possible that Londo is attempting to
fool Morden. Certainly Londo knows that Morden is up to no good --
their conversation in the hallway, and Londo's glare when he talks
about people who deserve to die -- are evidence of that. Maybe he's
playing along with Morden in an attempt to trip up the Shadows' plans.
The same hallway conversation offers evidence to the contrary, though;
even then, Londo felt he had already been through worse than Morden's
associates could dish out, and with Adira's death, that's probably
only intensified.
<li> "The galaxy can burn. I no longer care," says Londo. This echoes the
conversation between Emperor Turhan and Kosh in
<a href="031.html">"The Coming of Shadows:"</a>
"How will this end?" "In fire."
<li> Londo promised to pluck the Shadows' eye out if it turned toward the
Centauri homeworld. Foreshadowing, perhaps, for whatever happens
to G'Kar's eye in Londo's dream
(<a href="031.html">"The Coming of Shadows."</a>)
<li> What <em>do</em> the Shadows want? Delenn seems to know more than
she's telling. Morden's keen interest in the Centauri's continued
aggression may provide a clue, but it's ambiguous at best. If they
simply want a constant state of chaos in the galaxy, their current
strategy will eventually backfire; there won't be anyone
left to carry on fighting.
<li> <a name="AN.kosh">The fact that the Shadows attacked Kosh</a>
immediately after the Vorlon victory over the Shadow fleet smacks of
the notion that there was a deal of some sort between the two races:
the Vorlons stay out of the fighting, and the Shadows leave them
alone. If that's true, one sobering interpretation is that both
races consider the war something of a game.
<li> Along similar lines, Kosh told Sheridan that the Vorlons didn't want
to attack because "it is not our time." What did he mean by that?
What constitutes the Vorlons' time? Kosh also mentioned that the
Vorlons were few in number, and were still preparing. Are their
preparations simply a matter of boosting their manpower?
<li> The Vorlons still use conventional jump points rather than the faster
hyperspace entry and exit technique employed by the Shadows. Is that
a conscious decision on their part, or does it imply that the Shadows
are more technologically advanced in at least some respects?
<li> Even in his last moments, Kosh still chose to hide behind disguises and
symbolism, appearing as Sheridan's father rather than himself. Or
maybe it's not by choice after all; maybe all he can do is communicate
with people in terms they already understand, though his recreation of
the Icarus expedition in
<a href="038.html">"In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum"</a>
suggests otherwise.
<li> How long has Kosh known what was going to happen to him? He implies
here that Sheridan will die on Z'ha'dum because he won't have Kosh's
help ("You said that if I went to Z'ha'dum I would die." "Yes, now.")
Did he know why that would be when he first warned Sheridan in
<a href="038.html">"In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum?"</a>
Were his lessons for Sheridan, teaching the latter to fight legends,
meant to provide Sheridan with the confidence to disobey Kosh's wishes
when the time was right?
<li> There is something of a thematic link between Kosh's expectation of
death and the story of Jesus played out by Brother Edward in
<a href="048.html">"Passing Through Gethsemane."</a>
Kosh knew what was coming, perhaps knew he <em>could</em> avoid it for
a little while, but also believed it would be the wrong thing to do.
So he waited in his quarters to face his executioners. Of course,
Edward didn't try to fight his killers off, so the parallel isn't
exact.
<li> Kosh's death was instantly known to the Vorlons, which suggests that
all the Vorlons are linked together in some fundamental way. Perhaps
the killing of Kosh, then, was less a blow against him personally than
a slap in the face of the Vorlons as a whole.
<li> If Kosh knew what was going to happen, why did he remain in his
quarters, easily found? Perhaps he believed that the Shadows would
go after Delenn or Sheridan in that case, and he considers them more
valuable than himself.
<li> Why can't Kosh's replacement continue Sheridan's education and assist
him at Z'ha'dum as Kosh would have? Presumably there was nothing
special about Kosh from the Vorlons' point of view. Or maybe the
Vorlons are so few in number that Kosh was the only one among them
who's able to provide whatever assistance he had in mind.
<li> This episode was full of power surges and drains: the one noted by
the C&amp;C tech when Kosh and Sheridan were arguing, the lights
dimming when Morden confronted Londo, the battle between Kosh and
the Shadows, and whatever happened when Kosh died. Perhaps someone
will put two and two together and have security promptly investigate
any odd power level changes.
<li> What is Earth's official reaction now that open hostilities with the
Shadows have broken out? Has Sheridan usurped Earth's official
relationships with all the alien governments he's recruited into his
alliance? The Shadows certainly have their fingers in at least some
aspects of the Earth Alliance, but they don't have total control yet;
there must be some people in the Earth government advocating taking
up arms against the Shadows.
