“A Voice in the Wilderness, Part I”
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Janet Greek
Season 1, Episode 18
Production episode 120
Original air date: July 27, 1994
It was the dawn of the third age… B5 has been getting some strange readings from Epsilon III, the planet they’re in orbit of, so a geological survey team heads out in a shuttle, led by Dr. Tasaki. As it launches, Ivanova expresses concern that they haven’t heard anything from Mars in the latest batch of dispatches from Earth. That will probably be important later.
The shuttle has to turn back when an energy discharge from the planet destabilizes them. Tasaki isn’t sure what caused it, but he’s excited to go back and figure it out. A steady stream of energy pulses is coming from the planet now, which Sinclair orders Ivanova to keep an eye on.
After Delenn finishes a negotiation with Sinclair and Mollari, she returns to her quarters to find her old teacher and mentor Draal waiting for her. She is delighted to see him, though she is less delighted to learn why Draal is there. He is “going to the sea,” which appears to be a Minbari euphemism for suicide. Draal says he no longer recognizes Minbar and doesn’t want to be part of it anymore. However, he also says he’s not in a rush to get to the sea in question, and intends to spend as much time with Delenn catching up as he can, which placates her somewhat.
A breaking news report from ISN reveals that there has been rioting on Mars, with the Free Mars movement getting their hands on heavy weapons. Sinclair then sees the image of an alien asking him for help.
Sinclair and Ivanova discuss the Mars situation over breakfast. They figure that Garibaldi—who lived and worked on Mars prior to taking the post on B5—is beside himself. That is, if anything, an understatement, as Garibaldi is a mess, worried about what happened to his ex, Lise Hampton. He can’t get a signal through, so he goes to Winters to ask if she can talk to the secret Psi Corps base on Mars. Winters—who is already nonplussed by the fact that Garibaldi keeps showing up in the elevator when she wants to take it—is not thrilled that Garibaldi even knows about the facility. But she says she’ll talk to them and see what she can do, but no promises.
After being told very explicitly by Ivanova not to go into the atmosphere, Tasaki takes his shuttle into the atmosphere. (Ivanova sent Starfuries to escort them this time, but they aren’t designed to function in an atmosphere.) Sure enough, some missiles fire on the shuttle, which the Starfuries are (barely) able to distract or destroy. The shuttle and Starfuries head back to the station, where Tasaki reports that the missiles were fired from a crevasse that’s about five miles deep, and which wasn’t on the original survey—but which may have been created by the recent seismic activity.
Because it may be a first contact situation, Sinclair and Ivanova take another shuttle down to investigate what’s happening on Epsilon III. It was chosen as the site for B5 precisely because it was uninhabited, so they need to investigate. They fly down, avoiding the missiles, and disembark. They need breathing apparatus, and—after finding a corpse—are able to get past a brutal security measure. Eventually, they come across a massive machine whose components are miles long.
Winters gets in touch with the Mars Psi Corps base. They’re not happy that Garibaldi knows about the base—and they’re not even sure he really does, just that he suspects and is trying to verify it—but they do check on any mentions of Hampton. However, they can find no mention of her among the people who are accounted for. Garibaldi is confident that she’s okay for no obvious reason except for uncharacteristically cockeyed optimism (or denial).
Another bit of seismic shock hits Epsilon III, cutting Sinclair and Ivanova off from the shuttle. However, they find an alien attached to the machine: this is Varn, the same alien Sinclair and Mollari saw images of. He says they’re all in really big trouble. They free him from the machine and he leads them to the shuttle by another route so they can get him to medlab on B5.
As the shuttle takes off, the jump gate opens, and a big-ass ship comes through…
To be continued…
Nothing’s the same anymore. Proving that he doesn’t understand that he’s on a TV show where stuff like this wouldn’t be mentioned without a plot reason, Sinclair dismisses Ivanova’s concerns about the lack of news from Mars as probably being a glitch.
