“Midnight on the Firing Line”
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Richard Compton
Season 1, Episode 1
Production episode 103
Original air date: January 26, 1994
It was the dawn of the third age… The Centauri agricultural colony on Ragesh III is the victim of a surprise attack, with the identity of the attackers left a mystery to the viewers.
On B5, new first officer Lt. Commander Susan Ivanova is informed of one of Sinclair’s eccentricities by Garibaldi, in this case that he spends some time every day in the observation dome with his link turned off. Ivanova goes to observation to inform him of the attack on Ragesh.
In the casino, Mollari tries to inveigle Garibaldi for a favor, but is interrupted by his new aide—also his entire staff—Vir Cotto, who informs him of the Ragesh attack. Mollari calls for an immediate emergency session of the council; he also receives apologetic condolences from Delenn and G’Kar, though Mollari is suspicious of the latter, despite his insistence on being ignorant of what has happened.
Ships in the area have been attacked by raiders. Garibaldi and one of his people take a couple of Starfuries out to investigate the latest attack.
New telepath Talia Winters reports in to Ivanova, who brushes her off.
Security footage comes in from Ragesh, revealing that the attacking ships are Narn, and they’re now occupying Ragesh. Mollari confronts G’Kar, and they almost come to blows. However, Mollari bumped into Winters en route to confronting G’Kar, and she was able to sense his murderous rage, so she warned security, who separate the ambassadors before they can kill each other. Later, in the ambassador’s quarters, Mollari apologizes to Sinclair, while the latter says that he’s agreed to call the emergency council session he wanted. However, Mollari has more skin in the game, as it were: his nephew Carn, is on Ragesh. Mollari pulled some strings to put him in charge of the agricultural colony in lieu of military service. He swears that if Carn dies, he will stop at nothing to go to war with the Narn.
Sinclair invites Kosh to attend the meeting, and he agrees to do so, but makes no commitment as to how he will behave.
Vir informs Mollari that the Centauri government has decided that there will be no response. Ragesh is too distant and too unimportant a part of the Republic to be worth dedicating the resources necessary to retake it. Mollari is livid and instructs Vir not to tell anyone what the government decided. He will try to talk the council into taking action against the Narn, and hope that the council’s action will embarrass his government into taking some as well.
Winters asks Garibaldi why Ivanova is being so standoffish. Garibaldi suggests meeting up with Ivanova at the bar when she’s off duty, and she might be more approachable. He also invites her to his quarters to share his “second favorite thing,” which sounds incredibly creepy.
G’Kar meets with Sinclair and making it clear that the Narn are out for Centauri blood, hoping to avenge their years of being subjugated by them. G’Kar also reminds Sinclair that the Narn sold weapons to Earth during their war with the Minbari, but Sinclair counters that the Narns will sell to anyone who’ll buy. The commander also is less than impressed with the Narns’ sneak attack on a civilian target.
Sinclair is instructed by a senator to abstain from the vote. There’s a presidential election about to happen, and Earth can’t afford to act as the galaxy’s police—at least not until after the election.
Garibaldi has turned up a connection among all the ships that were raided: they all bought their transport routes from the same company—which, it seems, has a leak. Sinclair decides to lead the Starfury contingent to protect what they believe to be the next target, leaving Ivanova to run the council meeting. Sinclair also tells her that he couldn’t find her to tell her the instructions from Earth, ahem ahem, so she’ll just have to vote yes to sanctions against the Narn…
In the council meeting, G’Kar reveals two things that kneecap Mollari’s plan. One is that he knows full well that the Centauri government’s official response is to do nothing. How can he ask the council to take an action his own government won’t take?
The second is the revelation that Ragesh was a Narn colony which was then taken from them by the Centauri when they conquered the Narn. The attack was simply taking back their world, and as “evidence” he provides a recording made by Mollari’s nephew Carn saying that they welcome their new Narn overlords and everything’s hunky dory and pay no attention to that gun to my head.
G’Kar moves that the motion to sanction Narn be dismissed, and it passes.
Sinclair and the Starfuries (totally the name of my next band) drive off the raiders, but doesn’t chase them, instead checking an asteroid field in the opposite direction, where he finds the command-and-control for the raiders.
There’s a Narn on that C&C base—as Sinclair said, the Narn will sell weapons to anyone. But they also leave someone behind to make sure they know how to use the weapons properly. That Narn also has data crystals that prove that—Carn’s testimony to the contrary—the attack on Ragesh was wholly unprovoked. Sinclair gives G’Kar an ultimatum: pull out of Ragesh, or he will show this evidence to the council. G’Kar chooses door #1.
Winters meets Ivanova in the bar, and the latter explains that her mother was a low-level telepath who refused to join Psi Corps. So she took the option of suppressing her telepathy with drugs. Those drugs changed her forever, and eventually drove her to suicide. So Ivanova is never likely to look kindly upon any member of the Corps.
Garibaldi has convinced Delenn to join him for his second favorite thing: a viewing of Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century, complete with popcorn. It’s not clear what Delenn is more baffled by, the cartoon or the popcorn…
The episode ends with the announcement that President Luis Santiago has been reelected.
Nothing’s the same anymore. Sinclair is a legacy, as his family have served in the military going back to the Battle of Britain. His grandfather, also in EarthForce, advised his grandson to trust what you see over propaganda. Because of that, early on before it’s revealed who’s behind the attack on Ragesh, Sinclair believes firmly that the Minbari weren’t responsible, because what he saw during the Earth-Minbari War showed him that the Minbari would never engage in a surprise attack on a helpless target.
Ivanova is God. Ivanova says she’s voting for Marie Crane for Earth President over the incumbent Santiago because the latter has a weak chin and she doesn’t trust someone with a weak chin.
The household god of frustration. Garibaldi is, it turns out, a Daffy Duck fan. Despite this, he never once tells Mollari that he’s despicable…
In the glorious days of the Centauri Republic… Earth’s first alien contact was with the Centauri Republic. The Centauri made a lot of wild claims to what they perceived as gullible humans, including that humanity was an offshoot of the Centauri. (When Garibaldi reminds Mollari of this, Mollari dismisses it as a clerical error.)
Though it take a thousand years, we will be free. The Narn obviously targeted Ragesh to see how the Centauri would react. It’s a gambit designed to see if war is feasible. That the Centauri declined to respond likely meant it was a successful one, even though they had to give up Ragesh.
The Corps is mother, the Corps is father. Any humans who are discovered to be telepaths are given three choices: join the Psi Corps, go to prison, or have your telepathy tamped down by drugs.
