Yora reviews Babylon 5

[Rodin]

Yuuuup.

Believers is the only episode that actively makes me angry. There are a good few filler episodes that are kinda pointless, aren't very interesting, or have very poor acting. Or some combination of the three.

Believers is actually offensive in how bad the plot is. Dr. Franklin violates his patient's rights six ways from Sunday, and violates the rights of the kid's parents to boot. He would have been sacked immediately and prevented from ever practicing medicine again. Add into this how dumb he is - he does something that makes the parents think their child is a soulless demon and then HANDS THE CHILD BACK.

I just...I can't even.

The episode being filmed 5th explains a lot. They really didn't know what to do with Dr. Franklin at this point in the show and hadn't gotten the hang of how the show works yet. Also explains why Infection was so terrible - it was literally the first episode filmed after the pilot.

[factotum]

While I agree that Dr. Franklin didn't exactly overwhelm us with his intelligence in this episode, I certainly don't think it's as bad as TKO or Grail. And I guess the problem is--what else was he supposed to do? *Not* treating the child is wrong, and then not returning the child to their parents after treatment would also be wrong. If this situation occurred in the real world then the courts would get involved, but I guess JMS didn't want to show a 45-minute courtroom drama!

[Rakaydos]

While I agree that Dr. Franklin didn't exactly overwhelm us with his intelligence in this episode, I certainly don't think it's as bad as TKO or Grail. And I guess the problem is--what else was he supposed to do? *Not* treating the child is wrong, and then not returning the child to their parents after treatment would also be wrong. If this situation occurred in the real world then the courts would get involved, but I guess JMS didn't want to show a 45-minute courtroom drama!

Not yet anyway.

"Sir, this alien's great great grandfather abducted my great great grandfather, and frankly we want damages."

[GrayDeath]

S1E10: Believers

Doctor Franklin has a patient whose parents are refusing the treatment for the life threatening condition. He can't believe it and is shocked and outraged, and his assistant keeps trying to explain to him that its not his choice. Sinclair could order him to do so anyeay, but Sinclair wants to keep neutrality on these things on this multicultural station. After much angry monologing he decides to operate anyway and the child ends up getting killed.

Ivanova is really bored at work and when there's an emergency that requires a fighter escort she whines until Sinclair orders her to go. There's some bland pew pew and the ship reaches the station safely.

And that is it.

--

I remembered this episode as being the worst of the entire show, and it seems I was right. This is a terribly failed attempt at being a deep and meaningful Star Trek episode. It's basically 45 minutes up on a soapbox with not a single shred of subtlety or nuances anywhere to be seen.
Franklin supposedly spend years getting rides on random ships in exchange for free medical care for crew and passengers, but apparently he never encountered the idea that people might have different views on medical ethics.

Ivanova's stuff is really brief and nothing of any consequence happens at any point. It's only there to make it look like there is anything other than Franklin's drama in this episode, but there really isn't.

It's just awful with not a single redeeming feature.

What makes this especially bad is that it was aired after the excellent (my absolute fav in season 1) Deathwalker.

Then it went, started a (trekky, agreed) interesting dilemma....and did nothing with it but show that Franklin puts his view of a DOctors Duty before everything else...and ended with that.

Ugh.

[Olinser]

While I agree that Dr. Franklin didn't exactly overwhelm us with his intelligence in this episode, I certainly don't think it's as bad as TKO or Grail. And I guess the problem is--what else was he supposed to do? *Not* treating the child is wrong, and then not returning the child to their parents after treatment would also be wrong. If this situation occurred in the real world then the courts would get involved, but I guess JMS didn't want to show a 45-minute courtroom drama!

He's supposed to do some actual research into the matter, and then abide by what he explicitly knows he is SUPPOSED TO DO in exactly that situation, based on both his orders from the chain of command and the statements of his fellow doctor. He is EXPLICITLY violating both his orders and medical obligations.

The main thing for me is that he admits, point blank, that he has no actual knowledge of this species in question. He makes HUGE ASSUMPTIONS that his operation will be automatically successful and there will be zero complications.

He never once entertains the possibility that their faith is based on actual knowledge of their species that they don't fully understand, despite the fact that HE ADMITS that he knows nothing about them. He's ASSUMING and projecting knowledge of other similar species onto them. He ASSUMES that the choice is 'I operate and the child lives, or the child dies'. He's ignoring the legitimate 3rd possibility, "I operate, and the child dies in agony slowly over the next few months anyway".

You don't have to be able to explain the nuances of bloodborn pathogens to understand that getting another person's blood on you is bad. You don't have to be able to explain the microbiology of exactly what will happen to understand that you need to keep a wound clean to avoid infection. Franklin never once entertains the possibility that their fear of operating on their species core might be grounded in a basic understanding that severe complications arise if their core is punctured for any reason.

Some missionaries actually encountered this in isolated tribes/nations. They had religious beliefs that certain plants were sacred and shouldn't be touched or it would anger the gods. The plants were ACTUALLY extremely poisonous. The understanding that the plants were harmful translated to religious belief, but the underlying belief is solid - that messing with the plants was very bad.

The possibility that operating on this species core might actually cause major complications and the kid will die in agony in a few weeks simply never occurs to the doctor, and he doesn't bother to find out. He's right, they're wrong, and that's the end of it.

The episode is about Franklin being an arrogant douchebag that thinks he's above the rules and regulations. And yeah, its a bad episode, but that's mainly because they tried to have their cake and eat it too. They're trying to portray BOTH the parents and Franklin as wrong, and that just doesn't work with the scenario they provided to us.

I still don't think this is the worst episode though. Yeah it's pretty bad, but at least they TRIED to have some kind of message and plot and featured character growth for a main character, as opposed to pointless filler crap like TKO that has no message and just wastes time on idiocy.