Ivanova is God. This section gets its title from Ivanova’s words to Tasaki after he disobeyed her instruction not to go into the atmosphere of Epsilon III with his shuttle: “I’d like you to take the time to learn the Babylon 5 mantra: ‘Ivanova is always right. I will listen to Ivanova. I will not ignore Ivanova’s recommendations. Ivanova is God. And if this ever happens again, Ivanova will personally rip your lungs out.’”
The household god of frustration. Garibaldi was dating Hampton on Mars, but when he got the offer to take the gig on B5, it led to an argument because she didn’t want to leave Mars.
If you value your lives, be somewhere else. Like far too many old people, Draal doesn’t like the way Minbar is going, because it’s not like it used to be, and these kids today don’t got no respect, and in my day Minbar was Minbar, dammit!
In the glorious days of the Centauri Republic… Mollari sees Garibaldi being all despondent crying into his water in the Zocalo, so he cheers him up with the story of an exotic dancer he saw perform whom he shortly thereafter married.
Mollari also is apparently completely bumfuzzled by the human song known as “The Hokey Pokey,” as he is having tremendous trouble determining how, exactly, that’s what it’s all about…
Though it take a thousand years, we will be free. While G’Kar does not appear in the episode, his nonexistent ears were likely burning at Mollari complaining about how difficult he is to negotiate with and how inevitable the Centauri-Narn hatred is and shall remain.
The Corps is mother, the Corps is father. Psi Corps has a sooper-seekrit base on Mars because of course they do. Garibaldi knows about it, because of course he does.
No sex, please, we’re EarthForce. Garibaldi obviously carries a big ol’ torch for Hampton.
Welcome aboard. Louis Turenne debuts the recurring role of Draal. He will continue in the role for Part II, but afterward, starting in season two’s “The Long, Twilight Struggle,” the role will be played by John Schuck. Turenne will return in the third season’s “Convictions” in another recurring role (one without heavy prosthetics), that of Brother Theo.
Curt Lowens plays Varn, who will also return for Part II. Jim Ishida plays Tasaki
Trivial matters. This is B5’s first two-parter, in part inspired by the strong sales of the VHS tapes of the two-hour pilot in Europe and Japan, and so they were encouraged to do another episode that could be similarly sold.
Two future recurring characters are first referenced in this episode: Garibaldi’s ex, Lise Hampton, who will appear in Part II, and Delenn’s fellow Grey Councillor (and fellow former student of Draal’s) Rarthenn, who will appear in “War Without End.”
This is the only mention of Mollari’s other wife, who would appear to predate the three arranged-marriage wives he mentioned back in “The War Prayer.”
The notion of Free Mars getting their hands on heavy weapons was first mentioned in “Eyes.”
The echoes of all of our conversations.
“It’s a Russian thing. When we’re about to do something stupid, we like to catalogue the full extent of our stupidity for future reference.”
—Ivanova to Sinclair as they go on their mission.
The name of the place is Babylon 5. “And so here we are: victims of mathematics.” It’s really hard to judge this episode on its own, for much the same reason why it’s hard to judge most any first part of a two-part episode: it’s all setup.
More to the point, it feels like it’s two separate episodes mushed together unconvincingly in order to make the two-parter that Warner Bros. could then sell as a two-hour VHS tape. This is not helped by a particularly weak cliffhanger. Rather than end on Sinclair and Ivanova finding Varn, they instead end on Sinclair and Ivanova having already rescued Varn and heading back to B5, thus draining any possibility of suspense. And the actual cliffhanger is Garibaldi saying “What the hell?” as a ship comes through the jump gate—a ridiculously commonplace occurrence.
Still, there’s some fun stuff here. While Garibaldi’s worry-about-his-ex storyline is kinda meh, the scene where Mollari cheers him up is beautifully played by Peter Jurasik and Jerry Doyle, with the added punchline of Mollari wandering off and sticking Garibaldi with the bill. That punchline, by the way, is funnier than Mollari’s attempted dissection of “The Hokey Pokey,” which didn’t tickle my fancy as much as it might have others, though you can totally see how someone unfamiliar with humans would be completely confused by it. Hell, I’ve been hearing it all my life, and I’m fairly certain I’m human, and I’m completely confused by it…
Mira Furlan beautifully plays Delenn’s affection for Draal, while Louis Turrene has a quiet dignity as Draal. And I adore Jim Ishida’s Tasaki and wish we’d seen him again, as his enthusiasm for science is adorable and infectious.