The Shadowy Vorlons. Sinclair visits Kosh when he’s out of his encounter suit, but he’s hiding behind a screen, though something is glowing back there. Kosh also seems to teleport into his encounter suit…
Looking ahead. Mollari tells Sinclair that Centauri sometimes dream of the moment of their death. In Mollari’s case, it’ll be being strangled by G’Kar while he strangles G’Kar. He had the dream when he was young, and was gobsmacked when he first met G’Kar and recognized him from his prophetic dream. This event Mollari dreamt will be seen down the line, more than once…
Welcome aboard. Paul Hampton is back from “The Gathering” for his second and final appearance as the senator. Peter Trencher plays Carn.
Trivial matters. With Tamlyn Tomita, Johnny Sekka, and Patricia Tallman declining to return after “The Gathering,” we meet two of their replacements: Claudia Christian as the new first officer and Andrea Thompson as the new Psi Corps telepath. In addition, this episode marks the first appearance of Stephen Furst as Vir.
Richard Biggs, Bill Mumy, and Caitlin Brown are all listed in the opening credits as playing, respectively, Dr. Stephen Franklin, Lennier, and Na’Toth, but they do not appear and the episode gives no indication who they are.
Both Delenn and G’Kar have new makeup/facial prosthetics. In Delenn’s case, there’s less of it, as they’re no longer trying to make her look more masculine (or at least more androgynous), and just in general, she looks more “traditionally” feminine. G’Kar’s has simply been refined a bit, one hopes in a way that made it easier for Andreas Katsulas in the makeup chair…
This episode has the first reference to spoo, a meat dish popular among the Centauri and Narn (and also “oops” spelled backwards). J. Michael Straczynski also had a food called spoo in an episode of She-Ra: Princess of Power that he wrote.
The echoes of all of our conversations.
“They are alone. They are a dying people. We should let them pass.”
“Who? The Narn or the Centauri?”
“Yes.”
—Kosh making a pronouncement, Sinclair asking for clarity, and Kosh saying, “Bazinga!”
The name of the place is Babylon 5. “I’m in the middle of fifteen things, all of them annoying.” There are some ways in which this feels like a do-over of “The Gathering.” You’ve got character introductions (in this case to Ivanova, Vir, and Winters), you’ve got Garibaldi investigating things, you’ve got the senator telling Sinclair to do something he doesn’t want to do, you’ve got G’Kar and the Narn being the bad guys and plotting evil things of evil, you’ve got Sinclair bopping off on his own and leaving his first officer in charge of a council meeting, you’ve got a council meeting where, once again, G’Kar doesn’t apparently have a seat, instead leaving poor Andreas Katsulas to wander around during it.
And you’ve got epic rants from Mollari, though the Centauri gets much more focus here than he did in the pilot, which is all to the good given that Peter Jurasik was the best thing about the prior episode.
The Centauri/Narn conflict is one of the bedrocks of B5, and it is very much on display here. While G’Kar is still being written as a one-note mustache-twirling villain, Katsulas imbues him with a palpable sense of outrage and fury. He’s matched by Jurasik, whose anger both at the Narn for their surprise attack on a civilian target that includes his nephew and at his government for their spineless response drives the episode.
Stephen Furst’s Vir is another character like G’Kar who will improve as the series goes on, but his introduction, alas, creates very little impression beyond “oh look, it’s Flounder from Animal House with worse hair and sharper teeth!” (The Centauri had massive incisors initially, though that makeup choice was dropped after the first season or so, probably as a favor to the actors.)
By contrast, Claudia Christian creates an instant, excellent impression as Ivanova with her cynicism, her sarcasm, her fatalism, and her bluntness. Though she also has a tendency to speak without contractions in this first appearance which comes across as mannered, and which will also be dropped before long.
As for Winters, there’s nothing to really distinguish Andrea Thompson from Patricia Tallman’s Alexander beyond hair color, at least so far.
This is a stronger opening to the series than “The Gathering” was by far, setting up one of the show’s core conflicts as well as establishing some of the character dynamics. And Garibaldi is, at least, portrayed as competent in this one, actually solving the case and not faffing about the way he was last time, plus we get his Daffy Duck fandom, which is delightful.
Next week: “Soul Hunter.”
Garibaldi may not have called Mollari despicable, but I his claiming he was glad not to have had to kill the Centauri ambassador because the paperwork would be such a pain was a good substitute. Daffy would have approved, I’m sure.
I remember thinking that this showed that there was no real sense of scale. “There are five thousand Centari on that planet!”
Whoop-de-do. It’s a planet. There’s room for five million Narn to live there as well without it being a problem .
Consider the following. Back when the United States was officially founded, the vast majority of the residents worked in agriculture. I can’t recall the precise figure, but I believe it was in the range of 80-90%. Nowadays the percentage of Americans who work in agriculture is in the single digits thanks to mechanization and improved techniques. For an advanced civilization with an even greater degree of automation, it’s not too infeasible to imagine that the bulk of a planet’s landmass could be devoted to agriculture and only require a handful of individuals to oversee it.
Although agriculture as we practice it is immensely inefficient and bad for the environment. I tend to think a more advanced civilization would use more efficient hydroponic methods that would take up far less space.
If they’re farming for export to other solar systems, which is usually economically paradoxical in its own way, then they may want to domesticate entire continents. And possibly devastate a planet’s ecosystem as they do that, but this is a setting where people have seized planets for domestication before, and when it’s not the homeworld then they may not care what damage they do, even for short term vs. long term profit.
However, a small semi self-sustaining community seems more likely. Ruining the planet by developing it is for the future.
It may not even have an ecosystem.
We eventually learn that this planet was held by Narns first and then conquered by Centauri with the rest of Narn space, so it’s not untouched by now.
Edmund Cooper wrote a few 1970s, very 1970s novels (I’m not checking if actually 1970s) as “Richard Avery’s The Expendables”, about a small team of convicted criminals – murderers, rapists, dissidents – sent from overpopulated Earth to “prove” potential colony planets and exterminate any non-intelligent life which represents a danger to human colonists, or in many cases die fighting it. Oh, they had robots. I’m also not checking whether real Earth is more overpopulated in 2024 then in whenever the books were set.
That’s kind of the point, though. First, it wasn’t a very old colony — only settled since the Centauri took it from the Narn. Second, the root of the territorial conflict isn’t about whether there’s room to coexist, since there always is. It’s about the two cultures’ unwillingness to coexist, and their use of territory as an excuse for their political conflict.