</ul>
<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>
<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Script 15 is entitled "Interludes and Examinations," and has a plot
turn I hadn't seen coming, but which fits perfectly into the arc; I
think you're going to be stunned. (I was.)
<p>
<li> "Just wondering if we would see the First Ones from Sigma 957 this
season, since there are supposed to be some direct confrontations
between the Army of Light and the Shadows?"
<p>
No. It isn't their time yet.
<p>
<li> Let me answer this way...whenever I'm going to unveil something
on the show, I begin to point to it in upcoming episodes. I've begun
pointing to the question of what the shadows want, and why they're
doing it. So, logically, I'm now going to have to follow up on
that....
<p>
<li> In general, you always know when I'm going to
start answering a question, because I begin to point at it in episodes;
I'm now beginning to point to the shadows and ask, "What do THEY want?"
<p>
The answer is coming.
<p>
<li> It wasn't my idea. It was Kosh's idea. It was his pulling me that way
that led to it. "Trust me," he said. I followed.
<p>
And yeah, it does hurt. Pat Tallman was devastated at the screening.
Even my own crew wouldn't talk to me for a day or so after the script
came out.
<p>
Which is when I knew it was the right thing to do.
<p>
<li> Yeah, that's <em>[Kosh's death]</em>
the story turn that surprised even me. (And, of course,
I can't wait for the folks who'll say it was over a contract dispute
with the actor....)
<p>
<li>@@@831919210 <em>The mentor always dies in heroic sagas.</em><br>
I think Kosh sort of "hit the wall" when he saw that Sheridan wasn't
going to go away; I think finally he was ashamed, and recognized his
fear, and in a sense the air went out of him, and he reconciled himself
to what had to be.
<P>
You're right about the mentor; sooner or later, the mentor has to
step aside (or fall by the wayside) for the others to grow into the
hero's journey. Originally this was slated to happen a bit later...I
think, on some level, I was reluctant to do it, because to write this
kind of stuff you have to *feel* it yourself, and I think I was
avoiding that as much as Kosh was avoiding his fate. I didn't want
to go through writing that. So I kept putting it off. I knew it
*had* to be done...but not yet....
<P>
And that's when, for lack of a better explanation, Kosh stepped up
and began to pull me in that direction in the script. It was time.
His passing shouldn't be frittered away or minimized; it should
happen at the right moment, and this was that moment. It's almost
impossible to describe this to a non-writer, but the character, this
fictional construct, was simply determined to have his way, and that
was the end of it. I kept trying to dance away in the script, to go
back into safer waters...but each time was pulled back in this
direction, until finally I had to admit that yes, this was the right
time, and the right way, to do this.
<P>
And Kosh fell.
<P>
But what finally convinced me was the realization that this was not
only right for now, but right for *later*...though you won't know
what that means for a while yet.
<p>
<li> The Kosh stuff, his scene with Sheridan, and his
passing, is very moving. I showed it at Marcon this weekend in Ohio,
and many folks, including Patricia Talman -- who hadn't seen it yet --
were in tears at that. That, to me, is the moment when you know you've
done something, when you can make people *feel* something. Not just a
plot exercise, but you hit down deep where it hurts, or can make
someone laugh. It's all about touching emotion...or what's the point?
<p>
<li> "JMS, why did you edit out the scene where the Ranger follows Morden and
ends up being killed by the Shadows? Don't you think fans of the show
would rather see that than the scene in the bar where Garibaldi asks for
info on Franklin's blood from the other doctor? When you edit the show
please keep in mind what the fans would what to see. Rangers and
Shadows fighting is much more exciting than a unimportant scene that
could have been left out easily."
<p>
Because it was important to set up what Garibaldi wanted, where it was,
and how he was going to gain access. It had to show his concern for
Franklin, the moral ambiguity in asking for this, the betrayal we see on
Franklin's face, the difficulty in Dr. Hobbs dealing with his request.
The ranger scene was a brief piece that was really unconnected to the
rest of the story, had no setup elsewhere or payoff, was only a brief
piece of action. I needed the time to establish the character and plot
information in the Garibaldi scene.
<p>
And when you cite what "the fans" want to see, bear in mind that there
ain't no such critter. There's what *you* like, but *you're* not the
entirety of the fans. Some fans thought "Avalon" was one of the best of
the series to date; others thought it was just a character piece and
wanted more action and arc and called it a "waste." Some people when
they read a novel read for the action, then when they come to a few
pages that establish the look of the forest, or some character
background, jump ahead a few pages to where the action starts up
again. Some do just the opposite.
<p>
My obligation, first and foremost, is to the story, and to tell that
story as best I can. If I start trying to second guess what *The Fans*
want, when there is no ready concensus, when there ain't no such
thing, when different fans want different things, it'll just get
watered down and wander around lost.