[Yora]

Now the actual episode for today. I want to get through the slush with the good stuff getting so close now.

S1E11: Survivors

The recently reelected Earth president Santiago will be visiting the station, presumably to get support for his controversial plans to get more alien investment in human systems. Ivanova and Garibaldi are doing an inspection of the fighter bays that are being readied for a new squadron that is to be stationed on Babylon 5 when a worker causes an explosion and gets severely injured. Garibaldi thinks it looks like an ordinary accident but is looking for signs of sabotage. The chief of the presidents security team demands to investigate the incident herself, which greatly pisses Garibaldi off. Sinclair goes after him to ask what history between the two makes them be so hostile to each other but gets distracted by G'Kar. Garibaldi catches a pickpocket and goes totally ballistic on him until Sinclair takes him aware to have a serious talk. On one of his first jobs in security the major's father got killed and she is blaming him for it because he was drunk.

Franklin calls Sinclair because the president's security team have barged into the medical station and are giving the worker in intensive care drugs to wake him up and interrogate him before he might die. Sinclar and Garibaldi arrive, everyone is shouting, and the barely conscious worker mentions Garibaldi's name and dies. As flimsy as it is, Sinclair has to agree that Garibaldi has to be off duty until the situation is cleared. The Major goes to search Garibaldi's quarters and one of her men finds bomb supplies and a pile of Centauri money lying around. Garibaldi knocks out one of her men and runs away. Sinclair has had enough with her and calls off the security alert, and then goes to find Garibaldi before she does.

Garibaldi gets out of his uniform and goes to find Londo in a bar to ask if he knows of any Centauri involvement. He of course suspects the Narn, but gives him some of his gambling winnings in cash to bribe whatever people he needs to find out what's really going on.

G'Kar is already expecting him and offers to hide him in his quarters for a while. He already checked what happened to all the Centauri money the Narns had their hands on, and the money in Garibaldi's quarters can't be part of it. But he also offers Garibaldi to get him off the station and job at the Narn intelligence services, which he declines. G'Kar offers him a drink, which he also declines.

Garibaldi then goes to the alien gangsters in the special atmosphere section, but they aren't inclined to help him. Security spots him and he manages to run away again, but runs into the pickpocket he beat up, who also has two Drazi friends with him. Fortunately, Sinclair arrives at just that moment. He wants Garibaldi to stop running and making things worse, but he is distracted by a call from Ivanova and Garibaldi slips away again.

The security major manages to get a call with her superior who orders Sinclair to give her full access to their resources and comply with all her orders on security matters.

Garibaldi then goes to a bar in the really crappy parts of the station where security does not find him. Out of ideas he starts drinking again and gets very drunk. As he stumbles out, he's immediately caught by the president's security team. The major's assistant excuses himself to check the hangar again where the new fighters have been parked. He's taken to interrogation where another security officer brings evidence from the dead worker's quarters that he was bulding a bomb and was involved with the Home Guard. He probably must have accidentally detonated the bomb while planting it.

She still wants to keep Garibaldi detained because nobody would have known that the worker implied Garibaldi's involvement and could have planted the evidence in his quarters. Except for her assistant who was also at the medical station with her, and who happened to be the one who found the evidence. So they both go to the fighter bay so she can check that everything is in order herself. And as they arrive, her assistant knocks her out. As he goes to pick up her gun, Garibaldi charges him and beats him up, then takes his communicator to call Ivanova that she has to abort the fighter launch.

The president arrives safely and Sinclair goes to see Garibaldi who's being treated in the medical station. Garibaldi tells him he feels terrible about how things turned out because how quickly he started drinking again. Sinclair tells him not too worry too much and come to him when he's having trouble again.

--

Eh, this one is okay, I guess. It's a Garibaldi character episode and it's doing well enough at it. But it really could have been done a lot better. There is being bad at a job, and there's being so spectacularly bad that it doesn't seem believable that she even has the job. The episode also just conveniently forgets that she killed a witness in critical condition because he turns out to have been a terrorist who got injured by his own bomb.

I think there's some inconsistency with president Santiago. Wasn't there just an episode about an election on Earth, which was won by the hardliner candidate? That he would be inviting more aliens to Earth and get targeted by Home Guard seems rather implausible. But maybe the idea was to show how ultra radical Home Guard is. If they were still shifting things around as they were filming these episodes and rewriting the Home Guard story, I would accept that as a valid excuse. But this is already the second episode where the Home Guard situation feels cartoony and based on a severe misunderstanding of extremism. Maybe people were more naive about these things 25 years ago, but in a show where this is such a central element it does feel sloppy and misguided. Maybe we can come back to this topic in season 2 and see how things improved or not. We're still only in the first dozen of seasons and most long running shows are really bad at that early stage.

It's also weird that the plan was to blow up the fighter bays and damage the station while the president's ship was still a good distance away. When you plan a huge explosion during a presidental visit, wouldn't you wait until the president is in the danger zone?

It's also a bit weird how lightly Sinclair takes Garibaldi's drinking problem, since it seems to be implied that he knows about his drinking history. Though maybe he's supposed to not quite understand the situation and actually believe that a pat on the shoulder and a "Don't worry, it will be fine" is going to be enough.

Londo and G'Kar both have small moments, which both do a great job at repeating and reinforcing what we have seen about their personality so far. Londo doesn't take things too seriously, but he knows when it's time to stop joking around and be obnoxious for his own amusement. And G'Kar immediately jump on the opportunity to recruit people with valuable knowledge of the other powers to the Narn.

The good parts are pretty good and the bad parts are pretty bad, but in either case it doesn't go to the true extremes and the episode is decently okay overall.