This is a major recurring problem in a lot of science fiction – not just this series, but Star Trek and Star Wars as well. The inclination to treat entire planets like they’re just villages.
Nice that Delenn no longer has a need for chinderwear.
The image of President Santiago is a picture of the show’s executive producer Douglas Netter. Don’t recall who they had for Marie Crane.
Another thing making Ivanova appealing is her sense of humor. Done wrong, her suggesting to Garibaldi that she should snap his hands off at the wrist for using her console without permission could have come across as beotchy. However, the jocular tone she uses makes it clear that she’s not being serious.
Great quote from Londo when Vir is reminding him of the upcoming meeting: “The council. The council can go to Hell, and the emergency session can go to Hell. And you, you can go to Hell too. I wouldn’t want you to feel left out.”
According to Wikipedia, Marie Crane is actually wardrobe designer Ann Bruice.
This is a solid episode. I agree, it serves as a better introduction to the show. It doesn’t have the kind of world building vis a vis the alien races other than the big 4 (Minbari, Narn, Centari, Vorlon) and it doesn’t touch on the Minbari/Earth war as much as the pilot, but it does set in motion plot points that will become very important down the line.
I would have been interested to see how Tamlyn Tomita would have done if her role had continued, but Ivanova is one of the best characters in the show, so that was a plus. The show was fortunate that John Sekka and Pat Tallman were the ones not to return, because since they had both ‘seen” Kosh, there was an already established reason why both of them would be recalled. Reasons could have been made of any other cast members not to return, but it worked out nicely that they didn’t have to make up or retcon a reason for the change in their characters.
Kosh also seems to teleport into his encounter suit…
Does he? I haven’t pulled my DVDs out yet, so it has been a while since I have watched this, but my recollection is there was a flash of light implying more of a fast but continuous motion from behind the screen to the suit. Maybe my brain invented that for me. But certainly there is at least a suggestion that Kosh’s “true” form may be some kind of non-corporeal energy.
I just watched the episode today, and there’s definitely a moving light effect, very, very fast, but not instantaneous. I think there was also a sound effect that implied movement. So, not quite teleportation, but something unnaturally fast and weird.
Yes, I just watched, and there is indeed a wall reflection from a light moving swiftly from Kosh’s privacy screen to his encounter suit behind Sinclair’s back.
I also have not rewatched the episode recently, but this is also my memory – that there is a quick flash while Sinclair’s back is turned. I always thought that Kosh quickly dashed into the suit while Sinclair wasn’t looking.
I think Ivanova’s lack of contractions is meant to make her sound more Russian.
Is it possibly “in a new military posting, being careful what you say and how” thing? And as you get to know your boss and colleagues, you relax, and you speak more casually?
This was my guess as well.
I have often wondered if when it was written JMS intended her to have a Russian accent, which was then discarded for any number of possible reasons. (The performance didn’t work, didn’t want to create confusion with the accented alien characters, too reminiscent of Chekov, just changed his mind, etc.)
Yes. She sounded like an “English as second language” speaker to me.
Yes, that’s how I always heard it, too.
Definitely a better start to the series than the pilot film. I’m always impressed by the sheer density of the episode. They manage to pack more meaningful information and context into this single episode than they did in “The Gathering”, which was twice as long. When I introduce others to the series, I usually just start here, because most (if not all) of the elements from “The Gathering” that weren’t touched upon in this episode are covered in future episodes.
There are still a few clunky elements: the introduction of Vir, for example, or the score being very rough (Franke takes some time to find his footing). But all told, this is a solid start.
I’ve never actually seen The Gathering, since it didn’t come with the DVD set I have of Season 1. Nothing I’ve seen or heard about it since has made me want to track it down and watch it.
However, after one viewing of Midnight on the Firing Line I was instantly hooked on Babylon 5 and I’m looking forward to this rewatch.
Nice recap, KRAD. I had forgotten how much happens in this episode!
I do have one question on the character references you use: most characters who have 2 names are called by their surname, but you then refer to “Vir” rather than calling him “Cotto”. Is there a reason for that?
I’m making an exception for Vir because absolutely no one would know who I was talking about if I referred to him as “Cotto.” His family name was very rarely used. “Mollari” and “Ambassador Mollari” are used often enough that it’s not so much an issue with him (even though he’s billed as “Londo”).
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
I will admit that calling him “Mollari” reads very oddly to me, since he’s called “Londo” 90% of the time on the show. It’s like calling Worf “Rozhenko” in a TNG recap.
I don’t agree with your math or your analogy in the least. For one thing, G’Kar only refers to the Centauri ambassador by his last name, and he’s also addressed formally quite a bit by others. By contrast Worf is never referred to (ever) with the family name Rozhenko.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
Hey, it’s your Rewatch, so you obviously get to decide how you refer to the characters, but I do have to say that it does bring me up short whenever I read “Mollari” or “Alexander.” But that’s just me and it’s by no means a criticism. I’m glad you call Vir “Vir,” though!
You mention that Patricia Tallman and the others declined to return after “The Gathering”; while I’m not sure about this in every case, I know that it was the decision of neither Tallman nor Tomita not to return, and when Tallman eventually did come back, she was apparently quite surprised to be asked.
Re: Kosh
Always love his cryptic pronouncements. To this day I still take the opportunity to answer “Yes” to an either/or question whenever I can. He didn’t teleport though. There is a quick moving flash of light when Sinclair turns away, IIRC, from one side of the screen to the other to indicate that Kosh’s noncorporeal self just flew very quickly into the encounter suit.
Re: the Centauri
Peter Jurasik as Londo is what hooked me on this show, and he is still my favorite thing about it (on a long list of favorite things). First episode I ever caught totally at random by flipping channels was The Coming of Shadows, which is a hell of a way to start. The large Centauri teeth though were canines, not incisors I’m pretty sure. And I thought Londo at least kept them for much longer if not for the whole 5 years.
Also I remember that Jurasik was still developing his trademark Londo accent at this stage of the show. Compare later episodes in season 2 and beyond, and this early version is more of a blend of American and what you might call Mollarish. Always appreciated how William Forward attempted a similar vaguely Eastern European accent for Lord Refa, though most of the other Centauri actors never bothered.
My memory says he or JMS called the accent “Pottsylvanian” (after the fictional country in Rocky and Bullwinkle), though I can’t find a confirmation at the moment.
Though the tendency of other Centauri (Refa excepted) to speak standard American does highlight the difficulty of establishing an alien via a regular with characteristics that it proves hard for guest stars (or here, even his co-star) to emulate, which runs all through live action sf and fantasy.