Plus, we’ve got the “Ivanova is God” speech. Honestly, the whole episode is worth it for that…
Next week: “A Voice in the Wilderness, Part II.”
Of course, the worst part is what if that is what it’s all about?
“Draal doesn’t like the way Minbar is going, because it’s not like it used to be, and these kids today don’t got no respect…”
What with their loud music and their hula hoops and their fax machines.
Also, don’t be too quick to judge. Because sooner than you think, you’ll be grousing in the same fashion.
Riffable moment: “I think I’ve got to go to the bathroom.”
Well, I said you shouldn’t have drunk all that soda pop before you left. So it’s all your fault if you have stinky, soggy pants until we get back.
Not a bad first half, but I have to question the logic of Sinclair and Ivanova agreeing not to send Dr. Tasaki’s shuttle back down until they figure out a way to do it safely, then settle for “send an escort of fighters that will be effectively useless where the shuttle needs to go.” That’s the best they could come up with? Also, a few of the missile attack and defense CGI shots were used twice.
I like the idea of telling a longer-form story that gives more room for character moments like Londo and Garibaldi’s scene, but it would’ve been better as a single double-length episode like on the overseas video release it was written to accommodate. As half a story, it does feel like not much happens.
Louis Turenne was pretty good as Draal, but I couldn’t help comparing him to John Shuck, who I knew would take over the role. I could actually see and hear a moderate resemblance, though his delivery isn’t as big and operatic as Shuck’s usually is. Anyway, it’s really weird to see a Minbari with facial hair. That’s often a problem when casting guest actors as hairless aliens — they’re generally not willing to shave for a one-shot appearance like they might be for a series regular gig, so hairless species often end up being just mostly hairless.
This is the first of four appearances of Kat Cressida as the Zocalo bartender, the one who demands Garibaldi pay for Londo’s drink. Cressida is usually a voice actress, perhaps best known as the voice of Dee Dee from Dexter’s Laboratory.
That one is on the civvies not the military. Tasaki and team were supposed to evaluate the situation WITHOUT going into the atmosphere, then they could formulate a plan based on the information gathered. Surely it was at least worth trying to gather more information without sending the shuttle back into the atmosphere– long scans and probes come to mind. He jumped the gun and almost got himself and his team killed, hence Ivanova’s rant.
I think that’s looking at it the wrong way around. The point of the mission was for the scientists to learn as much as they could. That means the scientists are the ones who got to decide what was necessary to do their job, and Ivanova’s job was to figure out a way to make that possible. Sending an escort of fighters that would be useless if atmosphere entry was deemed necessary was not an adequate solution to that challenge.
Moreover, that’s something she and Tasaki should’ve discussed and hashed out in advance, rather than just waiting until the mission was actually underway. They had a whole evening to strategize, and apparently didn’t bother to actually talk to each other about the mission parameters? No, it makes no sense to blame that purely on Tasaki.
The point is that by your standards, there was no adequate solution to that challenge. The station doesn’t have any fighters that are atmosphere-capable, and won’t get any until mid-Season 3.
So yeah, totally on Ivanova’s side. Quite literally, the best the station could do is non-atmospheric fighters; that’s inflexible, so the onus was on the survey team to work within what B5 could provide.
I just don’t buy that. It’s a 5-mile-long station whose job is to cater to the needs of visitors from dozens of different species, and it doesn’t have anything that could do the job? Heck, there might be visitor ships docked in the station that would have atmosphere capability and whose owners might be willing to help out with a scientific project. Or there might be a better, more creative solution than the kneejerk militarism of wanting to solve everything with guns and fighters. Problem-solving in novel situations should be left to scientists, creative thinkers, not soldiers whose default response is to rely on weapons.