[Olinser]

Portrayal of Santiago really isn't inconsistent. You had news media 'reporting' about them, and as will be demonstrated many, many times, the Earth media is, at best, highly biased. 'Hardliner' is a ridiculous description given the actual policies described. Specifically the policies stated were that he promised to keep Earth out of war, create a better relationship with Mars, and preserve Earth culture. But he was also a huge supporter of the Babylon project.

Home Guard wants to wipe out all aliens and take their stuff, and put Mars under their bootheel. It's not hard to understand why they want to get rid of Santiago, especially if they thought Clark would be more sympathetic towards them.

The destruction of the Starfury squadron and the overall plan makes sense. Santiago has supported diplomacy with Mars, supported Babylon from the beginning, and is there to present a new Starfury squadron to Babylon.

Bomb the Starfury bay and pin it on somebody that literally just came from Mars. You publicly embarrass Santiago by undermining the reason that he's there in the first place, demonstrating that Babylon 5 is a mess, and hopefully pin the blame on the Mars colony. Makes a lot of political sense given Santiago's positions.

Obviously it was done ridiculously incompetently, but hey.

And yeah, this is only the first time the person allegedly in charge of an 'investigation' is hideously and obviously biased to anybody with 2 brain cells to rub together.

HOWEVER, in this case it may be excusable, given that the assistant was the primary antagonist, and with the further implication that the security forces were heavily compromised, it could be argued that they INTENTIONALLY assigned Kemmer there to help them pin it on Garibaldi and Mars. It also gives them plausible deniability and a scapegoat if the frame job went south. Why it wasn't us, it was just Kemmer and her vendetta. Sorry Sinclair and Garibaldi, we'll punish her severely and completely clear you!

From that perspective it's a reasonable plan. You have a potential high upside from a political perspective, with very low risk to actually face any consequences if the plan is discovered (which is exactly what happened - plan thwarted, but no real consequences).

As far as Garibaldi's drinking, yeah, he basically put it down to extreme stress, with presumably monitoring him to make sure he stayed sober after being reinstated.

[factotum]

Yeah, Survivors is an utterly forgettable episode that I didn't even remember after reading Yora's description of it. To my mind that makes it worse than Believers, which may have been garbage but nonetheless stuck in my head all these years later.

[Lord Vukodlak]

He never once entertains the possibility that their faith is based on actual knowledge of their species that they don't fully understand, despite the fact that HE ADMITS that he knows nothing about them. He's ASSUMING and projecting knowledge of other similar species onto them. He ASSUMES that the choice is 'I operate and the child lives, or the child dies'. He's ignoring the legitimate 3rd possibility, "I operate, and the child dies in agony slowly over the next few months anyway".

You don't have to be able to explain the nuances of bloodborn pathogens to understand that getting another person's blood on you is bad. You don't have to be able to explain the microbiology of exactly what will happen to understand that you need to keep a wound clean to avoid infection. Franklin never once entertains the possibility that their fear of operating on their species core might be grounded in a basic understanding that severe complications arise if their core is punctured for any reason.

Some missionaries actually encountered this in isolated tribes/nations. They had religious beliefs that certain plants were sacred and shouldn't be touched or it would anger the gods. The plants were ACTUALLY extremely poisonous. The understanding that the plants were harmful translated to religious belief, but the underlying belief is solid - that messing with the plants was very bad.

The possibility that operating on this species core might actually cause major complications and the kid will die in agony in a few weeks simply never occurs to the doctor, and he doesn't bother to find out. He's right, they're wrong, and that's the end of it..

Probably because he’s a medical expert and experienced in treating a multitude of alien species and can tell right away that they’re similar enough to other species he’s treated that the operation shouldn’t be a problem. And since the kid went from dying to perfectly fine over the course of a day, I guess he was right.

Your plant example proves your own point wrong. Missionary’s would know nothing about plants but a botanist could test the plants to know they were toxic assuming he couldn’t tell at a glance because they share characteristics with similar plants.
So there is NO REASON to doubt Franklins medical opinion in this episode. Especially when he’s proven medically speaking right.

And he’s not dealing with some isolated tribe but members of an interstellar race, who if they figured out FTL they should have some understanding of biology.

This episode was about belief.
The parents belief that the operation would cost their child his soul. And Franklins belief that he can’t ever allow a patient to die. Neither is willing to bend.
That’s why Delenn wasn’t willing to help. She felt both their beliefs were equally valid.

Personally I’d have lied to the parents and said I had this soul hunter orb and could capture his soul and put it back after surgery.

[paddyfool]

Yuuuup.

Believers is the only episode that actively makes me angry. There are a good few filler episodes that are kinda pointless, aren't very interesting, or have very poor acting. Or some combination of the three.

Believers is actually offensive in how bad the plot is. Dr. Franklin violates his patient's rights six ways from Sunday, and violates the rights of the kid's parents to boot. He would have been sacked immediately and prevented from ever practicing medicine again.

I haven't seen this episode, but without going too deeply into real world issues... in many countries, including the UK, a parent could not refuse, say, an appendicectomy or a blood transfusion on behalf of their child if it was needed to save their child's life. Doctors would be legally bound to act in the child's best interests regardless of parental opposition. But they might need a court order to do so if the parents were really obstructive.

[Douglas]

The thing that really annoys me about Believers is that it's easy to combine the pieces of information presented in the episode with a tiny bit of real world medical knowledge to arrive at a treatment that would have both worked and been compatible with the parents' beliefs.

The problem is that the parents beliefs prohibit cutting the child's body, which the standard surgery treatment would require. Those same beliefs also state that the child's body would never harm itself. The child is ill because of an unusual growth (tumor, maybe?) that is blocking an airway. That growth is clearly harming the child, which by the parents' beliefs means it must not be part of the child's body. That in turn means that cutting the growth itself would be allowable, if you can just reach it somehow without cutting anything else.

