“Eyes”
Written by Lawrence G. DiTillio
Directed by Jim Johnston
Season 1, Episode 16
Production episode 122
Original air date: July 13, 1994
It was the dawn of the third age… Garibaldi is restoring an old Kawasaki Ninja ZX-11 motorcycle from 1992. Lennier interrupts him with a security matter, but becomes intrigued by Garibaldi’s project, and asks if he can help. He has a lot of downtime with Delenn off-station, and he’s intrigued. Garibaldi shows him one of his stumbling blocks: the manual is in Japanese, which he does not read. Lennier takes the manual with the intent of studying it.
We then meet Colonel Ari Ben Zayn and a telepath named Harriman Grey, who are looking at various B5 personnel files, including those of Ivanova. They speak in vague terms that make it clear that they’re bad guys, though they (barely) stop short of cackling madly, and only don’t twirl their mustaches because they don’t have any.
Sinclair, Ivanova, and Garibaldi meet to discuss the recent terrorist attack on Phobos, which appears to have been by the Free Mars movement. Sinclair is worried that terrorists will take advantage of the rules allowing arms sales on B5 (which was insisted upon by several of the alien species) to do arms deals on the station.
Ben Zayn poses as “Aron Franks,” and starts asking Welch questions about Sinclair and the station. Welch is mostly peeved that “Franks” is interrupting his lunch. After Welch tells him to take a hike, he links Garibaldi.
Garibaldi quickly determines that “Franks,” and his associate Grey, have been on the station for three days, asking lots of questions about the station. Sinclair authorizes him to investigate further. Garibaldi goes to their shared cabin to talk to them, at which point “Franks” outs himself as Ben Zayn and Grey as a telepath. They’re from EarthForce Internal Affairs Division, colloquially referred to as “Eyes.” They’re conducting an investigation into B5’s command staff.
Sinclair isn’t pleased, but Ben Zayn’s orders come straight from the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Ivanova objects to Grey’s presence, as Psi Corps isn’t allowed to scan people without their consent. Ben Zayn announces that regulations have changed in that regard, and officers must submit to a psi-scan. In private, Ivanova makes it clear that she absolutely will not submit to any kind of telepathic scan under any circumstances. Meanwhile, Garibaldi looks into Ben Zayn and Grey on his own.
In CnC, Grey shows up, unannounced and unwanted, and despite Ivanova’s attempts to get him to leave (he’s unauthorized to be there, and besides, he’s annoying her). He explains that he dreamt of joining EarthForce ever since he was a little boy, but as a telepath he wasn’t allowed. He’s just trying to serve as best he can. Ivanova is uninterested and unimpressed. Then he mentions that she will have to submit to a scan, but it won’t be that bad, really, and Ivanova tears him a new one, reiterating that she will never submit to a scan.
Ben Zayn asks a lot of probing questions about specific decisions Sinclair made. Garibaldi warns the commander that Ben Zayn seems to be going after Sinclair specifically. Sinclair isn’t worried, as his decisions are on the record and already approved, but Garibaldi isn’t so sure, reminding him of what Ironheart told them about Psi Corps’ growing influence, and the fact that Sinclair pissed off a Psi Cop.
Lennier has been studying the history of the motorcycle (including a hilarious informative video), and also learning Japanese so he can read the manual. He offers to assist Garibaldi, but the security chief is incredibly distracted, and absently gives Lennier permission to work on the motorcycle without him. Later, Garibaldi returns to his quarters after working all night to discover that Lennier has also been up all night, working on the Ninja. Garibaldi grumpily kicks an abashed Lennier out of his quarters, though the former is impressed with what the latter has accomplished.
Ivanova hands in her resignation, but Sinclair refuses to accept it. He’s actually read the new regulation that Ben Zayn threw at them, and it’s very specific: a telepath can be used when charges have been made against an officer. No charges have been filed, so Grey can’t scan them. Grey agrees and leaves the room, annoying Ben Zayn, who then interrogates the shit out of Sinclair, questioning his decisions in virtually every episode prior to this one.