And the point stands — even if this was their only option, they should’ve sorted that out beforehand. They had a whole night to talk about it and come to an agreement on the approach. For JMS to make a point of giving them that whole night to come up with a solution and then imply that they never even exchanged one word about it until the mission was already underway is just completely implausible and self-contradictory writing. Ivanova’s job was, explicitly, to find a way to let the scientists do their job safely. And she didn’t even consult the scientists at any point in her day-long problem-solving process? That just doesn’t make sense. I just resent the assumption that she was in charge and the scientists had to be blindly obedient, when her entire job was to serve their needs, to figure out a way to let them do what they needed to do. She failed in that job, or rather, JMS wrote her solution poorly.
I think they had to go into the atmosphere EVENTUALLY, but this was quite reasonably just supposed to be an initial survey mission to learn as much as they can without risking going into the atmosphere again. Pending the results of that mission, then they can formulate a mission that actually goes into the atmosphere. This may require calling in specialized help from EarthForce; as we found out in the raiders arc, Starfuries can’t co in atmosphere but there are other ships that can (compromising their effectiveness in space to have that capability). If Babylon 5 doesn’t have anything on hand, then doing what they can now while they await specialized equipment or come up with some jerry-rigged solution is totally reasonable. Granted, you are right though that this should have been an argument that occurred in a mission briefing, not on the fly. Babylon 5 and TV in general has a fair bit of, “wait, you should have had this conversation already” moments and this is one of them.
I still think that, instead of “The military officer dictates the limits on the scientific mission and the scientist gets chewed out for not blindly obeying,” the mentality should have been “The scientist determines what the scientific mission requires and the military officer figures out a way to let him do it safely.” The latter is literally what Sinclair ordered Ivanova to do, and her half-assed “just send some non-atmosphere-capable fighters and demand that the scientists limit themselves accordingly” approach fell very far short of the assignment she was given. Keith may have loved Ivanova’s “god” speech, but I think the speech is hypocritical, because she’s blaming Tasaki for something that’s really her own fault for coming up with such a token, barely useful solution to the problem she was assigned to solve — and, as we both agree, for not sorting that out with Tasaki beforehand. (Although the ultimate blame, of course, lies with JMS for setting up the situation that way.)
I generally agree that on the second trip they should have had a better plan in place, and that the science team should at least have had some input into that plan. But it seems to me like the science team was acting under station authority, somehow. They were *sent* to investigate, and the script seems to indicate that it was under Sinclair’s (and therefore Ivanova’s) order. This suggests that the crew might have been on staff, or commandeered, in which case they were presumably subject to the chain of command.
If that’s the case, then Ivanova’s order for them to stay out of the atmosphere may have been unwise, but they were still subject to it. Of course there are circumstances when orders are unlawful or can otherwise properly be disregarded. I don’t think any of those circumstances applied. So it seems quite possible that Ivanova was within her rights to to call them out for disobeying a valid order.
I think you are talking about *should* in a normative sense. I certainly agree that maximum dramatic tension is not the ideal goal for crisis management. But I’m not sure that I would agree that, in a situation that poses a potential threat to the station, the right answer is to delegate all risk assessment to the science team. Scientists are not necessarily good at that. The decision properly rests with the command staff, because that’s their job.
But I agree with the meta point that it was weird and a bit dumb to have them expressly decide to pause the investigation to make a better plan, and then not do so. If a second unsuccessful visit was needed to escalate tension, of which I’m not entirely convinced, that tension did not need to come from a conflict between the command staff and the science crew.
Yes, technically, sure, they were under Ivanova’s command, but that’s the point. It’s implausible that she set up the situation in such a careless way, without adequate advance coordination with the science team, that the depicted conflict happened at all. It shouldn’t have happened that way. If she’d done her job well, she would’ve worked with the science team ahead of time to come up with a good solution they were satisfied with so that they’d be on the same page. But JMS wrote it so that she didn’t do her job well, thus artificially creating the conflict.
“But I’m not sure that I would agree that, in a situation that poses a potential threat to the station, the right answer is to delegate all risk assessment to the science team.”