I always attributed that to regional differences. Midwest American English is different from Southern English, is different from a Maine accent or a Bostonian accent, etc.
For me, one of the classic examples of “guest aliens failing to emulate the lead alien” is Superman II. Christopher Reeve was a glider pilot who used his aviation skill to make Superman’s movements in flight seem convincing, as if he were really maneuvering under his own power. But the three actors playing the Phantom Zone villains clearly didn’t have that training, and in their flight scenes, they just hung there like people suspended from wires being dragged around by stagehands. You’d think they could’ve taken the time to get a few lessons from Reeve.
I speculate it would be a matter for the director, but I don’t know if Hollywood has or has flight co-ordinators that you can hire for this sort of thing. There’s also the great acting tradition of lying on your resume about swordfighting or horseriding or other skills that the actor claims to have.
What I was thinking was that Christopher Reeve could’ve taken some time in rehearsal to give them a few flying lessons — show them the ropes, pun intended.
I’d never before thought of that as an example, but it’s a good point. I had unconsciously/semiconsciously noticed how stiffly they flew by comparison, but hadn’t before considered it in those terms.
And unfortunately the other example of a flying villain in the series is Nuclear Man, where the production values and… well, everything is so terrible that it’s hard to say. (Reeve’s flying looks worse in Superman IV than in the earlier films, and I’m sure that’s not Reeve’s fault.)
I always put that down to Superman having had his powers his entire life and the villains only recently having acquired theirs. It might not make total sense, but it’s enough of a hand wave to satisfy me.
The problem for me is not just that their flying is different — it’s that it looks like they’re actors dangling on wires. Part of creating an illusion is selling it, and those three actors fail to sell the illusion that they’re levitating under their own power.
Besides, Helen Slater’s Supergirl was performing an elegant aerial ballet within moments of gaining the ability to fly for the first time.
Which is especially funny since in the films Clark didn’t figure out flight till Jor-El educated him. Which I guess may be an early forerunner of the way Kara has sometimes been portrayed as a little quicker on the powers uptake since her return. (Most notably in her TV series, where Clark flat-out says that she’s better than him.)
And IIRC Supergirl does have the advantage in the film of knowing about Superman, so she presumably knows what powers she’s supposed to have in a way that young Clark didn’t.
But the Phantom Zone criminals didn’t. And while the villains’ flight in Superman II is inelegant, they’re otherwise shown as a match for him or more until he’s able to take advantage of his home court advantage in the Fortress.
There’s probably an inherent tension between the desire, in an origin story, to show the hero as gradually learning their abilities (possibly with the aid of a mentor), and the need when introducing the Evil Counterpart for them to quickly be at least as good if not better than the hero. (At least until the hero turns the tables.) I suspect there are a lot of examples of comparatively instant expertise for the newcomer challenger, give or take not knowing about a particular Achilles Heel.
“And while the villains’ flight in Superman II is inelegant, they’re otherwise shown as a match for him or more until he’s able to take advantage of his home court advantage in the Fortress.”
But that’s exactly the point. If the actors had trained in the physical performance of flying, they could’ve designed a movement style that would convey “flying inelegantly but powerfully” instead of “dangling unconvincingly from wires.” It’s not about the characters’ lack of training, it’s about the actors’ lack of training breaking the illusion.
Well, there is probably room for more than one accent in an interstellar civilization.
Sure, but it’s contrived when the main character representing an alien civilization has a different accent from every other member of the civilization, even their own family members.
Particularly when they’re speaking English as a presumably second or other language. It’s certainly possible to speak a foreign language without an accent, but it’s more likely if the speaker learned that language from childhood alongside their native language, or if they have an unusual knack for languages. If anything, one would expect an ambassador like Londo or Delenn to be better with languages than other members of their civilizations, yet they’re the ones who speak English with “alien” accents while nearly every other Centauri or Minbari speaks English with a flawless American or British accent.
Yes, you are right, of course.
For the Centauri, I can sort of rationalize it as a deliberate throwback affectation of some of the aristocracy: Londo and Refa are both traditionalists who long for better days. Maybe they have deliberately adopted an artificial accent specifically because it stands out.
Of course this is just a headcanon overlay on a practical limitation.
My version of this headcanon is the idea that the older Centauri, particularly diplomats who would have been involved in earlier contact efforts, learned English in a suboptimal way–for example, there was one Centauri who learned English first and he had trouble with the accent and then the other earlier Centauri learners were all picking it up from him so they got their versions of the accent.
Later on, after relations had grown, they got improved language teachers who focused on getting the accent right, so younger Centauri (and older ones who didn’t need to learn during that early period) don’t have that accent.
Yeah, I was wondering that last week — just what accent was Jurasik doing? Sounds kind of Eastern European.
I always thought Londo looks quite like a classical vampire (with the teeth and hair and wasn’t he wearing capes from time to time?) and thought he was maybe going for a Graf Dracula accent :). Actually, when they mentioned in this episode that Centauri are the first aliens humans encountered I was half-expecting a reveal that they visited Earth earlier and were the basics for vampire myths.
Except that things like the accent, the fangs, and the cape don’t come from historic vampire myths, but modern interpretations thereof. The first depiction of vampire fangs was in Varney the Vampire in 1840, but cinematic vampires didn’t sport fangs until the 1950s. As for capes, the reason Dracula wore one was that he was a count, and capes were part of fashionable upper-class attire at the time. And of course the Eastern Europeans who formulated vampire myths would not have thought of “Eastern European accent” as an outstanding trait, since people never think of their own accent as an accent.
Funny, it never occurred to me to see anything vampiric in Londo. I don’t think I ever noticed the teeth. I was too distracted by the hair. I suppose the Centauri look does seem like a variation on European nobility of centuries past, with the elaborately tailored attire and the elaborate, stylized hair. There’s an overlap between that and “vampire” in modern perception because Dracula was a nobleman.
*Nasally voice* Well, actually…
Dracula’s cape actually comes from the 1924 stage production. It was used to make his disappearance from the stage through the trapdoor more convincing. I’m not entirely sure how this works, but I’ve seen it mentioned in several times over the years. Bela Lugosi did the play before the movie, and just kept the same look, thus establishing the cape forever after.
Ah, okay. But still a 20th-century addition rather than part of the formative lore.
Using a wraparound cloak or curtain to conceal someone vanishing into a trapdoor is a standard magician’s trick. You just stand over the trapdoor, wrap the cloak around yourself, then drop through the trapdoor and leave the cloak behind to cover it up.
