“The Fall of Night”
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Janet Greek
Season 2, Episode 22
Production episode 222
Original air date: November 1, 1995
It was the dawn of the third age… Sheridan is running drills with Zeta Squadron, specifically training them to deal with the Centauri military. Upon returning to the station, Sheridan meets with Drazi and pak’ma’ra representatives, who complain of aggression on their borders by the Centauri. Sheridan’s subsequent conversation with Mollari does nothing to reassure him, as Mollari blows him off, saying Sheridan’s influence only extends to this station.
Lennier and Vir meet at the bar, bitch about how incredibly fucking impossible and difficult their jobs as aides to ambassadors are, then say, “Same time tomorrow?”
One of Keffer’s fellow Zeta Wing pilots mentions that someone in Alpha Wing saw a ghost in hyperspace. Keffer goes to Harvey, the pilot in question, who initially rebuffs Keffer, thinking he’s going to rag on him, but then Keffer describes what he saw in hyperspace, and Harvey realizes that they both saw the same thing—Shadows. Unlike Keffer, whose Starfury was damaged when he saw it, Harvey got some readings, which he shares with Keffer. However, Harvey thinks Keffer’s nuts, as he wants nothing to do with any of it.
Two people from EarthDome show up: Frederick Lantze from the Ministry of Peace and Mr. Welles, who runs NightWatch. They’re here to examine the Centauri issues, which Sheridan is grateful for, and he’s hoping that Earth will finally take a stand against the Centauri.
While Lantze talks with various ambassadors of other nations—though he deliberately avoids talking to G’Kar despite Ivanova’s attempt to get the Narn a meeting—Welles meets with the NightWatch folks on the station, including Allan. It becomes clear that NightWatch is there to stamp out anything that even looks like sedition. Allan looks particularly uncomfortable when Welles grills him—albeit in a friendly, conciliatory, relaxed tone—about a shop owner who has been saying negative things about the Clark Administration.
A Narn heavy cruiser comes in through a jumpgate on the far side of Epsilon III. Sheridan didn’t think there were any Narn heavy cruisers left. The commander, Na’Kal, explains that they were on deep-space patrol when the invasion happened, and they’ve been on the run ever since. They’re in bad shape and request sanctuary on B5, which Sheridan grants.
Lantze is annoyed when he finds out that Sheridan has been conducting drills to defend against Centauri attacks, and asks him to stop doing so. It turns out that his purpose here has been to work toward Earth Alliance signing a non-aggression pact with the Centauri Republic.
A CnC officer who works for NightWatch meets with Welles with some information. While we don’t see what she says, given that Mollari calls Sheridan a minute later demanding that he turn over the Narn cruiser, we can guess that it’s about that.
A Centauri cruiser comes through the jumpgate demanding the Narn ship. Lantze is outraged that Sheridan granted sanctuary to the Narn, as that jeopardizes the alliance. Sheridan points out that (a) there is no alliance yet, (b) he granted sanctuary before he even knew there was a possibility of an alliance, and (c) Lantze is a civilian and he should kindly get the hell out of CnC.
Zeta Squadron is sent to escort the Narn cruiser to a jumpgate. Sheridan tells Mollari that once it’s out of B5’s jurisdiction, it’s on its own. That message also goes to the Centauri cruiser—which fires. B5 is forced to defend itself, and between B5’s defense grid and Zeta Squadron, the Narn ship is able to make it to the jumpgate safely—but the Centauri cruiser is destroyed.
Lantze berates Sheridan, but Sheridan points out that he followed regulations in general and his mandate to protect the station in particular. In the former case, General Order 47 dictates that they help a ship in need that isn’t in direct conflict with EarthForce. In the latter case, the Centauri fired first. So what the hell else was he supposed to do?
Welles, surprisingly, seems to take Sheridan’s side, agreeing that he followed regulations, and that the Joint Chiefs agree that he acted properly—in the conflict. However, Sheridan should have informed the Joint Chiefs of the sanctuary request immediately. The Centauri are willing to accept an apology from Sheridan and will then let the incident go. Sheridan refuses at first, but Welles makes it clear that the alternative is to be removed as head of B5, and probably a court-martial, so he agrees.