The growth is blocking an airway, which means there is an open path for air to flow between it and the surrounding environment. It should be possible, especially with over 200 years of additional advancement in medical technology plus anything received from aliens, to feed a tiny surgical instrument down that path to reach the growth and carefully cut only the growth itself to remove it. Similar tools and procedures are already well established in real world use.

It would be utterly trivial to change the episode to remove this option - just have the growth blocking a blood vessel or something instead of an airway - but as written I see it showing a highly skilled professional ignoring something that should be a standard tool of his trade and is perfect for the job.

[Cikomyr]

I like that Santiago guy who. I hope he sticks around.

[Rakaydos]

I like that Santiago guy who. I hope he sticks around.

well, he was just elected for a 5 year term, and it's a 5 year show. What could go wrong?

[Fyraltari]

He never once entertains the possibility that their faith is based on actual knowledge of their species that they don't fully understand, despite the fact that HE ADMITS that he knows nothing about them.

He does actually, he tasked the other doctor with doing research on that species and asked her before the operation if she'd found something that would make it dangerous, like if the beleif had any basis on verified fact.

[Rodin]

I haven't seen this episode, but without going too deeply into real world issues... in many countries, including the UK, a parent could not refuse, say, an appendicectomy or a blood transfusion on behalf of their child if it was needed to save their child's life. Doctors would be legally bound to act in the child's best interests regardless of parental opposition. But they might need a court order to do so if the parents were really obstructive.

If they actually went that way we could have had an interesting episode. Having an actual debate over who has jurisdiction (Babylon 5, the star nation these folks belong to, the parents themselves, or the child) would have been an interesting dilemma. It would be a very Star Trekkie one, but still.

Instead, everybody else disavows responsibility, and Sinclair makes the decision. And he says no.

The parents say no. The child says no. Granted, the child is a minor, but they are shown to be old enough to understand "I must have this surgery or die". The closest thing we have to a court in the episode (Sinclair) also says no. And while we don't hear from a representative of the family's government, it's probable that they wouldn't be interested in sticking their noses into a religious issue either. Especially if these are Planet of Hats style aliens and the whole lot of them share this belief. Given how open the family are about the ritual killing of their child, I find it unlikely that their government has a difference of opinion.

Franklin goes ahead anyway. He's gone against everybody and possibly caused a major diplomatic incident by ripping the soul out of a young child, at least according to the religion of the aliens.

I find all of that very hard to take, but it is at least in character for Franklin. What was truly stupid was handing the child back. It should be obvious to anyone that the parents are going to think their child is a soulless abomination and terrible things are likely to happen. Franklin doesn't do the research on what the consequences are in their culture until after performing the procedure and returning the kid. Again, this is something that would likely have come up if Franklin had gone through proper channels. Set up a custody hearing. Have THAT be a focus of the episode. Don't just blithely send the kid off to either death or life as an outcast!

Frankly, the whole thing would have worked a lot better as a Law & Order episode. What's more irritating is how we have a similar episode with the telepath girl. It's handled much, much better than this.

-----

While looking up stuff about Santiago, I happened across the Lurker's Guide page for Midnight on the Firing Line. Apparently when the episode first came out, the fans were rather interested in spoo. That's the non-descript alien lunch we see various people eating over the course of the series. JMS's response is rather marvelous.

Quick replies to your questions: Spoo is. What else can one say about spoo?

What is spoo? Spoo....is.
(Spoo is also Oops spelled backward.)

Spoo 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.
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.

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.

Spoo are the only creatures of which the Interstellar Animal Rights Protection League says, simply, "Kill 'em."

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.

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.

Re: your desire to make and eat spoo at home...depends on whether or not you ever want to have children later....
What does spoo taste like?
Meat Jello.
Served chilled.

I have no idea whether any of that is canon, or just pure snark from JMS poking fun at the fans who are more interested in the cuisine then the plot of the opening episode of his magnum opus. Either way, it's hilarious.

[Olinser]

I have no idea whether any of that is canon, or just pure snark from JMS poking fun at the fans who are more interested in the cuisine then the plot of the opening episode of his magnum opus. Either way, it's hilarious.

This was the viral videos of the 90's. Random stuff just takes hold and people demand answers.

Sandra Bullock said for DECADES one of the most common questions she got asked, regardless of location, was 'How do the three seashells work?' It was a pointless side joke from Demolition Man, and people wanted answers for decades.

[Cikomyr]

This was the viral videos of the 90's. Random stuff just takes hold and people demand answers.

Sandra Bullock said for DECADES one of the most common questions she got asked, regardless of location, was 'How do the three seashells work?' It was a pointless side joke from Demolition Man, and people wanted answers for decades.

And this started the trend of "movies that are made just to explain stuff" which is stupid and wasteful.

[Rakaydos]

And this started the trend of "movies that are made just to explain stuff" which is stupid and wasteful.

I blame the original Star Wars EU, which gave every random backround character a name, backstory, and sideplot.

[Cikomyr]

I blame the original Star Wars EU, which gave every random backround character a name, backstory, and sideplot.

I would totally be in favor of a Demolition Man remake. The message and sensibilities are eerily on point, and could be subject to a healthy update.

But god help me if they explain the three seashells.

[Yora]

S1E12: By any Means necessary

The dock workers on the station are swamped in work that causes delays with departures and arrival, which leads to a Narn freighter trying to skip the line, causing a major accident in the cargo bay, which kills several workers. The leader of dock workers guild protests about the unsafe work conditions and Sinclair promises to try getting the required funding to finance the necessary changes.