<p>
<li> <em>Why don't they keep Morden off the station?</em><br>
They would do so, but since the fall from Earth, as Susan
mentioned, they've had to hire guards who may not be above bribes, as
we saw in the teaser. And Morden is good at covering his footsteps.
<p>
<li> The "crystals" were diamonds, he was bribing various people to
let him in and otherwise do things for him. And yes, Delenn's holding
back some information still, and Kosh was outnumbered.
<p>
<li> <em>About Sheridan's confrontation with Kosh</em><br>
I don't think Sinclair would've handled that
scene in the same way; it needed someone who'd go toe to toe with
something very old and dark and dangerous in his way. He had to get
under Kosh's "skin," as it were. Needle and outrage and upset him until
he got through...whatever the cost.
<p>
<li> Bruce did a great job in that scene; there's a touch of
madness in it, which is quite understandable. As for the Rangers, they
get a new, added role later this season.
<p>
<li> <em>Why didn't Kosh leave?</em><br>
Because I think, on some level, Kosh knew it was inevitable; a
price had to be paid. In a way, Lincoln had the same feelings...why
was he to live when so many had died? In a way, he knew he wouldn't
live much longer. Also, it would mean running...and the Vorlons don't
run. If he fled, another would pay the price...and that also wouldn't
be right.
<p>
<li> He knew a price had to be paid, and if it wasn't him,
it'd be someone else. Because he knew there was no getting around it.
He's too prideful to run.
<p>
Remember Gethsemane....
<p>
<li> Kosh fought and fought hard. And he did not go down easily...and one
might say that yes, he did not go down alone...but not entirely in the
way you're thinking.
<p>
<li> <em>Why is Londo still on the station? Why do they let him stay?</em>
<br>
B5 is still a place of considerable commerce, access to lots and
lots of other races and diplomats...it serves Londo's purposes for now,
and there are probably lots of Centauri back home who would prefer he
stay here. As for the rest...better the devil you know than the devil
you don't. At least on B5 they can keep somewhat of an eye on him.
</ul>

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<!-- TITLE War Without End, Part One -->
<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
Ambassador Sinclair returns to pull Babylon 4 through time
(<a href="020.html">"Babylon Squared."</a>) Part 1 of 2.
</cite>
<a href="/lurk/universe/actors.html#ohare">Michael O'Hare</a> as Ambassador Sinclair.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Choate,+Tim">Tim Choate</a> as Zathras.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Broadhurst,+Kent">Kent Broadhurst</a> as Major Krantz.
</blockquote>
<pre>Production number: 316
Original air week: May 13, 1996
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Mike Vejar
</pre>
<p>
<hr size=3>
<em>Note: Please don't send me any spoiler information for this episode while
this note is present -- I know there's detailed information out there and I'd
rather watch it cold. Thanks.</em>
For spoilers, try the
<a href="http://pages.prodigy.com/wildfoto/spoilers.html">B5 Spoilers Page.</a>
<h2><a name="BP">Backplot</a></h2>
<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>
<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> <em>November 30, 1995</em> -
As I write this, I've just started
writing "War Without End, Part One," #316, the first part of the two
episodes that bring Sinclair to Babylon 5, which we'll shoot sometime
after the first of the year. It's been touch and go, but we've finally
been able to schedule all of the guest cast members from "Babylon
Squared" for this one, which is the flip side of that episode. It's
probably going to be the most expensive show we've done yet, due to
the hideous production requirements for this one. It's also the one
I'm most nervous about writing, even more than "Fall of Night,"
because an awful lot happens here, and it has to be done just right.
It's going to be probably the toughest writing job of the series to
date.
<p>
I'll be putting Sinclair and Sheridan together a lot, which is
shaping up to be an interesting combination. We're also going to see
Minbar for the first time.
<p>
<li> Actually, Mike Vejar is directing the two-parter, and I'm
absolutely thrilled about it; Mike's been our mainstay for
some time, and he's just terrific. (He directed "Convictions,"
and "Inquisitor.")
<p>
<li> Well, reactions have been coming in on the two parter, and so far
everyone's wog-boggled. Peter Jurasik called to say he didn't know
what I'm smoking these days, but to please send ten pounds of it to
his house at *once*. Mumy went nuts over it, everyone's very
excited...including and especially Michael O'Hare, who got his copy
of the script today, read it straight through, and is *extremely*
excited by the story, and what happens with his character, and is
VERY much looking forward to the shoot.
<p>
<li> (Oh, and lest I forget, yes, Zathras does return in "War," as does
Sinclair, who has a lot of great scenes with Marcus, Sheridan, Delenn,
Zathras and others. It also has some real surprises in store, including
some flash-forwards from WAY down the line.)