There is a meeting of all the ambassadors in Hydroponics, a less formal setting than council chambers, where Sheridan is to apologize. While putting on his dress uniform, he practices an apology that probably wouldn’t be accepted (see “The echoes of all our conversations” below), but on the train to Hydroponics, he finds himself alone in the car with a bomb that appears to have been left by a Centauri citizen. He is able to use his authority as B5 commander to open the door and jump out before it blows, but now he’s falling through the air, albeit slowly, over Hydroponics.
Ivanova orders a rescue, but it won’t come in time. Delenn urges Kosh to do something, despite the risk of revealing himself. The encounter suit opens, and a being of light flies up and saves Sheridan. The details of what everyone sees varies from species to species, but they all see a being of light who can fly.
After escorting the Narn ship out of B5’s jurisdiction, Zeta Squadron returns through a jumpgate. While in hyperspace, Keffer detects the same emissions that are in the recording Harvey gave him. He finds another Shadow ship, ejects his flight recorder, and then is destroyed.
Earth signs the non-aggression pact with the Centauri Republic. Shortly thereafter, the Centauri become more aggressive in expanding into other nations’ territories.
In the Zocalo, some folks are discussing what they saw when Kosh came out of his suit. A Drazi asks Mollari what he saw, and the ambassador rather bitterly says he saw nothing.
Allan watches in distress as the shop-owner Welles grilled him about is shut down, a sign saying he’s guilty of sedition posted on the grate that now covers the shop.
Delenn visits Sheridan, recovering in his quarters. She says that the Vorlons have been guiding younger species for millennia, and this is why Kosh had to stay in his encounter suit. Now she’s worried that the Shadows will know that they’re aware of them.
That concern turns out to be moot, as someone from ISN got their hands on Keffer’s flight recorder, with its nice clear image of a Shadow. So that cat’s out the proverbial bag….
Get the hell out of our galaxy! It’s not clear whether or not EarthDome and/or the Centauri still insisted that Sheridan give his apology after he was nearly blown up. For what it’s worth, J. Michael Straczynski said online that, following the attempt on Sheridan’s life, “the need for an apology was somewhat obviated.”
Ivanova is God. At one point, Welles goes to Ivanova in her quarters and tries to sell her on becoming part of NightWatch, in exchange for which she’ll get promoted faster. She tells him to pound sand.
The household god of frustration. At one point, Sheridan goes to Garibaldi for advice on how to deal with Mollari. Garibaldi analogizes what Mollari is going through to riding a wild horse, and the security chief admits to feeling a bit sorry for the ambassador.
If you value your lives, be somewhere else. Delenn convinces Kosh to expose himself to the station in order to save Sheridan’s life. He must be pretty danged important, huh?
In the glorious days of the Centauri Republic… To the surprise of nobody with a brain, the Centauri are not, in fact, slowing down their expansionist ways with their conquest of the Narn Regime.
Though it take a thousand years, we will be free. G’Kar tries desperately to speak to Lantze. The latter’s refusal to do so is the first sign that Earth’s intentions are not good ones…
The Shadowy Vorlons. We finally see an unadorned Vorlon and they look like angelic versions of whatever the species is of their observer. We only know that Mollari didn’t see anything when Kosh revealed himself—it’s not clear (one way or the other) if that is true of any other Centauri.
And the Shadows are also revealed for all to see—most of those who’ve seen Shadows before this episode didn’t live long enough to tell anyone—as they’re broadcast on ISN.
Looking ahead. The episode ends with a voiceover by Ivanova that is very much a preview of what the opening-credits voiceover will be for season three, which will also be spoken by Ivanova.
Welcome aboard. We have two actors who previously played Minbari in new roles: John Vickery (Neroon in “Legacies” and “All Alone in the Night”) as Welles and Robin Sachs (Hedronn in “Points of Departure” and “All Alone in the Night”) as Na’Kal. Both will return to these particular roles, Vickery in Crusade’s “Appearances and Other Deceits,” Sachs in “Walkabout.”
We also have recurring regulars Jeff Conaway as Allan and Joshua Cox as Corwin. This is Conaway’s last appearance as a guest star—he’ll be in the opening credits henceforth. And this is Cox’s last time being credited as “Tech #1”; when he returns as “A Day in the Strife,” he’ll finally be credited as Corwin, a name established way back in “And Now for a Word.”