IIRC, he says it’s a combination of his grandmother’s Eastern European accent and Irish English, because he’d been in Ireland for sometime before signing on to the show.
“…plus we get his Daffy Duck fandom, which is delightful.”
Yeah. Thanks to B5, to this day, I can’t look at Daffy without automatically thinking “Egyptian God of Frustration” and losing it every time.
Knowing the full story of the series helps in recognizing and appreciating the little seeds that JMS planted early on: one of them is Ivanova’s comment about the presidential candidates and the shape of their chin, when she says that the incumbent Santiago has none, while his vice-president (the as yet unnamed Clark) has several, and that’s not a good sign. With hindsight, it’s a nice touch of foreshadowing.
Takashima was my favorite character from the pilot. Bummer she did not continue though I’m sure Ivanova will grow on me. Love the political intrigue. They did great establishing the 4 core players. I also like that each species has internal conflict and are not monoliths. Also glad they tone down the Centauri. Right now I always think Dracula when Mollari appears.
“Massive incisors”? They’re all buck-toothed?
“Incisors” are the large flat front teeth. The pointed ones are “canines” or “eyeteeth”. Yes, “incisor” is such a cool-sounding word that people want it to mean the cool pointy teeth, but it just doesn’t.
I corrected Charlie Stross on this one time, and he changed it for one of his Laundry Files books involving his version of vampires, and then turned around and had a character make the mistake again in a later volume, I can only assume deliberately.
Keith, you misplaced the bit about Talia sensing Londo’s intent to kill G’Kar. It was much later in the episode, after the council meeting and the hostage message from his nephew, and led to Garibaldi confronting Londo alone in the corridor and giving him a chance to walk away without the attempt being reported.
This one had a weak start; if you hadn’t seen “The Gathering” and that opening sequence was your first glimpse of the series, it wouldn’t have been very inviting. Who the heck are these random balding guys with bad hair? Seriously, aside from Londo’s impressive mane, the Centauri hairstyle was one of the sillier, less successful ways to make human actors in sci-fi look like aliens. At least Jurasik had a bald cap. Sticking moussed-up hair extensions on people with more normal hairlines never looked all that good, at least not here.
Aside from that, though, this turned out to be significantly better than the pilot. O’Hare was much better this time around. The story is taut and effective and does a good job re-establishing (or first-time establishing) the characters and the astropolitics. Jurasik is still the highlight of the show, and Katsulas gave a good showing too. I wasn’t sold yet on Ivanova or Talia, though.
The space battle was interesting. It was nice to see ships maneuvering in space in a realistic way instead of mimicking WWII dogfights, although the whole concept of space fighters is fundamentally flawed, and the scene featured an unrealistic Star Wars-style asteroid field too. I remember liking also that the explosions looked credible, just expanding shrapnel and blinding flashes of light rather than the kind of turbulent fireballs that shouldn’t exist in vacuum (because that turbulence is the result of gas/dust mixing with the atmosphere around it), although that may have been due to limitations in the CGI’s ability to simulate fluid turbulence. I recall that later on, they started superimposing conventional fireballs onto the ship explosions to conform to audience expectations, which disappointed me.
Although we know from later on that Clark is the bad-guy president, there’s some implication here that Santiago isn’t much better, with his platform of preserving Earth culture against non-Terran influences, which sounds like pandering to nativism and anti-immigrant fears.
Given later developments, I think Santiago’s ISN bit about preserving Earth Culture was merely an attempt to calm things down after the election – throwing a spare bone of sorts to the people that didn’t vote for him. Later on, we learn just how much he valued B5 and its significance.
As for the CGI’s eventual inclusion of fireball explosions, I believe that only happens after season 3 – when Foundation Imaging is cut off from the B5 production and replaced by Netter Digital. It’s when Foundation begins to provide VFX for Voyager.
Even so, it’s a warning sign that nativist sentiments are growing as a political factor on Earth, which is the kind of climate that’s easy for wannabe authoritarians to exploit. JMS is planting the seeds even here.
I recall in some discussion threads back in 1994-95, JMS was at pains to push back on commenters who took the “unrealistic, can’t happen here” attitude regarding the story elements showing nativist/xenophobic sentiments leading to authoritarianism.
Or, say, whether the efforts to combat an infectious disease could ever become politicized in a way that led to excess deaths.
It’s gonna be interesting revisiting many of these episodes from the perspective of 2024.
Wow I am glad I never found people saying those things when these episodes came out as I would have savaged them. I can be an elitist ÷×/×× now at times I was worse in college. Be fun to find the people who made those comments at the time now…as much as I wish I could think we will not have such groups some day expect they will always be with us.
A slight correction @krad. The instance where Talia detects Londo’s intent to murder G’Kar doesn’t happen until after the staged Carn Mollari testimony. He and G’Kar have an initial scuffle after he and Vir receive the security footage, but he doesn’t put that illegal weapon together in his quarters until well into the episode’s second half. After G’Kar humiliates Londo in the council when he reveals he knows the Centauri government had chosen to do nothing.
Also, I don’t think G’Kar pacing around without seating during the council session is a flaw. These scenes are clearly designed to show his authority and presence. Given what we later learn about his background, we can see G’Kar is currently at the top of his game, at the height of his ambitions. It serves as a stark contrast to just how emotionally wounded and small he’ll become in the future (and I’m sure Andreas relished pacing around the set like a predator, looming over small, vulnerable Londo).
“He’s my blood! My nephew!”
“But if you kill G’Kar none of those colonists will get out alive. You have to know that.”
Garibaldi stopping Londo from making that fatal mistake was the moment I was hooked. It was then that I realized B5 wasn’t just the little oddball TV movie I rented once on VHS, but a fully realized non-Trek production with real staying power. “Midnight” course-corrects the shortcomings of “The Gathering” and serves as a second pilot, delivering us a poignant conflict right from the start.
Ivanova’s admission to Talia that her mother committed suicide was also a heartbreaking moment. If I ever had any doubts about Takashima being replaced, that went away the minute Claudia Christian pulled this scene off. Even more so than Sheridan at times, Ivanova is more often than not the heart and soul of this show. She can be both hilarious and still convey deep bottomless pain all at once.
Thanks for the comments, folks. I derped on the sequence of events with Winters, ’tis true, and apologies. However, I know Kosh didn’t actually teleport and which is why I made use of the verb “to seem” as the predicate of that sentence……….
—Keith R.A. DeCandido, who is seldom what he seems
Sorry, Keith, but you are exactly what you seem to be.