I didn’t say “delegate all risk assessment to the science team.” I said let the scientists take the lead in planning, because it’s their mission and Ivanova’s job was to enable them to do it. Just because one side takes the lead doesn’t mean it isn’t a team effort. Heck, that’s exactly the problem — that Ivanova evidently made her plans unilaterally and just expected the scientists to obey blindly instead of giving them a say in the planning process. The solution to that is not unilateral planning in the opposite direction, but healthy cooperation — it’s a science mission, so the needs of the scientists should guide the planning that the scientists and military come up with together.
As much as I like John Schuck (going all the way back to McMillan & Wife), I think I prefer Turenne’s Draal. I’d love to hear him deliver Schuck’s “You’re trouble. I like you.” line. You can almost hear him saying it to a young Delenn.
I’d have sworn both the Ivanova speech and the Hokey Pokey came later than this. Ivanova’s speech is so iconic and perfectly embedded in her character, it’s just something I naturally expect to be later.
Unlike Keith, I do like Londo’s attempt to grasp the Hokey Pokey. Of course, he’s baffled (JMS is perhaps also baffled). Over the show we’ll also see other attempts by Londo to grasp some minor bit of Earth culture with dubious success.
Also unlike Keith, I’m less thrilled with Jim Ishida’s portrayal of Dr. Takashi. There are some times early on where he feels awfully wooden, especially his delivery on the “deck of cards” line. He gets better as the episode progresses, but got off to a bad start with me.
The only sour note in this episode for me is when Sinclair sees Varn’s hologram. Writing a scene in which a character has what appears to be a hallucination when you know that the actor is actually suffering from hallucinations is kind of a dick move. It didn’t really need to be Sinclair who saw him. It’s not like this has anything to do with the escape hatch for the character that allows him to be written out with the possibility of a return.
Apart from that, though, it’s a fun episode. The roller coaster is just getting to the top of the first hill, and B5 is starting to feel like B5.
It really did have to be Sinclair who saw Varn’s hologram. It is explained in Part 2. Plus, reacting negatively to a real world situation people were not aware of (I don’t know when JMS became aware of O’Hare’s issues) seems a bit out of left field.
IIRC it was relatively early in the writing of the first season. But that said, my understanding was that O’Hare wanted JMS to stay true to the vision of the series, even if he wasn’t going to be able to continue. And Sinclair’s role in this story is true to the character.
“This is the only mention of Mollari’s other wife”
I’m not convinced she exists. I figured it was just Mollari trying to cheer up Garibaldi while getting a free drink in the process.
He’ll eventually say in “In the Beginning” that in his life he had four wives and there’s on other candidates so I think she’s legit
If I remember correctly, he says in a later episode that his family forced him to divorce his first wife, who was a dancer. And the fact it ties so well with his reaction/relationship with Adira in “Born to the Purple” makes me thing it is entirely true.
This is the episode that got me back into B5 after the awful pilot movie, due to the fact that they brought out the local DC shock-jocks Don and Mike to play a pair of aliens whom Ivanova greets at customs (I’m not sure if they’re in the first part or second.) You can recognize them because Don ad-libbed a response to Ivanova despite not having a line, and the producers kept it in because it wasn’t worth reshooting.
I think my favorite aspects of the “Ivanova is God” speech were the background people’s reaction after she was done, and the fact she apologized to God afterwards.
As much as the Free Mars movement would factor into the early parts of the second season, and of course eventually pay off in other ways, I always forget that this is when the big revolt on Mars takes place. Despite the connection with Garibaldi’s subplot, it is so off-screen that I almost forget it happens at all, despite the major implications for the future.
Here we get the first look at the Great Machine, which will factor into some important storylines in the seasons to come.
I really like Draal here, and though his speech does seem like the mutterings of every older generation judging those that follow, it echoes some of what we’ve already heard. And it informs some of the beliefs of the Minbari people, particularly those of the religious caste. A lot of the Minbari feel this way, and they don’t understand why they feel like a people in decline.