Juli Doland and Rick Hamilton play Keffer’s fellow pilots. Donovan Brown and Kim Strauss play the pak’ma’ra and Drazi ambassadors, respectively.
Finally, we have a Robert Knepper moment, as I totally forgot that the late great Roy Dotrice was in this one as Lantze.
Trivial matters. This is the last appearance of Robert Rusler as Keffer, as he is killed. Reportedly, Keffer was added at the insistence of Warner Bros., who wanted a hotshot pilot as an opening-credits regular, and J. Michael Straczynski was never happy with that, and so didn’t do much with the character. What little was done was his seeing a Shadow ship in hyperspace in “A Distant Star,” which also killed Galus. That led to him trying to find it again, until Sheridan told him to stop in “Confessions and Lamentations.”
Lantze’s line about how there will now be peace in our time following Earth’s treaty with the Centauri is a deliberate echo of the words spoken by Neville Chamberlain after the United Kingdom signed an appeasement agreement with Adolf Hitler’s Germany in 1938. And we all know how well that turned out…
This is the first time we’ve seen B5 use the fancy-shmancy new defense grid that was installed in “GROPOS.”
The echoes of all of our conversations.
“I’m sorry we had to defend ourselves against an unwarranted attack. I’m sorry that your crew was stupid enough to fire on a station filled with a quarter million civilians, including your own people. And I’m sorry I waited as long as I did before I blew them all straight to hell.”
—The apology to the Centauri that Sheridan rehearsed in his quarters.
The name of the place is Babylon 5. “We will, at last, know peace in our time.” Okay, let’s start with the Starfury-shaped elephant in the room: the utter failure of the character of Lieutenant Keffer to in any way, shape, or form work. And that’s entirely on the back of J. Michael Straczynski who refused to do anything interesting with him.
Look, I get that it’s annoying when studio executives make demands, but they’re the ones who pay the bills. When I write, for example, a media tie-in novel, I have to follow the rules that are laid down by the people who own the property. For that matter, when someone writes a Babylon 5 script, they have to follow the rules of the setting that Straczynski established.
So he should’ve just sucked it up and actually made Keffer into a character instead of a cipher. It wouldn’t have taken much. Hell, he gave Lantze more of an interior life in a single conversation with Ivanova in this episode than he was able to dredge up for Keffer in a half-dozen appearances. I mean, the first shot we got of Keffer, back in “Points of Departure,” he’s looking at a hologram of a pretty woman. We never have the first clue who this woman is. Is she a girlfriend? Sister? Wife? Close friend? Ex? Hooker? Sex simulation? Was he watching the holographic equivalent of a porn site? And then we never found out anything else about him, beyond his Shadow obsession, which barely got any play. It wouldn’t be so bad except Keffer’s in the opening credits of every episode, and the utter failure to do a damn thing with him makes Straczynski look bad and it makes poor Robert Rusler—who probably thought he was getting, y’know, a role, and whose fault this absolutely was not—look bad.
As a result we have, in this episode, the death of a character we have never, in his meager six appearances prior in a twenty-two-episode season, been given a single solitary reason to care about.
Sigh. Okay, I’ve just spent four paragraphs on one character, who is a minor part of a much greater episode. I do feel like I’ve given more thought to Keffer than anybody actually involved with the production of B5, up to and including Rusler.
The rest of this episode is generally excellent. The notion of Vorlons as angels—and as looking different depending on who’s looking at them—is one of those things that sounds cooler than it actually is, and raises all kinds of questions that never really get answered.
But that was the only non-Keffer thing that twigged me in the episode, and it didn’t twig me that much. Besides, I just love that Mollari doesn’t see anything, a great metaphor for what he’s become.
We get so many great moments here, from Vir and Lennier’s bitch session to Ivanova telling Welles to go fuck himself to Sheridan’s practice apology to Allan’s utter misery as he realizes just what he’s signed up for with NightWatch.