There are so many little things here that hook into the future. I’m not sure how many of them were already planned — like the future of the relationship between Talia and Ivanova — but when you know where things are going, the whole thing feels incredibly well-plotted.
Jerry Doyle apparently said that the thing that really had him laughing during the Daffy Duck scene was the way Mira Furlan had Delenn seem so puzzled by popcorn. It’s a very subtle sort of thing that many actors wouldn’t have thought of.
This episode isn’t the most egregious example, but it certainly contributes to the idea that B5 is a show about people having important conversations in elevators.
Finally, I don’t want to spend the whole season rehashing Michael O’Hare’s performance over and over, but he didn’t bother me that much this time. One thing that struck me was that he felt like a TV actor from the late 50s/very early 60s. It’s not so much wooden, as very mannered and just like an early TV doctor or non-sitcom father.
There’s one scene where I don’t think he’s mannered at all. He’s certainly calm and composed, but still very rightfully outraged and incisive when he privately condemns G’Kar’s actions, by not only calling the sneak attack what it is (the last resource of a coward), but then also saying: “You didn’t even have the decency of attacking a military target.”
He’s as convincing in that scene as any of Sheridan’s later scenes whenever he rouses the troops or condemns a specific situation. When Straczynski’s dialogue is on point, it tends to bring out the best in these leads.
It did seem to me that the Talia/Ivanova interaction (weird to mix first and last names, but I can’t imagine calling Ivanova “Susan” for fear that she’d reach out of the screen and break my wrists) could be read as setting up unresolved romantic tension, but maybe I was projecting my later expectations onto that.
Agree regarding O’Hare’s performance in this one. It probably helped immensely that the script clearly establishes Sinclair’s unease with his position. His mannered, stoic affect befits a man who would rather be out flying a starfury than suffering diplomats and politicians.
I also appreciated that his takeover of the expedition to defend the transport was a deliberate, and notably non-standard, tactic to deal with a tricky diplomatic situation, rather than yet another example of the tired Top-billed Actor Leads Task That Should Be Delegated trope. It was an early example that this show was trying to do things a bit differently than previous SFF TV.
The show does show that Sinclair does have a bit of a death wish and him hopping in instead of leading is a bit of a problem
Being a first time watcher, I’m surprised to see everyone talking so positively about Ivanova. To me she seemed a subpar replacement for Takashima, and seemed rather stilted in her speech. I also don’t have much of an impression on Sinclair yet. So far not a good look to have the two supposed leads both be so bland. The most intertwining characters were Garibaldi and the Centari ambassador – Londo Mollari, was it?
With apologies to Robert Jordan, WAFO (Watch And Find Out).
I’m firmly of the opinion that season 1 ivanova is incredibly weak. But she and garibaldi both improve drastically over the series. (My wife maintains ivanova improves once she stops telling people she’s Russian every five minutes, and garibaldi’s acting is in inverse proportion to his hairline.
This wasn’t the best start for Ivanova, no, but then, the pilot wasn’t the best start for Takashima, or Sinclair, or various others. Give it time.
But as I said last week, I did always feel that the actors playing human regulars in B5 were consistently less engaging than the ones playing aliens, or than a lot of the prominent guest actors.
There are several things that slightly disappointed me about this episode in comparison with The Gathering. First, I didn’t really care for the brighter lighting. It made everything feel a bit cheaper and less “lived in.” I also didn’t care for Delenn’s new makeup (or lack thereof). I understand the reason they made the change, but I really liked her more androgynous look in the pilot, and I know from cast photos that the character goes through a further transformation which I think would have looked more significant if they kept the androgynous makeup until then. Also, in spite of the serious events of the plot, the tone felt a bit sillier, which isn’t necessarily bad, but it was something to which I had to adjust after the pilot played everything so straight.
However, there are also things I liked more about this episode, and they mostly had to do with the human characters, which were the least interesting thing about the pilot. Sinclair mostly comes off well in this one (though his rant at G’kar about the underhandedness of sneak attacks didn’t seem very diplomatic), and his new haircut suits him. While Ivanova’s line delivery early on felt a bit stiff (maybe it was the mentioned lack of contractions) she definitely has potential. I recognize the actor who plays her from various TV guest roles, so I know she’s good. Garibaldi still comes off like a generic space cop, but at least he likes Daffy Duck, so that’s something. Also, while I didn’t like the change to Delenn’s makeup, I think G’kar’s makeup is an improvement.
Overall while I think I enjoyed The Gathering slightly more than Midnight on the Firing Line, it does a good job introducing at least one of its new characters, and it obviously establishes a lot of stuff that I can assume will matter down the line (the Londo/G’kar death thing basically has a neon sign above it saying THIS IS GOING TO BE IMPORTANT). Looking forward to episode 2.
Vir informs Mollari that the Centauri government has decided that there will be no response.
Not quite correct. Vir comes in to get London for the council meeting and Londo tells him about the government’s”response”.
Hmm hard to tell without the numbers, but I think I liked this episode better than you did. Given the history and brutality of the centauri occupation and the fact the attacked colony was once Narn the Narns actions I found very Grey. I also loved Koshes response as with thought it becomes obvious he is saying both the Narn and Centauri are dieing races which is born out as truth later in the series (though for very different reasons in each case).
What I really liked about b5 when it came out was the Grey and the realism. Quickly it became other things but both were shown here in the first episode. No unrealistic utopia is any society in this universe.
Lieutenant Commander Ivanova.
If I hadn’t read in the comments Ivanova mentions being Russian, my first read was, okay, so definitely Russian in descent. The way Ivanova spoke without contractions, never showing any semblance of a smile (which now that I think about it, Takashima really didn’t either), and Ivanova’s stoic mannerisms screamed Russian to me (or maybe Vulcan, but, wrong universe).
Claudia Christian portays all that in a way, however, that doesn’t make Ivanova seem like a humorless drone, but rather as someone who has a lot going on just beneath the surface of the controlled exterior. I’m keen to learn (or in my case, relearn) all about Susan Ivanova.
If I didn’t know this was the first regular episode of Babylon 5, I would have no way of knowing that just watching this episode. I agree with you, CLB; It definitely helps to have watched the pilot movie. Here, you’re just dropped into the fascinating intrigue of the B5 universe, unsure if this is the start or if you missed some episodes. Nonetheless this is a good episode, if a bit jarring.
G’Kar, played by the late, great Andreas Katsulas, remains the mustache-twirling villain from the pilot movie, but from the pilot as well as this episode, I can there’s going to be far more complexity to G’Kar. Londo continues to steal every scene he’s in.