Grey goes to the Zocalo to try once again to suck up to Ivanova, admitting that he really doesn’t like Ben Zayn. When he mentions Psi Corps, her reaction is very powerful, so much so that he can’t help but detect what’s in her mind—and he’s surprised to see that she can tell she’s being scanned. (It turns out her mother scanning her as a girl made her sensitive to it.) Ivanova is called away to CnC, which is the only thing that saves Grey from having his head ripped off, and she leaves in a huff.
Ben Zayn’s questioning gets more severe to the point where Sinclair says he’s done with this. Ben Zayn, however, outranks him and orders him to remain, and then officially relieves him of duty on a charge of working against the best interests of Earth, which is vague enough to cover anything from sedition to treason. He also assumes command of the station. He orders Sinclair to be confined to quarters, escorted by Garibaldi, to await being scanned by Grey, which is now kosher with specific charges made. Sinclair appeals to General Miller, but to no avail.
Ben Zayn announces to CnC that he’s in charge now. He informs Ivanova that she, too, will be required to undergo a telepathic scan. She and Garibaldi confer after that, with Ivanova taking him up on his previous offer of a drink. He says he’ll meet her in the casino.
Before meeting her, he finishes his dive into Ben Zayn and Grey, and reports to Sinclair that Ben Zayn was in line to command B5, but was bigfooted by the Minbari insistence that it be Sinclair. Ben Zayn is also friends with Bester, who still is peeved at Sinclair for getting his aide killed and generally making him look bad during the Ironheart affair.
Garibaldi is then linked with a report that there’s a bar fight in the casino. He goes down to find that Ivanova is at the center of it, and is also the only one standing and not injured. Garibaldi manages to calm her down and get her out of there.
Ben Zayn starts his interrogation, with Grey, Ivanova, and Garibaldi all present, and also with it being recorded. Sinclair accuses Ben Zayn of carrying out a vendetta against the person who beat him out for command of the station, and also of colluding with Bester to go after Sinclair. Ben Zayn gets furious, enough so that Grey can detect his thoughts, and since it’s now legal for him to scan Ben Zayn, he does so, and determines that Sinclair is absolutely right. Ben Zayn pulls a weapon, but Grey is able to telepathically zap him enough so that Sinclair can sock him in the jaw.
Garibaldi returns to his quarters to find that Lennier has finished the Ninja. Garibaldi is at first disappointed, as he was looking forward to doing it all himself, but then Lennier shows that he’s put in a Minbari power source, so he can actually use it, which he wasn’t expecting to be able to do, since the original is based on a power source (fossil fuels) that is no longer in use.
As Sinclair and Ivanova talk about how things are back to normal now, Garibaldi and Lennier go zooming down a corridor on the motorcycle.
Nothing’s the same anymore. Sinclair stands by all his decisions and is exonerated when he, um, punches a superior officer. Sure.
Ivanova is God. At one point, Ivanova has a brutal nightmare involving her mother, who is flanked by two figures in tragedy and comedy masks. Ivanova also sees herself in her mother’s place. One suspects this nightmare has happened before…
She also gets into a bar fight and wins.
The household god of frustration. Garibaldi apparently has a thing for twentieth-century motorcycles to go with his thing for twentieth-century animation. (And twentieth-century comedy movies, based on his Abbott and Costello reference.)
If you value your lives, be somewhere else. Lennier learns Japanese and restores a three-hundred-year-old motorcycle in a day or two. Because he’s just that awesome.
The Corps is mother, the Corps is father. Grey is actually an ethical and decent Psi Corps representative, which makes him something of a rarity.
No sex, please, we’re EarthForce. Grey notices that Ivanova is thinking about Winters. This may be important later. It also may not be.
Looking ahead. The unrest on Mars mentioned will be seen more in the future. So will Psi Corps’ growing influence, as well as Bester’s animus toward the B5 crew. Also the casting of Macaulay Bruton as the guy in the tragedy mask is a tiny bit of foreshadowing.