Among the cargo destroyed in the accident is a ritual plant that G'Kar was urgently waiting for an important ceremony. He tries to find someone on the station who might be able to deliver one on short notice, but the only one that Na'toth can find is owned by Londo.

Sinclair calls his superiors on Earth, but is being told he has a sufficient budget for dock operations and will have to make do with it. Since the workers are on a special government contract they have no right to strike, but lots of them decide not to show up for work anyway, causing additional delays. Garibaldi goes down to talk with the guild leader and the foreman but they refuse to work under unsafe conditions. Sinclair reminds them that he will be forced to arrest them, but they are willing to risk it.

G'Kar goes to Londo to politely ask him to sell his plant. Londo says he really wanted to use it to make fancy drinks with it, bur makes an offer for an outrageous price that has G'Kar storm out in anger.

Sinclair gets a call from his boss who has heard about the workers refusing to work, which is unacceptable for a military station, and is sending a specialist to deal with the situation. Unsurprisingly, the workers don't like him, but the guild leader and foreman seem to be sympathetic with Sinclair's situation, who makes real efforts to do what he can to help their case.

G'Kar decides to get the money, but Londo no longer wants to sell. G'Kar goes to Sinclair in the middle of the night to ask with help to get the plant. Since he's the highest ranking member of his sect on the station, he has to perform the ritual at sunrise on the holy day, and since the delivery of the first plant had been delayed until the last moment, there is no more time to send for another one. Since the plants are from the Narn homeworld and important cultural objects, he will go to the council of ambassadors and demand that it is given to him as a stolen religious artefact id Londo doesn't want to give it up.

Sinclair goes to Londo to polite ask him, but Londo actually enjoys pissing off the Narn on principle. G'Kar tells Na'toth to try stealing it. To make things worse for Sinclair, the workers declare that they will resist getting arrested by security. He also gets a call from Earth that an arrest for the strikers has been ordered. Garibaldi has to go, but Sinclair tells Ivanova he needs to see the specific laws that apply to the situation.

Sinclair calls Garibaldi to have security pull back so he can talk with the workers. Since the law gives him full autonomous authority to break up strikes by any means necessary, he is transferring the necessary money from the station's defense budget to the infrastructure budget and pay for the safety upgrades and additional workers. He's also offering an amnesty to all workers who return to work. The government negotiator says Sinclair can't do that, and he could not, until the negotiator recommended the government to declare an emergency state that gives Sinclair the authority to override regular rules.

Londo caught wind of the attempted theft, of the plant and so G'Kar stole the statue of his house deity to take it hostage in exchange for the plant. Sinclair tells Londo that the plant is classified as a controlled substance and requires a special permit for medical or religious reasons. If he hands it over to him, he won't be charged with smuggling it on the station. And G'Kar has to return the statue. Londo doesn't really care since the time for the ritual has already passed and his work is done. Sinclair reminds G'Kar that while he missed the moment of the ritual, the light from the sunrise will take 12 years to reach the station, and it just so happens that in a few hours, the light from the holiday 12 years ago will arrive here. G'Kar agrees that this will be good enough.

Sinclair gets another call from his boss who informs him that the senate has decided to let him get away with his solution to the strike, but he made himself very unpopular with a number of powerful politicians with that move.

--

I feel we are starting to getting there. Like S1E9 Deathwalker, this one goes beyond just being adequate to being actually quite entertaining. The conflict of the episode is interesting and still feels fresh, because I don't think I've ever seen something comparable on any sci-fi show. Nor would I expect it. I've never watched the Expanse, but it's the only one that seems to have a style were something like this would fit. The government negotiator is a bit excessively slimy, but for Babylon 5 this is kind of a given.

Since the first episode, this seems to be the first time that Londo and G'Kar were actually clashing with each other. And this time it's Londo kicking G'Kar in the teeth just to spite him and for no other reason. But I find it interesting that 12 episodes in, they are only hating each other on racist principle, but there's not actually anything personal yet.

Is it just me, or have we not really seen anything of Ivanova yet since the first episode when she was mean to Talia? I feel like so far it has been a Sinclair and Garibaldi show, and a Londo and G'Kar show. (Though in my opinion, the entire series is really the Londo and G'Kar show.)

[Lord Vukodlak]

Since the first episode, this seems to be the first time that Londo and G'Kar were actually clashing with each other. And this time it's Londo kicking G'Kar in the teeth just to spite him and for no other reason. But I find it interesting that 12 episodes in, they are only hating each other on racist principle, but there's not actually anything personal yet.

I think you forgot about the Narns making Londo’s nephew read that false statement and G’Kar lying about not knowing about the attack. Lando didn’t which is why he refused to sell the plant.

[Saph]

I feel we are starting to getting there. Like S1E9 Deathwalker, this one goes beyond just being adequate to being actually quite entertaining. The conflict of the episode is interesting and still feels fresh, because I don't think I've ever seen something comparable on any sci-fi show. Nor would I expect it.

It's a conflict centred around workers vs employers, and on a larger scale, working class vs managerial class. The reason it feels so rare is that it's a topic that fell almost completely out of favour with UK/US story writers somewhere in the 1990s, due to the changing social demographics among people who work in arts/the media. Very interesting subject but hard to discuss without getting into contemporary politics.

I think you forgot about the Narns making Londo’s nephew read that false statement and G’Kar lying about not knowing about the attack. Lando didn’t which is why he refused to sell the plant.

Yeah, this. Londo has already been given a very personal reason to hate G'Kar, and the Narns hate the Centauri so much that G'Kar doesn't need a personal reason to hate Londo.