<p>
<li> <em>January 22, 1996</em><br>
Today was a very interesting day; today Michael O'Hare returned to the
Babylon 5 stages in preparation for shooting the two-parter, which
begins tomorrow. Today he came by for his wardrobe fitting and to get
his hair trimmed, say hi to folks, and hang out...lunch was me, John
Copeland, Michael and Bruce Boxleitner eating together at one of the
tables in the lunch area behind the stage, lots of laughing and kidding,
and the two get on great. (Turns out they'd worked on other projects
before, including the short-lived A Rumor of War series by Sterling
Siliphant.)
<p>
Anyway, it's a great atmosphere, and everybody's psyched for the
two-parter. It's like he never went away.
<p>
<li> <em>January 23, 1996</em><br>
[...] today is Michael O'Hare's first day of shooting here on
the B5 stages for the two-parter, featuring his return to the station
from Minbar, and propels him into the center of attention for most of
the two parts. Everyone's having a great time so far, he and Bruce have
been hanging out a lot, and the episode should be a real toad-strangler
when it's finished.
<p>
<li> A toad-strangler, a barn-burner, a doozy...it's a good thing.
<p>
<li> <em>Won't Sheridan and Sinclair both be standing around giving orders?
</em><br>
The similarity is only if
you choose to define them by their narrow roles. Their personalities
are vastly different. Also, Sinclair's been through a lot in the
intervening couple of years, he's grown, he and Marcus would definitely
have something of a relationship since he would've been there while
Marcus was being trained, and so on. And their roles in the story are
very different.
<p>
<li> <em>Will the relationship between Delenn and Sheridan cause problems
with Sinclair?</em><br>
Well, remember that we never defined what those feelings were between
Sinclair and Delenn; she had a great deal of respect and admiration
for him, yes. And she had a fair measure of faith in him as well.
Question is, what's the root of that? We'll learn some of that in
the two-parter. As for Sinclair, he was mainly involved with Sakai.
<p>
<li> My guess is that "War Without End" may well pass by
<a href="031.html">"CoS"</a>
as all time favorite...until the next one comes along.
<p>
<li> <em>Did you reuse footage from
<a href="020.html">"Babylon Squared?"</a></em><br>
We did both; we reshot some scenes from B2, and used some footage
directly from that episode. Some pretty elegant matches, too, I think.
<p>
<li> As Sinclair notes when he arrives at B5, his status as ambassador is
pretty much gone after the coup.
</ul>

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<!-- TITLE War Without End, Part Two -->
<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
Ambassador Sinclair returns to pull Babylon 4 through time
(<a href="020.html">"Babylon Squared."</a>) Part 2 of 2.
</cite>
<a href="/lurk/universe/actors.html#ohare">Michael O'Hare</a> as Ambassador Sinclair.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Choate,+Tim">Tim Choate</a> as Zathras.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Broadhurst,+Kent">Kent Broadhurst</a> as Major Krantz.
</blockquote>
<pre>Production number: 317
Original air week: May 20, 1996
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Mike Vejar
</pre>
<p>
<hr size=3>
<em>Note: Please don't send me any spoiler information for this episode while
this note is present -- I know there's detailed information out there and I'd
rather watch it cold. Thanks.</em>
For spoilers, try the
<a href="http://pages.prodigy.com/wildfoto/spoilers.html">B5 Spoilers Page.</a>
<h2><a name="BP">Backplot</a></h2>
<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>
<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> YAAAAAAGGGGHHHHH.....
<p>
Well, I *finally* finished writing the two-parter, "War Without End,"
which is probably the toughest thing I've written for the series to
date. Given everything that has to fit in here, and the fact that
it's the other half of the B4 storyline (this ain't a spoiler,
that'll be common knowledge in ads and the like), it became a pretty
difficult job, moreso than when I'd originally thunk it up. It's
kinda like cramming 20 pounds of potatoes in a 10 pound bag...but I
*think* I got it all in, even though the initial drafts came out at
about 7 pages too long. As I commented to one person, "I'm
definitely dancing on the edge of my ability here." But I'm pretty
sure I pulled it all off...and I think folks are going to be quite
pleased.
<p>
But *man* that was tough....
<p>
Now, having written 16 and 17, only 5 scripts remain to be written
for this season. And there's still an awful lot to fit in before the
big season ender, which I suspect will raise quite a few eyebrows.
<p>
<li> In my last general posting to rastb5, I mentioned that from time to
time, I'd try to post the occasional "letter to home" just to keep folks
up to date on matters Babylonian. Now that I can catch a breather, I
figured I'd take this opportunity to do so (though since it's 3:15 a.m.,
this'll likely be short).