Welles is a little too broad a bad guy. It’s interesting, John Vickery has had many roles on B5 and the various Star Treks, and the only two that didn’t move me much are the two in which he wore no facial prosthetics: Welles, and the Betazoid he played on The Next Generation’s “Night Terrors.” In his other roles as Minbari, Klingon, and Cardassian, he was superlative. Go fig’.
It doesn’t help that Vickery suffers by comparison to the great Roy Dotrice, but so would most people. However, Lantze is also better written. He’s a person who genuinely believes he’s doing the right thing. He’s also completely open and honest, and never prevaricates about his intentions. While he does have an overinflated sense of his own importance—there are several occasions where he oversteps with Sheridan, assuming an authority over military matters that he doesn’t have—it comes from a place of genuine patriotism.
By contrast, there is very little that is genuine in anything Welles says or does. He’s a pretty obvious snake in the grass, and it’s to the credit of both Ivanova and Allan that they both see it instantly, though Allan isn’t really in a position to do anything about it. But the threat that NightWatch poses is quite real, as is made clear by Welles’ meeting, by the CnC officer who snitches on Sheridan, and by the shutting down of a shopkeeper who was just speaking his mind.
The big turning point here is Earth refusing to take a stand against Centauri aggression. It’s obvious that Sheridan in particular was counting on that, and he’s utterly gobsmacked that Lantze has an agenda that is a hundred and eighty degrees from what he was expecting. Now the promise he made to G’Kar back in “Acts of Sacrifice” to help the Narn feels even more hollow. Earth’s neutrality in the prior episode was bad enough, but now Sheridan can only keep his promise to G’Kar if he goes against his government. Not that that’s necessarily a deal-breaker…
This is overall a brutal end to a brutal season, as the Centauri are becoming a huge threat, and that’s as nothing compared to the danger posed by the Shadows. (Who are, of course, partly responsible for why the Centauri are such a huge threat…) Ivanova’s closing voiceover serves as the perfect coda to the season and a preview for the next one: B5 has failed at being the last, best hope for peace because there is, at this point, absolutely no hope for peace.
Next week: An overview of the second season.
There’s no NightWatch in the US yet…. Otherwise this episode was extremely relevant…
The thing I found myself arguing with was Ivanova saying Sheridan would be killed when he hit the ground that was moving at 60MPH. While he would probably be pretty severely injured, he could definitely survive. Hit one of the lakes, or an open space where he can do a parachute landing fall and his chances would be pretty good. Especially if he hit at an angle rather than straight down.
Of course he would hit at an angle, since his radial motion would be quite slow, basically just the momentum from his leap. The increasing Coriolis winds as his radial distance from the axis increased would push him sideways a bit, which would move him further out to where the wind is stronger and so on, so he’d accelerate somewhat outward, but he’d end up hitting a surface that was rotating sideways relative to him. Perhaps he’d hit a bit slower than 60 MPH laterally, because the wind would’ve been pushing him in the same direction as the surface’s rotation.
Still, I think you’re overestimating Sheridan’s odds of survival. From what I can find about traffic crashes, a pedestrian hit by a car at 60 MPH would have at least a 90% chance of dying. What would happen to Sheridan would’ve been the equivalent of someone being thrown out of a car that was moving up to 60 MPH and hitting the ground, which might be less deadly than a head-on impact, but still quite dangerous. And there’s no guarantee he wouldn’t slam right into the side of a tree or building at 60 MPH.
Well, yes, “could survive” is not “will survive”, but people have survived some amazing impacts.
But it’s a matter of probability, not possibility. The existence of exceptions does not invalidate the rule. Ivanova was absolutely right to see Sheridan’s death as the likely, expected outcome, since his survival would have been a low-probability event. If you were playing poker, there’d be a nonzero chance that you’d be dealt a full house on your first hand, but that doesn’t mean you’d expect it to happen.
I’m pretty sure that the Vorlons’ “appear to everyone as their own species” thing is some sort of telepathy. We know that the Vorlons engineered the telepaths in other species to combat the Shadows, and early in the next season (I’m pretty sure in Episode 1), it’s mentioned that Kosh is resting after the strain of having appeared to so many beings.
Really looking forward to Season 3. It’s where I started watching the show and is a spectacular season of television.
So one possibility as to why Mollari could not see Kosh is that the Vorlons never visited the Centauri Republic to get them to see any Vorlon as a being of light.