I enjoyed the episode – i haven’t seen the second part yet, so dunno what to expect, but this actually was enjoyable on its own – good characters were introduced – i got interested in both Tasaki and Draal. I also liked that everyone was actually helpful for a change – primarily Londo and Winters and Ivanova is just awesome. :)
But noone mentioned the insanity of sending both the CO and the first officer on a dangerous away mission? at this time TNG already realised that it’s not a great idea…
In addition to what Christopher posted from JMS, their context is also different. As originally conceived, 1701-D was supposed to be a deep exploration vessel and if they lose both their captain and first officer, those people can’t be replaced; the ship has to promote from within, wait for replacements to arrive, or scrub the mission and go home. Babylon 5 isn’t like that at all, hypothetically if Sinclair and Ivanova die, Earthforce can have interim replacements there within days and then figure out a permanent replacement.
JMS explained that in his online comments:
http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/guide/018.html
“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… 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.”
Although he could’ve put in a few lines of them explaining this to Dr. Tasaki when he asked to come along, or something.
How did I not realize Draal 1.0 and Brother Theo were the one and the same?
I had no idea this was part of a VHS double feature marketing ploy. “A Voice in the Wilderness” is such a crucial establishing chapter in the show’s mythology, even with the other subplots added in. Which is why I have a hard time seeing any other version of this story condensed into a single episode. There is a lot happening here.
The episode has its obvious highlights such as Londo’s story and Ivanova is God (she is). But I’m always onboard for any visit to Epsilon III. Some great CGI for the time it first aired – especially that shot of Sinclair and Ivanova stepping on a bridge in the midst of that massive Death Star-esque chasm. It finally fleshes out the world B5 orbits – literal worldbuilding as it unfolds. Yeah, it’s a lot of setup with no payoff, but at least it didn’t suffer from the warped expectations the Trek season-ending cliffhangers usually had – it’s one of the reasons part 2 of those shows never lived up to the premise. But a week between episodes is a lot more bearable than three months.
Personally, Garibaldi’s story in this one is one of the reasons I got so attached to B5. It’s not just the fact that he and Lise Hampton broke up because of his joining B5 over their relationship, or the fact that the Mars riots really makes us question whether she’s still alive. No, it’s the other elephant in the room. We know from past history, plus the look in his eye and the worry in his voice: one of the reasons they broke up was obviously because of his drinking. This alone does a lot more for Garibaldi’s character than “Survivors” ever did. He wants to make amends. He wants to rebuild what he lost. And Doyle sells that pain and regret in every scene (and Janet Greek captures every beat). For someone who had so little experience as a professional actor, it’s an impressive showcase.
I don’t see Draal’s worry about the Minbari and the future as a cranky old man’s misgivings. If anything, he’s acutely aware of the increasing tensions between the Minbari castes that have been growing since the war ended.
I could be wrong, but I have a distant memory of having watched a version of this episode that ended at the Draal reveal rather than the Garibaldi CnC cliffhanger. I agree that the ending cliffhanger scene is rather out of place, but I love seeing Garibaldi running the bridge – it’s a pretty rare thing to see on the show.
I think you’re the only person I’ve ever seen compare that chasm to the Death Star instead of the Krell complex in Forbidden Planet. (JMS said in his online comments that he hesitated to use that shot because everyone would see it as a Forbidden Planet homage, but it was the best design for what the shot needed to convey, so he went with it anyway.)
I am a bit disappointed to learn that JMS did not mean it as a Forbidden Planet homage. That is what immediately struck me when I first saw that scene in the initial airing. I always figured that it was his nod to classic SF movies and an Easter egg for fans who knew those classics.
In my defense, I have yet to watch Forbidden Planet. It is on my to-do list.
Then you can look forward to seeing dashing leading man Leslie Nielsen as the ur-Kirk
I dunno, I think the way Nielsen plays Adams is closer to Jeffrey Hunter’s Pike than to Kirk. Adams, Pike, and Kirk were all conceived in the traditional mold of a hard-edged, reserved military commander, but Shatner brought more warmth and humor to the role over time. Nielsen was known for his very serious acting, which is why he was cast in Airplane!, making it ironic that he parlayed his success in that film into becoming a goofy, clownish comedy actor.