<p>
"catching a breather" refers to the script situation. I've just
finished writing 316 and 317, the two parter, "War Without End,"
which was a very difficult task, given the amount of story and
logistics that had to be put into it. While writing "Babylon
Squared," to which this is the flip-side, I figured, "Oh, sure, yeah,
I can get this all in on the other side, no problem," but when it
came time to do it, it got awful tight, but finally I fit it *all*
in. (Well, all except one teeny, tiny sentence, about where Zathras
was first seen, and how, 'cause to do what I'd first had in mind
would've taken another 3 pages, and I didn't have that, so that one
element I'll have to just deal with later somehow. But that's it.)
Hopefully, one need never have seen B2 in order to watch and follow
WWE. (Which was one of the hard parts, since B2 may or may not be
aired prior to this, all the background information *had* to be in
the episodes, so that's a lot of background to include.)
<p>
This now leaves 5 episodes to be written for this season. At this
point, Lyta should factor strongly in one or two of these, there will be
some direct confrontations between our side and the shadows, then a
really nasty final episode for year three.
</ul>

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<!-- TITLE Walkabout -->
<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
As Lyta prepares to test the limits of the Shadows' newly-discovered weakness,
Dr. Franklin goes on a journey to discover his place in life.
</cite>
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Tallman,+Patricia">Patricia Tallman</a> as Lyta Alexander.
</blockquote>
<pre>
Production number: 318
Original air week: ???
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Kevin Cremin
</pre>
<p>
<hr size=3>
<h2><a name="BP">Backplot</a></h2>
<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> In Australian aboriginal cultures, a "walkabout" is a ritual in which
a young man goes on a solitary journey through the wilderness in an
attempt to learn more about his own character and strength.
</ul>
<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> As it happens, as soon as I finish the two-parter, this
week, the next script will get a lot more into Lyta and the
Vorlons and all that jazz.
</ul>

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<!-- TITLE Grey 17 Is Missing -->
<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
Garibaldi investigates the mysterious disappearance of a section of the
station.
</cite>
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Englund,+Robert">Robert Englund</a>.
</blockquote>
<pre>Production number: 319
Original air week: ???
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by John Flinn III
</pre>
<p>
<hr size=3>
<h2><a name="BP">Backplot</a></h2>
<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>
<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>

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<!-- TITLE And the Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place -->
<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
No plot information is available.
</cite>
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Turenne,+Louis">Louis Turenne</a> as Brother Theo.
</blockquote>
<pre>
Production number: 320
Original air week: ???
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by David Eagle
</pre>
<p>
<hr size=3>
<h2><a name="BP">Backplot</a></h2>
<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> The
<a href="#JS.song">song</a>
from which the title is derived, "No Hiding Place," refers to the
Book of Revelation, in which man attempts to hide from the wrath
of God in mountains and rocks.
<a href="http://www.gospelcom.net/bible?version=NIV&passage=Revelation+6:15-17">Revelation 6:15-17.</a>
</ul>
<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> <a name="JS.song"><em>Where does the title come from?</em></a><br>
It's from an old gospel song/spiritual.
</ul>

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<!-- TITLE Shadow Dancing -->
<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
No plot information is available.
</cite>
</blockquote>
<pre>
Production number: 321
Original air week: ???
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Kim Friedman
</pre>
<p>
<hr size=3>
<h2><a name="BP">Backplot</a></h2>
<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>
<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>

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<!-- TITLE unknown -->
<em>JMS is keeping the title of this episode a secret for the moment.</em>
<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
Third season finale. No plot information is available.
</cite>
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Gilbert,+Melissa">Melissa Gilbert</a>.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Wasser,+Ed">Ed Wasser</a> as Morden.
</blockquote>
<pre>
Production number: 322
Original air week: ???
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Adam Nimoy
</pre>
<p>
<hr size=3>
<h2><a name="BP">Backplot</a></h2>
<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> One rumor, unconfirmed (and unlikely to be confirmed; see below) is
that the title of this episode is "Z'ha'dum."
</ul>
<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> I'm going to hold the title of 22 confidential as long as
possible.
<p>
<li> By the last few episodes, pretty much all of my cards are on
the table. But by the last episode of this season, we find that the
game we've assumed we've been playing ain't necessarily the game at
all. The show takes a fairly subversive direction, and of all the
seasons so far, the one that follows, year four, represents the
greatest writing challenge to make this actually work.
<p>
Which is another reason why it's important to get the B4
storyline and several other threads out in the open, and clear the
decks, because this is gonna take every bit of whatever talent I've got
to pull off.