In the pantheon of gods that the Centauri proclaim to have, there isn’t mention of an “angelic” god. Other than their emperors, their gods seem to be “household gods”, not Zeus/Hera-like beings. And certainly not angels analagous to Judaic-based belife systems.
I thnk Mollari exaggerastd when he said he saw “nothing”, but his current darkness and no prior basis caused him to say what he did. And he sounded pissed that he was unable to “see” what the other races did.
I thought he either saw something he didn’t like and lied, or he didn’t see anything because he had lost his faith in everything.
One of my favorite moments from the series—that and him getting stuck in an elevator:
Londo: “I hate my life.”
G’Kar: “Me too.”
That’s kinda my guess. I’m thinking maybe they were in an area controlled by the Shadows in the last war (if not actually working with/for them).
The Vorlons had hundreds of thousands of years to visit the younger races and meddle with their development, so i doubt they couldn’t visit the Centauri because they were briefly out of their field of influence a thousand years ago (basically yesterday for the Vorlons).
I assumed that Londo couldn’t see Kosh because of his proximity to the Shadows – his metaphorical corruption was interfering with his telepathic receiver. No, it makes no sense but telepathy as a concept makes no sense anyway…
Yes, I have always assumed it’s because Mollari is compromised spiritually by allegiance to the Shadows (maybe even blocked by them) and therefore unable to see himself reflected in the Vorlon because the deeper issue would be, if the Centauri hadn’t been visited, that would mean they weren’t conditioned, which in turn doesn’t mean he shouldn’t see anything, but he should see Kosh in their real form without the manipulation. Although I’ve never been sure if Londo professing to seeing nothing meant that he literally saw nothing or just that he didn’t see Centauri-Kosh.
If he saw nothing at all he must have been very confused. “Did no one think to tell us humans can fly!?”
Once again, we see what a tricky art making convincing greenscreen is with the fail on Sheridan’s leap out of the exploding train.
While Londo may have seen nothing when Kosh emerged, there is the question of what Vir saw. Granted, it’s not entirely clear if he was present, but let presume he was. Did Kosh appear as Li Goddess of Passion with naughty bits waggling suggestively? Or did Kosh appear as Zoog, much to Vir’s consternation?
Riffable moment
Ivanova: Captain, Zeta Squadron just got back. Lt. Keffer is missing.
Well I never liked him anyway.
“Once again, we see what a tricky art making convincing greenscreen is with the fail on Sheridan’s leap out of the exploding train.”
Back then, it would probably have been bluescreen. Green didn’t become standard until around the turn of the century when digital cameras became the norm, because their sensors respond better to green. And if film compositing techniques were used, blue was the easiest color to filter out and create black mattes from.
Although there were other colors used here and there, like Disney’s proprietary sodium-light matte process (which worked better than bluescreen in many ways but relied on a unique prism that nobody ever figured out how to recreate), or the fluorescent orange light used by the TNG-era Star Trek shows’ FX house (which could be processed faster than bluescreen shots, though I don’t know why).
My riff in response to “Lt. Keffer is missing” would be “Same as usual, then.”
I have long wondered whether Londo was actually telling the truth when he said he saw nothing. Perhaps he just didn’t want to admit to or acknowledge what he did see. (JMS says he was telling the truth, though.)
Keffer, we hardly knew ye. Both character and actor got screwed over. This and a few other stories that have come out over the years suggest that JMS can, at times, be a massive jerk. We’ll get something of a replacement for him next season, but clearly it will be Straczynski’s idea and he’ll be fleshed out a lot more.
I noticed for the first time that (some of) the Starfury pilots wear scarves. Has that always been the case, or is it new? It’s obviously a nod to WWI pilots wearing scarves, but for them it was a necessity. They had to constantly be looking around them and the stiff collars of the day would chafe their necks. It was often condemned as an affectation, but it really was necessary. For our guys here, it sure looks like an affectation.
Londo says he didn’t see anything, but he may or may not be telling the truth. Maybe he saw nothing, maybe what he saw made it even more clear to him that he’s hitched his wagon to the wrong team and he’s in denial. I’d love to know what Vir saw, though.