Sinclair feels more…present, somehow, in this episode. He’s far more engaged here, where Sinclair seemed more distant in the pilot. Diplomatic or not, I enjoyed Sinclair’s rant to G’Kar; a wise woman in another universe once said, “Sometimes diplomacy requires a little sabre-rattling.”
There was also something satisfying about seeing Sinclair lead the mission to stop the raiders; I know that sort of thing should be delegated to subordinates, but I appreciate seeing the CO get their hands dirty every now and then.
Even Garibaldi was better in this than the pilot; he’ll probably never be a favorite of mine, but I can see the potential.
Hopefully I’ll get to meet the new CMO Dr. Franklin next episode.
It makes sense that Sinclair feels more present. The station has been open for a year and he’s had a chance to settle in and learn how to do the job. It’s a tribute to Michael O’Hare that you can sense the difference.
I was speaking more about the very first scene than the episode overall. Opening on a couple of Centauri guys would’ve been confusing to a first-time viewer who didn’t yet know what Centauri were, since they just look like humans with bizarre hair — more so with guest-star Centauri than with Londo. Making the hair fringes smaller and wispier for most Centauri didn’t help. It looks really bad, is what I’m saying. As an attempt to depict alienness, it’s somewhat laughable, like something they would’ve done in a 1950s TV series.
As for G’Kar, I think a few things temper his “mustache-twirling.” One is Katsulas’s appealing performance, the twinkle that shines through the surface villainy. Another is the clearly established history that the Narn were former victims of subjugation and atrocities, so they’re not a straightforward evil-conqueror species like the Klingons in TOS, say. Plus there’s the fact that it was Londo who tried to murder G’Kar, not the other way around, so it’s clear that neither side is lily white.
One thing I always find kind of funny is that, yes while the Centauri see the ambassador position worthless and probably why they would only send one guy to be the aide for Londo, why does g’kar and Delenn not get a much bigger staff? The Minbari find it important and there’s no hint that the Narn see Babylon 5 as pointless, Gkar is implied to be rather important to their government.
What I would also add is that both Sinclair (and later Sheridan) are both the commanders of the station and Earth’s ambassador to Babylon 5. Sorry, but both positions require a lot of time and work. Looking after the station the size of a city, all of its personnel, making sure everything is operating properly and on time, dealing with all kinds of incidents etc,, is a real 24-hour job. And the position of Ambassador is another job unto itself having the knowledge and skills to be able to negotiate and interact with other races and keeping up with the scorecards of how all of the other races feel about the other races. (Practically speaking, I would equate being an ambassador to Babylon 5 to being an ambassador to the United Nations in New York City.) There’s no way anyone could handle both jobs. It really is two completely different jobs with two completely different skills sets and experience.
Not exactly an unknown situation. Army base commanders often had to engage with local communities socially in addition to having some liaison with the military commanders of the hosting ( and often allied ) nations. Unless there was a State Department office attached to the base, the commander often had ambassadorial functions as well.
While the Doylian explanation would be the limitations of budget and casting, I can see a lot of Watsonian ways to explain that away. One, this is a space station in a universe where, unlike star trek, we do not yet have the luxury space communism thing worked out. Space and resources are limited. There may simply not be room in this station’s diplomatic quarters for any ambassador to have more than one permanent staff member. In addition, Delenn is kind of… eccentric? Among her kind? I could see her being picky and private, with enough clout to refuse to accept any more people her government might otherwise want to send with her. And G’kar is from a world still crawling out from under the aftermath of occupation. They might not have the budget or extra personnel to spare. But yeah the fact that this is a sardine can in a hard vacuum would be my first choice of diagetic explanation, particularly since this seems to hold true across all the ambassadors. You get ONE plus one. Don’t have the square footage or the oxygen allowance for everybody to bring a full embassy worth of staff. You need anybody else, go organize a remote meeting on space Zoom.
Part of the reason for the limited diplomatic staff (on screen, at least, since we do get some dialogue down the line that implies additional staff that we never actually see), is that this is Babylon 5. After what happened to the first four stations, there is probably considerably fewer folks banging on the doors looking to be posted there.
As the series goes on, we discover that ALL of the current ambassadors are odd ducks. Delenn is following a 1000 year old Prophecy, that at least the Warrior Caste doesn’t believe in and it’s unclear how much the average Minbari does. Londo is considered a joke. Kosh turns out to be a long haired hippy, who might want to establish VETA (Vorlons for the Ethical Treatment of Aliens). G’Kar who (after the deletion of one line in the Pilot) does not have a Narn mate and shows sexual interest in women who have the external physical characteristics of the former occupiers of Narn. Sinclair has a big “hole in his mind” and can’t remember what happened in 24 hours when the Minbari decided to suddenly and inexplicably surrender. His own government doesn’t fully trust him. I’ve always kind of seen them as the Island of Misfit Ambassadors.
The station is eight kilometers long and can house up to a quarter of a million people. That’s the equivalent of a fair-sized city. And its primary function is diplomatic. Surely it could house at least as many diplomats as, say, the United Nations complex in New York City can.
Nothing more than an introduction to Vir here, and the implication that he’s not all that useful, really. I think (at least here, we’ll see if it holds) that he has the most interesting growth, as a character, in the series. Certainly no foreshadowing, in this episode, of what he’ll become.
The picture of Londo reminds me of one of the nice attentions to detail: in these early episodes his crest is ragged and patchy. As he gains power and respect in the later episodes, it becomes well-groomed and sleek.
And longer too, in keeping with the Centauri tradition that longer crest = higher social status. With the notable exceptions of two emperors, who are specifically noted for bucking that trend.
Not only Garibaldi is better, but Sinclair is significantly better. Not just the MUCH better acting, but as a character – i really liked the idea that he actually had a good reason why to leave the station and lead the Starfuries. Overall, he seemed to be doing a good job also in this episode.
Regarding the spoo, it’s revealed in a fifth season episode that Centauri prefer it aged. So G’Kar offering Londo fresh spoo after learning that the Narn were responsible for the Ragesh 3 attack makes it doubly insulting.
My biggest concern with “Midnight on the Firing Line” is that I usually watch it back-to-back with “The Gathering.” And since that first pilot gave us the overly and overtly mustache-twirling evil G’kar, giving us that very same experience again in “Firing Line” has always felt off. I’m so very glad that the character doesn’t stay that way, and in fact evolves in some very interesting directions instead.