<p>
Year four is the point in the novel when you're just past the
halfway mark; you know the reader thinks he or she has got the story
sussed out. The reader knows all your tricks by now, or thinks he/she
does. You've been pulling doves out of your hat for 243 pages.
<p>
Now you'd damned well better be able to pull out an alligator.
<p>
<li> <em>February 27, 1996</em><br>
Well, it's done. I have today turned in the first draft of
script #22 for year three, which I suppose could be called a
cliffhanger episode. This marks the first time in the 50+ year history
of American television that one person has singlehandedly written an
entire season of a series. (The closest record is Terry Nation, who
wrote the 13-episode first season of Blake's 7.)
<p>
(I have no plans to do this next season, btw; this was
necessary because of the substantive changes in the B5 universe this
season. Next season is a very different story...literally as well as
figuratively.)
<p>
So far the film based on those 1,000+ pages represents some of
our best work on Babylon 5. There's some nifty stuff coming.
<p>
We are currently filming episode #18. Four more after this,
and we'll be finished shooting year three, as of April 9th. Not long
after, we should get the word on year four, probably by late
April/early May. But the writing is finished...and for the first time
in 8 months, I will be able to go out, see a movie, play Wing
Commander, find something that vaguely resembles a life. This is where
I now also become a director's worst nightmare: a writer-producer who's
finished writing and finally has time to hang out on the set and give
lots and lots of helpful advice.
<p>
It was a hideous task; two-thirds through I began to understand
that there was a *reason* nobody's ever done this before...you'd have
to be outta your ever-loving mind to even try. But as with everything
else on B5, if we don't know it's impossible, we just go ahead and do
it.
<p>
The title, as stated elsewhere, is classified, though you may
get a sense of what's coming in the two eps that precede it.
Regardless, the writing on year three is now complete. Overall, I'm
quite pleased, and I think by the time you hit this episode, you'll
feel the same.
<p>
<li> Well, there's what one would *prefer*, and there's that which is
*sensible*. And the sensible answer is that no, once the last S3
episode airs in the UK, there's no way on earth you're gonna keep that
out of the public eye, and there ain't much sense to protecting it or
hitting it with spoiler regs. I'd let it go at that point.
<p>
(And, frankly, it'll probably slip out some time before that; when it
hits, it hits, I've decided to let it go at that point...you just ain't
gonna hear it from ME, that's all.)
<p>
<li> "Or is it a matter of the title being a spoiler for an episode between
now and then?"
<p>
Yes, that's my concern.
<p>
While I'm on the subject, an advisory: I gave a short interview to
Entertainment Weekly the other day for their story about cliffhanger
endings for various shows. Now, the piece is going to run in May since
that's when most shows (most *sensible* shows) will be doing their
cliffhangers. Ours won't run until July or October, depending on who
you talk to.
<p>
There's a point where you have to decide between publicity (good for
show) and secrecy (good for viewers), in the process of keeping the show
on the air (also good for viewers). So I let a few things out of the
bag. If you don't want to be spoiled, then you may want to avoid
picking up and reading that story.
<p>
<li> <em>Why a cliffhanger, if WB is likely to delay the final episode
until the start of season four?</em><br>
Because the story calls for it. Whether they show the cliffhanger three
months or two weeks before the fourth season (assuming renewal), this is
where the story goes. It was constructed like a series of novels, a
multi-volume saga, and like any good series of novels, you end on
something big.
<p>
And this year, season three ends on something really honking big.
</ul>

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<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
No plot information is available. Don't hold your breath.
</cite>
</blockquote>
<pre>
Sub-genre: Grand finale
Production number: 522?
Original air date: Sometime in 1998
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by ???
</pre>
<p>
<hr size=3>
<h2><a name="BP">Backplot</a></h2>
<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
<p>
@@@821918918 None, we can but hope.
<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>
<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> <em>On GEnie, 11 April 1992:</em><br>
A few days ago, I sat down with our line producer, John Copeland, and
production designer John Iacovelli, and we were talking about the need
to move quickly on some stuff, and how painful the process is to have
the whole story in your head, already told, really, and then have to
make it all over again so we can put it on film. "You think you've got
it bad," I noted, "I've already worked out the last scene in the last
episode of the last season (#5)...and I've still got to make Movie #1."
They called me on it and asked what that scene was. Just to see their
reaction, I told them. They looked at me as if I'd suddenly sprouted
three heads and feathers. It was worth it. (Happily, they're sworn to
secrecy.) It was also good because I think that, even without filling
in the beats in between, it gave them a good sense of where the series
was going to go.
<p>
<li> My titles are often in a state of flux; "Signs and Portents" was
originally titled "Raiding Party" in my notes, as the B5 FAQ notes
somewhere. So it may change, but for the time being, in my notes for
the series, the last episode of year five has this note: Title? --
"Farewell" or "Sleeping in Light."