I agree it’s hard to judge this episode because it is part of a 2 parter. Draal’s complaints about Minbar changing fleshes out what we learned in Legacies, Minbar is not a unitary, united planet. There are factions and some people are unhappy with the way Minbar is going. It is one of the strengths of B5 that, for the most part, all of the major races avoid being Planets of Hats, i.e. we are allowed to see there are different views of how policies should be carried out and what motivates their people. All Centauri aren’t yearning to return to the glories of the past. The Narn may be united in purpose, but they don’t always agree with how to carry that purpose out. Earth, is like today with differing political agendas. The Vorlons are, well okay, they are mostly mysterious, but they not all the same when it comes to dealing with the issues of the day.
Early on I thought this was going to end up being my favorite episode so far. I loved the writing of the trade negotiation scene and the reunion of Delenn and Draal, and I even cared a little bit about Garibaldi, though Sinclair should have lectured hm about being a creepy stalker. But the whole thing with the planet was a bore. There just wasn’t enough story there to capture my interest, and capturing a viewer’s interest is supposed to be the whole point of the first part of a two-parter. Hopefully the second part is more interesting.
I’ve put an inordinate amount of thought into how to explain the hokey-pokey to Londo Mollari:
Okay, so the most obvious thing is that the lyrics are dance moves. But the dance is called the Hokey-Pokey, so it’s a bit self-referential to say “do the Hokey-Pokey” whilst calling out dance moves to the Hokey-Pokey; except in practice, the Hokey-Pokey is the other moves in the song.
Alright, well what does Hokey-Pokey mean? Nothing. It’s two silly sounding nonsense words that rhyme.
“That’s what it’s all about? That’s what what is all about?” And the only answer that I can give is that it’s a line that calls attention to its own frivolousness. You could say, “the dance moves are what the Hokey-Pokey are all about,” but the deeper meaning is that there is no meaning. But of course the phrasing is interesting because, typically, in English, when you ask “what is it all about?” you mean it in a much broader sense–indeed, in the broadest possible sense: “what is the meaning of life?”
And so the deeper meaning of the song is that life is frivolous nonsense. But that makes it sound nihilistic , when the point of the song and dance is to have fun…
And then, of course, I feel like I would need to get into the history of dance as an art-form, the history of dance as a way of “stepping outside of yourself,” the cultural positioning of rock ‘n roll in 1950s America, the idea of “terpsichorean delights” and the long history of austere or authoritarian movements trying to control the types of dances you’re allowed to perform as a means of enforcing social conformity (maybe give him a copy of “Footloose” as supplementary study material), and, ultimately, the human (or at least Western) idea of oppositionality between the body and the mind.
And so, I would need to conclude that what the Hokey-Pokey is *really* all about is short-circuiting all of the elaborate weighty philosophical questions and concerns of the mind by bringing in the body to say, “Who *cares* what it’s all about? Who *cares* if life is a frivolous nonsense? It’s fun to wiggle your body parts in a circle with your friends!”
And that actually sounds like an answer that Londo would approve of. Probably Delenn too, come to think of it.
Londo. of all people, should understand the existential meaning of dance and its relationship to life. He gave a speech about that, not long ago.
I think what it’s really all about is whether the song is public domain so that JMS could use it without a licensing fee. Apparently the song’s existed in some form since the 19th century, but Sony/ATV Music Publishing has a copyright on at least one version of it. So it’s unclear.
The implication being it’s a REALLY BIG SHIP, though!!! Yeah, pretty anti-climactic. But also: In-universe, whoever placed the jumpgate and station needs to be fired. They, apparently, have no way of knowing if a ship is going to come through the gate if the ship chooses not to tell them– there’s no long range scanners into hyperspace, I guess, so the first they’re aware somebody is inbound is when the gate opens. And as we saw in Soul Hunter, if a ship comes out of the gate out of control, it’s on a collision course with the station for some reason. Some simple prudence would suggest placing the gate, say, ten minutes out from the station. That way if it’s the enemy there’s time to prepare and if it’s a friendly miscommunication there’s time to resolve it. That still leaves capital ships forming a jump point right on top of the station, but apparently there’s not much they can do about that.