While I can appreciate several scenes (most notably between Sinclair and Kosh), I just groaned over the last part of the main plot. Specifically, space is a really big place and one can go in a gazillion different directions and there are gazillions more in hiding places. And yet, Sinclair quickly knew which direction the raiders were really coming from (exactly 180 degrees) and he quickly found the base and then a Narn representative (as opposed to just a Narn mercenary working alone and not with someone else or for the Narn government). And Sinclair was able to quickly and neatly get G’Kar to back down and get the Narn to withdraw from Ragesh. I just cringed the first time I saw it. Still do.
One additional item. Keith: while many remember Stephen Furst just from Animal House, some of us (myself included) also remember him as Dr. Elliott Alexrod on St. Elsewhere, where he really proved he could act.
(edit) nothing to see here
The reveal that Garibaldi’s “second favorite thing” is Daffy Duck cartoons doesn’t really offset the whole creepiness of that come-on scene to Talia. After G’Kar’s propositioning of Lyta in “The Gathering,” this bit really didn’t land well.
That said, I didn’t come away from “Midnight…” with that as my only or major reaction. It’s a solid episode and Claudia Christian’s Ivanova is a marvelous character from her get-go. The commen about not trusting weak-chinned politicians is unfortunately resonant in 2024, when would-be strongmen have distressingly wide appeal in our democracy.
I dunno… I think the only thing creepy about it was Garibaldi making a proposition to a coworker he’d just met — and the flirtatious tone in which he delivered it. With a little more familiarity, I don’t think “Let me show you my favorite thing in the universe” would seem creepy at all. Don’t friends often get enthusiastic about sharing the things they love with each other?
I do think the fact that he acted like a pervy creep while asking a telepath who could see what he was referring to when he offered to show her his second favorite thing in the universe, makes it far less creepy when we get the payoff of seeing that he was actually offering. The fact that it’s left as a brick joke for most of the episode makes it weird, but when it does finally land, it works.
Except, telepaths are forbidden to scan people without consent. They are supposed to be blocking out normal thoughts. Both Talia and Lyta say they can pick up very strong emotion without trying, but otherwise, they work to not see what someone is referring to. Garibaldi may have thought Talia would know what he meant, but within the rules of the show, Talia wouldn’t have known.
Excellent polint! Thus you have demonstrated it! :)
Eh, I guess, but maybe Doyle should have played it differently, then, b/c granted that Winters would know what Garibaldi was thinking of – I dunno, it’s just clunky and, in my opinion, doesn’t land all that well. Not nearly as well as Delenn’s fascination with popcorn lands. But mileage varies! :)
Of course they do. It’s all in Doyle’s delivery.
Creepy or not, there’s more subtext to the Garibaldi-in-the-elevator scene. JMS later remarked, “During the con appearance, Jerry [Doyle] told a story that *I* hadn’t heard before. There’s a scene in the script “Midnight on the Firing Line” in which Talia (Andrea) goes into a transport tube, finds Garibaldi, and asks some questions about Ivanova. They rehearsed it several times, this being Andrea’s first time on the set, and filmed one take. She comes down the hall, comes to the pen…and Garibaldi’s pants are down around his ankles. Needless to say, that shot did NOT end up in dailies….”
And yet, Jerry Doyle and Andrea Thompson got married a year or two later.
Ha! I did not know any of that!
This was a great introduction to a compelling new science fiction universe. It introduced a host of new characters and a complex setting without bogging down in exposition.
I was surprised that the raiders in this episode never appeared again; they turned out to be simply a faceless “threat of the week.” And I am so glad that in subsequent episodes, the Centauri got new hairdressers, as their crests looked like birds had been nesting in them.
So many seeds were planted for so many wonderful stories later in the series.
actually, the threat of raiders does come back once or twice, but they are quickly overShadowed.
That explains it. The seeds attracted the birds.
As for the raiders, they were just there to establish the Narn selling weapons as the real threat.
“The name of the place is Babylon 5!”
Yes, but what is the name of the place called? And what is the place called?
(Presumably the place is “A-Sitting on a Gate.”)
That introductory monologue has no right to be as compelling as it is. It is not as concise or poetic as “Space, the final frontier…” but I think O’Hare’s delivery really sells it. I especially like the moment where he says, with just the slightest trepidation in his voice, “…all alone in the night.”
All a-LONE in the NIGHT. it scans nicely.
“The Babylon project was a dream given form” also gives me that “sense of wonder” tingle, and I am unsure why. It’s no great stringing together of words. “A dream given form,” what the heck does that even mean? Just that they had an idea and they built it. Again, I think it is something about the emotional force O’Hare puts into the word “dream.” If you were going for poetic, you might go for something obvious like “a dream made reality,” or even “a dream given birth.” “Form” is such a prosaic word. But it works.
I remember distinctly disliking seasons 2-4’s opening monologues in comparison. And I don’t like Londo’s version of the S1 monlogue in “The Gathering” O’Hare’s delivery of the monologue in S1 is the “real” B5 opening in my mind. Go figure.
One small item that no one has mentioned, the name of the space liner is the Asimov. In a later episode is one named the Clarke. Those are just two of many little (and not so little) winks to SF writers that get dropped throughout the series. Keep an eye out for them as many go past very fast. Interesting, in the closed captioning the ship is the A_z_imov. Not sure if that was because the subtitler did not know the correct spelling, or because they could not get permission to use his actual name.
I’m sure it was just a typo. There’s no reason they’d need permission for something like that — it’s a person’s name, not a trademarked brand name, and saying that someone achieved enough lasting fame to have ships named after him centuries later could hardly be considered defamatory.
Plus Clarke is a fairly common name, with or without the vestigial E.
Back at Star Trek, I think Diane Duane’s novel “Doctor’s Orders” has McCoy sit in Captain Kirk’s seat and notice it is very bad ergonomically and he says this is why Kirk is “all over the bridge” instead of sitting down, although I don’t really remember that as a trope. And most of an episode of “Enterprise” was about improving the captain’s chair. So G’Kar… well, there are critters of all sorts in the council. If the seating is Human issue, it may not suit many other people.
An inversion of sorts is James White’s “Sector General” space hospital, where the Director’s office has their chair plus approximately one per different species expected to attend any meeting, given many possible species and a small room. The other senior being gets to pick its most compatible thing to rest on, and other staff, usually the ones we like and human, have to pick from the abstract sculpture that’s left if they can do so without being compressed or impaled. The lucky ones are evolved to rest standing up.
I’m very excited to read your re-watch reviews here!