[bguy]

I feel we are starting to getting there. Like S1E9 Deathwalker, this one goes beyond just being adequate to being actually quite entertaining. The conflict of the episode is interesting and still feels fresh, because I don't think I've ever seen something comparable on any sci-fi show. Nor would I expect it. I've never watched the Expanse, but it's the only one that seems to have a style were something like this would fit. The government negotiator is a bit excessively slimy, but for Babylon 5 this is kind of a given.

Ugh! Didn't care for this one. The government negotiator seems like a Captain Planet villain, and the idea that a democracy with a televised media would even consider using lethal force on striking workers is just absurd. (Governments using force on striking workers was highly controversial in the 19th century, so there's no way I could see it in the 23rd century barring total societal collapse somewhere along the way.) Sinclair's solution also felt unearned because even though him taking so much money from the station's defense budget should realistically negatively affect the station's ability to defend itself going forward, you know the show will never actually go there and have any of Sinclair's troops die because they were inadequately trained due to Sinclair spending their training money to settle a labor dispute. Thus Sinclair basically got to solve the problem for free which cheapens the whole episode.

[factotum]

Yeah, this. Londo has already been given a very personal reason to hate G'Kar, and the Narns hate the Centauri so much that G'Kar doesn't need a personal reason to hate Londo.

That all happened in the first episode, though, and Yora said G'Kar and Londo hadn't had a reason to needle each other *since* that episode?

As for the episode itself, it's kind of weird that an episode which is fundamentally about labour relations is better than the more explicitly Star-Trekky antics of "Believers". I think that's something B5 did very well, though--even at the height of the main plot there were still chances for common folk to make themselves known; and you would never get anything like Downbelow on a Star Trek episode.

[Douglas]

This is one of my early favorites, with major characters using clever thinking to solve problems. It also did a great job of highlighting what the current Senate is like, and contrasting it with Sinclair.

The Senate clearly intended that Sinclair should end the strike by force, cracking down on the workers that dared to stand up for themselves and arresting them with station security forces. They didn't dare actually make that explicit in their official orders to Sinclair, at least not yet, and he exploited that to do the opposite. The station-wide announcement about it was great, with him announcing he'd been ordered to end the strike "by any means necessary", and then saying he'd determined that the necessary means were agreeing to the strikers' demands.

[Yora]

One thing I forgot to mention is that I feel this episode establishes that the Earth Alliance are not the good guys in this universe. PsiCorps was super ominous, and that the characters suspected that the two men sifting through Sinclair's mind were government agents also didn't speak well of the government. Then you also get the hints that the Home Guard has support in high places and that the last election was a somewhat tense affair.
Sinclair is a great guy and Garibaldi and Ivanova are also firmly on the side of justice, but they really don't seem to be representative of the Earth Alliance at all. It really is not the Federation by a long shot. That this episode deals with civilian contractors working on a commercial port, which is a very unusual subject for military sci-fi, highlights that we're not just dealing with some shady generals, but that there are serious tensions about authority running through all of human society.
The villain is cartoony, but I think this is some really remarkable worldbuilding here. I also very much appreciated the early scenes with the dock workers at work and then the emergency response teams arriving to contain the damage and rescue trapped victims. I criticized the earliest episodes for looking awfully low-budget, but here the director managed to actually make it look pretty fancy.

I think you forgot about the Narns making Londo’s nephew read that false statement and G’Kar lying about not knowing about the attack. Lando didn’t which is why he refused to sell the plant.

That was the first episode that I mentioned as the one exception, or am I mistaken?

[Lord Vukodlak]

Ugh! Didn't care for this one. The government negotiator seems like a Captain Planet villain, and the idea that a democracy with a televised media would even consider using lethal force on striking workers is just absurd. (Governments using force on striking workers was highly controversial in the 19th century, so there's no way I could see it in the 23rd century barring total societal collapse somewhere along the way.) Sinclair's solution also felt unearned because even though him taking so much money from the station's defense budget should realistically negatively affect the station's ability to defend itself going forward, you know the show will never actually go there and have any of Sinclair's troops die because they were inadequately trained due to Sinclair spending their training money to settle a labor dispute. Thus Sinclair basically got to solve the problem for free which cheapens the whole episode.

No ones talking about lethal force but arresting them for violating their government contracts. Second you assume that military budgets (or any government budget) is actually set by needs and not get as much as you can.
If military readiness costs come in under budget they can’t ask for a bigger budget next year. The military’s probably greatly pleased Sinclair found a useful way to spend that money.

[Yora]

S1E13: Signs and Portents

I've been waiting for this one for weeks, so I don't want to wait for tomorrow.

Ivanova sluggishly drags herself out of bed in the morning, not looking forward to another day of work. This seems ominous by the very fact that we're shown this.

When she arrives at work, the station receives an emergency call from a human fighter that is being attacked by raiders, but it's shot down almost immediately, long before the station's fighters can get to him. Sinclair, Ivanova, and Garibaldi are having a meeting about how to prevent ships from avoiding the station because of raider attacks. The raiders also seem to be very well informed about where to strike, and so they will try asking scheduled ships to inform the station of valuable cargo,
Sinclair then has a private talk with Garibaldi about his memory loss from the battle with the Minbari and asks him if he can dig around and learn something about what happened 10 years ago. He's pretty sure Delenn is involved somehow and digging around might get both of them in deep trouble, but Garibaldi is on to it.

Londo gets a delivery from a group of human "contractors?" who have acquired a missing piece of the ancient imperial regalia of the Centauri. He is extremely excited and grateful, but the people tell him not to ask questions where and how he got it. Which is okay with him. Meanwhile they are being watched by a human man with a slightly creepy smile sitting at the bar. On the way back to his quarters he runs into G'Kar waiting for an elevator and they end up getting into an angry racist shouting match.