Yes, Garibaldi initially dismisses the ship coming through the gate as unimportant. But that (recurring but as far as I can recall unnamed) female member of the command crew says “Mr. Garibaldi, its big!”. He turns to look. The gate opens, and *then* he says “What the hell?”.
I don’t recall whether this is a glitch in the DVD or whether the broadcast episode was like this, but on my DVDs, the *recap* in part 2 shows what it was that came through the gate, even though the part 1 episode did not. But there are some weird cuts in part 2 that make me wonder if my DVDs are missing or failing to play some scenes. Garibaldi’s reaction makes a bit more sense once you know what he is reacting to.
That’s Dome Tech #1 or Tech #1 played by Marianne Robertson. She was in the pilot and all but 2 episodes in the first season and then vanishes. She doesn’t have any other credits at IMDB before or after B5. The other recurring Dome Tech, who will eventually get a name, is played by Josh Coxx, who has had a small but decent career. I’m not sure which one is the show’s Eddie Paskey and which is John Winston.
Right, I guess that confirms that the character was never named.
No, turns out her name was actually Dominique E. Techone, Dom for short. ;)
Hokey Pokey??? Over here in the UK, it’s Hokey Cokey, which obviously makes more sense!!
They had me at “Ivanova is God.”
A Voice in the Wilderness Part 1. Well, this is it. This is the episode that got me “hooked” on Babylon 5. And it’s not because it’s a 100% great episode. It has great moments, but the plot about the survey of the planet is just sort of so-so. No, the hook was what Keith wasn’t impressed with: the cliffhanger/tease at the end. I think one thing this episode does well is build up the urgency: not much may be happening (yet), but there is a sense something will be soon. And this build up peaks with the cliffhanger.
One of the best things about season one was tech #1 (or sometimes tech #2), the accented woman in the command center. Sadly, like Rigel, who disappeared from the bridge of the original Battlestar Galactica midway through the first season (launch vipers when ready!), the female tech disappeared as the series progressed while the male tech ended up getting a name (Corwin), rank and real dialogue.
So, my hook came from this: as this episode is closing and an exasperated Garibaldi is reacting to Corwin telling him that a ship is coming through the jump gate, the female tech anxiously intones (and moves her head/upper torso purposefully to emphasize the import of her statement), “Mr. Garabaldi, it’s BIG”. And all this done with a voice sounding like she’s speaking with a mouth full of marbles (or perhaps swallowing a rodent aka Jane Badler). Then cue a freeze frame shot of Garabaldi looking quizzically while you get the B5-equivalent sound effect of the SVU “donk-donk”. This was probably then followed by a Zima commercial. I’m in!
I had forgotten the Ivanova is God speech from this episode, and it’s great, but frankly, I believe she tops it in part 2 in dialogue she has with Londo.
I took “going to the sea” to be a Tolkien reference — when Middle-Earth Elves go to the sea, they don’t die but they don’t return. The same seems to apply to Minbari here.
His speaking about going to see places and things he’d never seen before helped give that impression, too
Yeah, I got a very strong “Minbari = elves” vibe there. There are other Tolkien resonances in later seasons, but I don’t want to spoil anything.
I seem to be the only one who thinks that Ivanaova’s “I am God” speech is way over the top. Just as I think all the “that’s Russian” remarks are clichéd. They are one of the reasons why I never liked the Ivanova character.
When I first watched the episode many years ago, the “Hokey Pokey” song was completely incomprehensible to me as a non-English speaker who had never heard this song before. So I fully sympathized with Mollari’s puzzlement. In the meantime we have Wikipedia, so I learned that it is a song for a participation dance, but the meaning of the whole thing is still a mystery to me. So I was reassured to read that even Keith is confused by it.