<p>
<li> The Babylon 5 story ends at the final episode of year five.
<p>
<li> And there will never be a Babylon 6.
<p>
<li> If I didn't have a good, solid, consistent ending, I wouldn't have
started the story. I always have the ending before I begin writing
the beginning.
<p>
<li> There's always been a side-story that could spin off from B5, but the
main core story is over at the five-year mark.
<p>
<li> I've always said that there's a side story that could follow the 5
year B5 storyline, which takes place in the B5 universe, and follows
on the heels of the events in B5...but who knows if that would happen?
<p>
The one thing I would hate is for B5 to become any kind of so-called
"franchise." Because as soon as that happens, you're prevented from
making any changes, from doing anything that might startle people,
cutting into the piggy-bank. Once that happens, you're dead.
<p>
I've also made no secret of my sense that, should B5 run its full
five year course (and assuming the side-story doesn't go, which I
would not exactly count on)...I plan to get out of TV. By that
point, I would have said pretty much everything I want to say in TV,
and it's time to get out, buy a small house somewhere outside London,
and spend the rest of my years writing novels, which is kinda where
this all began. (I've had 2 novels, 1 anthology, and a bunch of
short stories published, as well as 500 or so articles.)
<p>
I never got into this to make a ***FRANCHISE***, and never really
intended to become an executive producer. I just don't like being
rewritten...so I climbed higher, until finally there was nobody over
me messing with my scripts. Outside of the B5 reality, if someone
came to e and offered me *staff writer* on a show -- the lowest
position in the TV totem pole -- but with the guarantee that I
wouldn't be rewritten, they wouldn't change the words...I'd take it
in a hot second. I'm here, now, strictly out of self-defense.
<p>
Two valuable social skills are knowing when to enter a room, and when
to leave a room. At some point, you have to get out or become
something you don't want to become. I've never really been part of
the Hollywood SYSTEM, and have no desire to do so.
<p>
In "The Velvet Alley," Rod Serling wrote of a young advertising writer
who becomes a success at writing television. At one point, the
character says (paraphrased from memory): "Here's the trap...in TV
they pay you lots of money for what you do...then, slowly, your
standard of living rises until you *need* that constant flow to stay
at that level. Then...they threaten to take it away from you if you
don't behave. And THAT'S when they've got you."
<p>
<li> What happens at the end of the five year arc? The "Babylon 5" series
ends...if I have anything to say about it (and I do). If something
else follows, we'll see what that is, but it won't be the same series,
or the same title, or really the same characters.
<p>
Barring that very distant possibility, at the end of the five year
arc, I take a very, very, VERY long nap....
<p>
<li> I've mentioned before that there's a side-story that could go off,
within the B5 universe, with a few of our characters, once the
Babylon 5 story itself comes to an end in its fifth year, but that's
a long ways off, and I don't know if that's realistic.
<p>
You have to understand...I never came in wanting to be a producer.
I'm a *writer*, and I only got here because it was the only way to
protect the words...create and run the damned show so nobody can mess
with it. Once I've finished the Babylon story, assuming it runs its
full length, (5 years alone, more if there is that doubtful spinoff),
the story is over. Every story has a beginning, middle and end, and
the story's over when it's over.
<p>
I've also made no bones about the fact that, should the Babylon story
run its full term, I will have said just about everything I want to
say in television, and plan to get out, go back to writing novels.
<p>
My philosophy: find what it is you want to say, walk in the room, say
it, and get the hell out. (Second philosophy behind that one: when
in doubt, roll in a grenade and come in firing.)
</ul>

155
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<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
<blockquote><cite>
Dodgers undertakes a perilous journey to Planet X, where a powerful alien
force awaits.
</cite>
<a href="/lurk/ftp/Pictures/Misc/daffykosh.jpg">Daffy Duck</a> as Duck Dodgers.
</blockquote>
<pre>
Sub-genre: Intrigue
G5 rating: Second-favorite thing in the universe
Original air year: 1953
Story by Michael Maltese
Directed by Chuck Jones
</pre>
<p>
<hr size=3>
<h2><a name="BP">Backplot</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> Shaving cream is made using Alludium Phosdex.
<li> Earth has used up valuable natural resources and must look elsewhere
in the universe for certain mineral needs.
</ul>
<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> How are people able to breathe at an altitude of approximately 32 miles
(17,000 stories)?
<li> How did Marvin Martian manage to land on Planet X immediately after
Dodgers did? Has Mars run out of Alludium Phosdex as well?
<li> What biological function is responsible for the glow emanated by Dodgers
when he shouts out his name?