The man from the bar goes to G'Kar quarters to deliver him a proposition. All that he asks is for G'Kar to tell him what he wants. G'Kar doesn't understand what this is about and tells him he just wants the man to leave him alone. But as he opens the door, G'Kar stops him and tells him that he wants is to see the Centauri destroyed and humiliated and to get revenge for the Narn. The man asks what would come after that, and thinking for a moment G'Kar says that as long as his people are safe, it really doesn't matter to him. The man thanks him and leaves.

Londo is greeting a Centauri delegation that arrives on the station to take the jewel. The diplomat brought his aunt with him who is a powerful seer, and when she takes Londo's hand she's starting to feel strange. Shortly after she is having a vision about the station being doomed and passes out. Londo is worried but the diplomat tells him not to. His aunt often has nonsensical visions and once prophesied that he would be killed by shadows. As Londo takes him to his quarters, they are followed by a human man.

The strange human goes to Delenn to also ask her what she wants. Delenn is suspicious of what he wants but suddenly has a realization and tells him to leave immediately.

Londo shows the jewel to the diplomat and have a conversation about corruption in the Centauri government and their empire growing weak He thinks he should use the opportunity to use the prestige of the jewel to claim the throne for himself, which Londo cautions against.

Another transport is attacked and calls for help, and Ivano takes a fighter wing that was on standby to respond immediately. But Sinclair notices that this attack is very far away from the station compared to previous ones.
At the same time, Kosh is returning to the station on his ship. As he goes to his quarters he is spotted by the strange man.

Londo is on his way to deliver the box with the jewel to the diplomat's ship without raising attention and is caught by the man who asks him as well what he wants. Londo shoos him away but he follows him into the elevator to repeat his question. Finally Londo gives in and holds an angry speech about wishing for the Centauri to return to power and glory and to be feared again.

As he meets the diplomat and his aunt they are attacked by humans who shot their guards, take the box, and order them to follow.

Sinclair finds out that the transport is only carrying construction supplies and Ivanova reports that the raiders are retreating and she is pursuing them. Sinclair orders her to return to the station immediately. He checks the departure schedule and thinks the Centauri diplomatic shuttle could be targeted. He goes down to the departure area to tell the Centauri about his concerns and that their departure will be delayed, so the human criminal takes the diplomat as hostage and demands to get to the ship and leave. The diplomat's aunt tells Londo that this is when the shadows will kill her nephew.

Sinclair calls Garibaldi to take the remaining fighters and disable the engines once the ship leaves the station. Since the ship has no jump drive and the jump gate is controlled by the station, they will have nowhere to go. Then a raider carrier ship jumps out from hyperspace and launches its fighters. Sinclair puts the station on battle alert. The strange man is stopped in an empty corridor by Kosh who tells him "Leave this place. They are not for you."

The raiders keep Garibaldi's fighter occupied and the shuttle gets away to the carrier. Ivanova arrives to help out with the fighters, but they are too late to stop the carriers jumping to hyperspace.

The station is relatively undamaged and they have only one pilot killed and one injured, but they managed to destroy all of the raider fighters. Also Kosh is requesting material to repair his suit, but isn't telling what caused the damage. Sinclair calls Londo and the seer to his office to ask them what the attack was all about.

On the raider ship, the diplomat is very pleased with how the raiders got him and the jewel off the station, but the raiders backstab him and throw him in a cell to keep the jewel for themselves.They don't think his plan to become Emperor has any chance to succeed, so they just ransom him and the jewel back the Centauri and will also extort him for money to not tell anyone that this was all his plan. But they are interrupted when a strange big black ship becomes visible right next to them and destroys them with a single shot.

Londo thinks he is ruined with the jewel being stolen right from under his eyes, but the strange human comes to his quarters to return the jewel to him, as a gift from powerful friends.

Garibaldi found some first clues about Sinclair's request and discovered that the Minbari where the first power that signed up to support the building of the Babylon stations, but with the demand that they could veto any commander they didn't like. And of all the candidates they would only accept Sinclair and nobody else. (And as established earlier, Babylon 5 is the first station that made it into service.)

Before the Centauri seer leaves, she tells Sinclair that she still has the vision of the station being destroyed and telepathically shows it to him. But she encourages him that the future is not set in stone and things might change depending on what happens in the meantime.

--

Yeah, this is why we are all here!

Except the people who have not seen the show before. This is why the rest of us have been telling you about the show for 20 years!

Though actually we're still only getting hints here. Or in other words, signs and portents. I don't want to give away too much here for people who have not seen it, and remind everyone else to think what might need spoiler boxes or not, but this episode is just loaded with so many details that foreshadow much of the plot of the series that its very easy to forget half of them by the end of the episode. Maybe it might even be worth watching it twice. When you see something that makes you think "what could that mean?", it's probably the start of a major plot arc for the next three seasons.

Spoiler: Mentioning things that I recognized as being important, without talking about what they will mean for later

Show

So much going on with Mr. Morden here. Which for anyone reading this who hasn't seen the rest of the show, is the mysterious man visiting the ambassadors.
G'Kar says he just wants the Centauri destroyed and after that he doesn't care. There is no long term goal in this and there's no selfishness in his motivation.
Londo desires greatness and power, not really for himself, but for his people. This will be a long term effort that is all about pride.
Delenn has a good idea what powers he represents and she fears and rejects them.
And Kosh seems to know exactly who he is and what his goal is. And he directly confronts and threatens him. With the big space battle scene that follows, this short moments seems like something that might be easy to forget in the heat of the moment, especially if you don't already know what the whole deal with Kosh is. At this point, we have not really seen anything about the Vorlons except for the weird assassination attempt on Kosh and the Vorlons killing Deathwalker without any warning. At this point, Kosh is just weird, but doesn't seem to be connected to anything.
And then later we get a short mention that Kosh needs to do some repairs to damage to his suit. He just left his ship returning from the homeworld and we never saw the end of his encounter with Morden. This moment is major and so easy to overlook.