Welcome aboard. Gregory Martin shouts his way through playing Ben Zayn who, despite being given an Arabic name, is played by a white guy from Hertfordshire. Frank Farmer plays Miller. Marie Chambers plays the dream image of Ivanova’s Mom, while Macaulay Bruton (who mostly plays one of Garibaldi’s unnamed security people) and Drew Letchworth play the “tragedy” and “comedy” figures, respectively, in Ivanova’s dream. David L. Crowley makes his second appearance following “Survivors” as Welch, making him officially a recurring character. He’ll return in “The Quality of Mercy.”
And this week’s Robert Knepper moment is the great Jeffrey Combs as Grey. I’d totally forgotten that Combs—who has played several billion roles on four different Star Trek series—appeared on B5 four months before his first Trek appearance.
Trivial matters. Ben Zayn specifically questions Sinclair’s decisions in “Midnight on the Firing Line,” “Mind War,” “Deathwalker,” “Survivors,” and “By Any Means Necessary.”
Garibaldi offered to buy Ivanova a drink in “Born to the Purple.” It was established that the Minbari insisted on Sinclair commanding B5 in “Signs and Portents.”
Although she is not seen, Lennier mentions that Shaal Mayan, from “The War Prayer,” is returning to the station. Because she was assaulted on that last trip, Lennier requests a security detail be assigned to her while she’s on station.
The chant Lennier does over the fuel injector (“Zabagabee”) is also the name of the best-of album by Barnes & Barnes, of which actor Bill Mumy is a member (along with Robert Haimer). Among Barnes & Barnes’ many songs is the classic, “Fish Heads.”
The echoes of all of our conversations.
“Do I have the colonel’s permission to speak freely?”
“Getting the truth is my job. I expect to hear it whenever you talk to me.”
“Well, in that case, I think this is the biggest pile of horse hockey I ever saw! Who the hell’s running EarthForce, Abbott and Costello?”
—Garibaldi speaking truth to power while referencing Abbott and Costello and Colonel Sherman Potter.
The name of the place is Babylon 5. “I don’t like being irritated—it gives me gas.” Just last week, I was discussing how having a good guest star can make an episode sing, and this episode is a prime example of the reverse of that, as Gregory Martin is embarrassingly terrible as Ben Zayn. His bad acting is contagious, too, as this is also one of Michael O’Hare’s absolute worst performances. The shouting match between Martin and O’Hare at the episode’s climax is just awful, a master-class in ineffective overacting to no good end.
Not that the episode’s script helps matters. First we get a wholly pointless misdirect, as we’re not initially told who our mysterious antagonists are. Besides the fact that we already did this in “And the Sky Full of Stars,” the deception lasts all of half a second before we find out it’s an investigation by the “Eyes.” So why bother?
In the abstract, it’s nice to see that some of Sinclair’s unorthodox solutions to some of the station’s problems are coming home to roost—except they don’t actually roost, they just sit there for a bit and then unconvincingly go away.
So it’s bad enough that we’ve suffered through the terrible acting of Martin and O’Hare and a mediocre script, but then we get to the end, and it somehow all is settled, and I didn’t buy that for a second.
Yes, this particular investigator was compromised, and perhaps should never have been given the assignment in the first place given his biases. But Sinclair’s conversation with Miller makes it clear that this goes a lot deeper than one colonel and one cranky-ass Psi Cop. It therefore makes no sense, none, that Grey’s scan and Sinclair’s belting Ben Zayn would be the end of it. Quite the opposite, as Ben Zayn pulling a weapon and Sinclair’s punch would both require an additional investigation.
The edges of the episode are fun. I love the fact that Ivanova wins a bar fight all by herself. While it’s more than a little cheesy that Garibaldi happens to be restoring a motorcycle from the era in which the show is filmed, that subplot is kind of adorable, mostly due to Bill Mumy’s earnest enthusiasm as Lennier. And Jeffrey Combs is always worth watching.
Still this episode is a disaster. It’s nice that it acknowledges what came before, but it doesn’t really address it in any meaningful manner. It would’ve been much more interesting to have an investigator who had a legitimate gripe against Sinclair, and who had a legitimate case against him. Instead, they went for the cheap conflict and the cheap solution.
Next week: “Legacies.”