<li> Are Duck Dodgers and the infamous Sinclair's Duck one and the same?
<li> Was the actual matter of Planet X destroyed, or was its mineral content
dispersed throughout the galaxy, where it might be found at some future
date?
<li> How do Duck Dodgers, Porky, and Marvin, ever leave the remains of the
planet?
</ul>
<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> When Dodgers falls several stories during the first act, he suffers only
minor injuries. Perhaps Dodgers, by being DUCK DODGERS IN THE 24-1/2TH
CENTURY, has powers greater than the average mortal. Further evidence
corroborates this when it is considered that Dodgers survives several
lethal blasts, including one that decimates an entire planet.
<li> Marvin Martian's ship, the "Martian Maggot" looks suspiciously like a
Vorlon cruiser. And yet, Ambassador Kosh is suspected to actually be
Duck Dodgers. So perhaps The Martian Maggot was actually stolen
Vorlon technology.
<li> Duck Dodgers, representing the Earth Alliance, and Marvin Martian,
representing Mars, do seem to share a great deal of technology. (Both
sides use machines with brand names such as "A-1" and "Acme" and have
similarly designed secret weapons.) It is thus logical that this
storyline takes place after "A Voice in the Wilderness," in which the
Mars colony secedes from Earth. However, this conflicts with the
timeline in "Midnight on the Firing Line" in which Garibaldi and
Delenn view this episode, several episodes <em>before</em> the
revolution on Mars. Perhaps they just weren't paying attention to
the signs and portents of an upcoming Mars revolution.
<li> JMS has stated that there is no Trek-like "transporter" technology in
the B5 universe; however, Dodgers uses the Evaporator to transport
himself to the airport. This may be an inconsistency in the B5 setting.
<li> It is reasonable to assume that the "unknown" area displayed by Dr. I.Q.
Hi is equivalent to "the rim" (of known space) that the Icarus had been
exploring when Sheridan's wife dissapeared (c.f. "In the Shadow of
Z'ha'dum"). Could Planet X be near Z'ha'dum, or perhaps be controlled
by the Shadows? Its markings indicate a long-dead civilization, perhaps
one of the oldest civilizations in the Galaxy.
</ul>
<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> This is the only Babylon 5 episode to be entirely animated, and using
absolutely <em>no</em> CGI for special effects. Considering how well
the episode turned out, Ron Thornton may have to start working on his
resume.
<li> This episode features no regular B5 cast members. (Except, perhaps,
Kosh.)
<li> Though the character's name is common knowledge, the name Marvin Martian
is not actually uttered on-screen.
<li> Strangely, this episode was broadcast <em>before</em> the birth of
JMS. How this happened is not clear, but it's probably just one of
those things.
</ul>
<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>
<ul>
<li> I *love* "Duck Dodgers." I have virtually all of the WB cartoons on
tape or disk, and from where I sit, that's wonderful stuff that'll
be around for a long, long time. No omens, just something I thought
would be fun. (Again, connecting past/present/future, sort of our B5
theme.)
<p>
<li> I don't understand...what does Sinclair's duck have to do with
anything? We weren't even planning on introducing the duck until late
in season two. I suspect a leak. Nothing worse than a leaky duck.
<p>
<li> "How did Sinclair's duck thing get started?"
<p>
Probably by watching an attractive woman walk across the room.
<p>
<li> Me, I'm just waiting for somebody to refer to "The Long Dark" as "The
Long Duck"....
<p>
<li> It's a duck. Yes, why, of course it's a ducky. Why would I think
anything else? What a silly question.
<p>
It's a duck.
<a href="/lurk/ftp/Pictures/Misc/starship.gif">A texture mapped metallic duck coming
out of a jumpgate.</a>
<p>
A duck. Of course. A duck.
<p>
AAAAUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
<p>
(I wanna see it...and I wanna see it now.)
<p>
<li> Of the options you listed, only D poses a real problem; A-C are
more or less okay. The problem comes not so much from speculating on
elements already introduced, as introducing *new* plot elements that
have not been seen in the show to back up speculation or conjecture,
which may or may not approximate what we're doing. "The Minbari
surrendered because in some episode we'll see someday the Earth had
developed a giant killer space duck hidden on the dark side of the
moon that would nibble the Minbari homeworld to destruction." That is
kind of the dividing line between what's safe and not-safe.
</ul>

2
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@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ written in by the voters.
<p>
If you have more details about the survey or contact info for VQT, please
<a href="/cgi-bin/uncgi/feedback?what=VQT">send me mail.</a> (But please
<a href="mailto:koreth+lgfeedback@midwinter.com">send me mail.</a> (But please
don't mail me asking for more information; all I know about it is here.)
<p>