We also get some more stuff with Centauri being able to see the future. And it's not looking good.

Also a bit more detail on what's the deal with Sinclair and the Minbari, and now we are getting a pretty clear promise that this is going to be a bigger storyline as the series continues.

Aaaand we get the first appearance ever of the battlecrab ever. Looking all freakish and menacing, doing its trick with appearing out of nothing, and then cutting through a capital ship with a single shot. These ships make it into my top 5 ships ever, and probably pretty high among these.

Spoiler: More major spoiler about the ship and also Mass Effect.

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Somehow I only realized now that the Reapers from Mass Effect are functionally pretty much the same as the shadow ships. Look like a really weird ship, but are actually huge aliens with psychic powers that rampage through the galaxy ripping apart anything in their path and wiping out civilizations.

Space battles so far had been pretty small things with not that much too look at. This episode jumps fully into it. Sure, the CGI looks super obvious and very dated, but since everything we see are space ships and lasers that is not actually a problem or makes the whole thing look bad. I think it also helps with establishing the "landscape" of the battlefield, which we will see again many times more in the future when there are many more ships chaotically flying all over the place. Not sure how necessary this actually is, but it can't hurt to get a good look at how things are set up while its fairly uncrowded. We have the station at the center with the command center and the fighter bays in the front, which are looking towards the jump gate that is located a decent distance ahead from the transport dock and command center. And then there is there's the "big open field" to the right of the station, and the "smaller field" to the front-left of the station, left of the jump gate. (Where the raider carrier was hanging around, I think.)
While this is space and you could have ships coming from every direction, I think the show stays very consistent and only ever has ships approach either from the jump gate in the front, or from the open space to the right. This might have had technical reasons, but it also makes things simple to follow for people who easily get lost in 3D space. I believe at no point ever do you see ships approaching from the top, bottom, back, or left side.
I think it all looked pretty good, but there will be so much more stuff on the screen in the future.

I also liked that we get some insight in who the raiders are and what they are doing. Apparently they actually are fairly normal pirates who have been saving up for years to buy themselves a properly big warship. If I recall correctly, they said something about the small carrier having been funded by the Centauri diplomat in exchange for their service.

Spoiler: Clearing up my suspicions about mysteries backers

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I had been thinking that perhaps the raiders might be pawns of shadow agents trying to disrupt traffic lanes to the station, and occasionally doing kidnappings and assassinations to further their cause. If that were the case there would have been no point in destroying the raider ship. Without the ship and having lost all its fighters, I think the raiders might be completely wiped out now.

[comicshorse]

One thing I forgot to mention is that I feel this episode establishes that the Earth Alliance are not the good guys in this universe. PsiCorps was super ominous, and that the characters suspected that the two men sifting through Sinclair's mind were government agents also didn't speak well of the government. Then you also get the hints that the Home Guard has support in high places and that the last election was a somewhat tense affair.
Sinclair is a great guy and Garibaldi and Ivanova are also firmly on the side of justice, but they really don't seem to be representative of the Earth Alliance at all. It really is not the Federation by a long shot.

Depends which Federation we are talking about

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terran..._(Blake%27s_7)

( Yes I know, I'm old)

[Rodin]

Ugh! Didn't care for this one. The government negotiator seems like a Captain Planet villain, and the idea that a democracy with a televised media would even consider using lethal force on striking workers is just absurd. (Governments using force on striking workers was highly controversial in the 19th century, so there's no way I could see it in the 23rd century barring total societal collapse somewhere along the way.)

I don't want to go too far into this (because real-world politics), but a quick Google search proves this as being entirely wrong. There have been modern, 21st century strikes in democracies that have escalated to the point of worker deaths. If it's happening now, what makes you think it wouldn't be happening a couple centuries from now?

Especially since the Earth Alliance is shown to be significantly more repressive than many modern nations, even right from the start of the show. The Rush Act first came into being during, guess what, societal collapse. It was used as a way to put down work stoppages during the Earth-Minbari War. They just kept it around after the war was over.

On the episode itself, it's one of my favorite of the first season episodes. It first time we see G'kar and Londo truly going at one another, and the dynamism of that relationship is the best in the entire show. For the A plot, we have something that was noticeably lacking from DS9 - the station actually being a station. For all that DS9 was meant to be a trading hub for the gamme quadrant, we never saw any traffic going to and from the place. It was a stationary starship where we only ever saw the command staff, just like previous Star Trek shows. Babylon 5 feels like an actual place. Ivanova is constantly busy managing station traffic, and there are a couple of recurring minor characters on the command staff who we see regularly helping with this. The dock crew workers show up in several episodes. The Zocolo marketplace is always bustling with people. There's actual waiting rooms for passenger ships, just like in an airport, and we periodically have scenes in them.

----

Signs and Portents has the space battle that actually looks good. I like how they deliberately showcase tactics that only work in space with realistic physics, like Garibaldi shunting his Starfury sideways while still maintaining forward velocity.

Spoiler: On the raiders

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This is indeed the last time we see the raiders. They were clearly meant to be a starter villain, something to fill the space until the Shadows could be introduced. This episode wipes them out and sets up the growing threat, all in one go. Very sharp writing.

My one complaint is that the mysterious vessel obviously attacked the raiders to get the jewel back...which it did by lasering the ship in half. Good job the jewel wasn't in the way of that laser...or damaged by the explosion...and didn't have a bulkhead drop on it...or any of a hundred things that could have gone wrong.