If you’ve seen the gag reel for season 2, Londo’s scene there stumbles a little. In an outtake, he says in the exact same tone of bitterness, “I thought I saw a pussy cat. I did. I did see a pussy cat.” Hilarious, but it’s back of mind, dampening the effect.
I know that it’s almost become a cliche to say that Babylon 5 is extremely topical right now, but watching a story about an Americanesque military power turning its back on an ally in the face of aggression by a revanchist empire is…uncomfortable viewing this week.
Careful, now. That’s the sort of thing that will get you arrested for sedition if the wrong person hears it. (For the moment, that’s still hyperbole.)
I’m not subjected to American laws (which might also change, depending on political developments)
I thought the Earth bits would resonate more strongly on this viewing, but before last week I didn’t even begin to imagine how much. X.x
The Kosh revelation…. Does very little for me. I was far more interested in how other people reacted to him, and his appearance made almost no emotional impact on me at all; I was feeling more like Londo, ;_; Anyone else feel that way?
The Vir/Lennir conversation is another of those classic moments where I can never remember when they happened.
Was the “peace in our time” reference as tired then as it is now?
Despite current events, it seems unlikely that Earth Gov wouldn’t have free speech protections. It feels like they should have laid more ground work for being able to arrest/detain people for sedition.
Yes, it was tired in the 1990s. No human with any knowledge of the actual events of WWII would have quoted that particular line in that particular way; it’s a JMS affectation, where he thought the resonance with the real world was cool enough to get past the lack of self awareness and historical literacy this would demonstrate from the character.
(A good way to use the resonance would have been putting it in *Ivanova*’s mouth; Christian would have absolutely managed to fill it with the necessary sarcasm and snark and obvious awareness of the history.)
“Despite current events, it seems unlikely that Earth Gov wouldn’t have free speech protections. It feels like they should have laid more groundwork for being able to arrest/detain people for sedition.”
As. Lord Refa said in an earlier episode, those guarantees are nothing more than “ink on paper.” I think the very existence of the Night Watch (which we have seen in several episodes now) laid the groundwork for the arrest we see in this episode. Why else would an organization like that be formed? That Zack didn’t see that right away just shows that, while he has a good heart, he’s a bit naïve(or dim-witted).
Indeed. As we’ve seen in real life, corrupt leaders can ignore or violate their own nation’s laws as long as they’re allowed to get away with it. It’s the Milgram experiment — people are predisposed to go along with what the people in authority tell them to do, even if they don’t think it’s right. Even if it is illegal to arrest people the way the shopkeeper was arrested, that doesn’t mean that anyone’s going to stand up and stop it. At least, not until next season.
As I wrote in response to Keith’s “why isn’t healthcare free?” comment on a previous episode, it’s pretty clear that the world of Babylon 5/EarthGov — even before Clark’s fascist coup d’etat — has taken quite a few steps backward from the liberal democratic era of the late 20th and early 21st century.
The handling of the Mars independence movement, the looting of artifacts on other planets, the Rush Act, Downbelow — all of these pre-Clark developments point to a world that has gotten worse in the centuries between when the show was made and when it was set.
Random thoughts I had while watching this episode:
Doesn’t Sheridan have someone to drill his pilots for him? He’s already got a lot on his plate.
I would love to read a novelization of this show told entirely as a series of conversations between Lennier and Vir.
I didn’t expect G’kar’s Cassandraesque warnings about the Centauri to pay off so quickly.
Juli Doland made more of an impact on me in her brief exposition scene than Robert Rusler has during his entire run.
It’s always nice to see Roy Dotrice of Beauty and the Beast fame, though I also loved his audiobook readings.
I wish my door opened when I told it to, because that’s a great way to tell somebody to GTFO.
I thought Earth had been at peace for a decade, or did I miss something? They don’t have a history of conflict with the Centauri.
I like the friendship between Sheridan and Ivanova, and it feels more appropriate than the one between Sinclair and Garibaldi.
Vickers’ role was a bit cartoonish, but I still found that scene between him and Conway pretty chilling.
I don’t know what to make of the rescue scene. I like the idea, but the execution was really lacking.
To your first point, Sheridan is a decorated combat pilot who likes to get out in a ship when he has the chance (as do both Ivanova and Garibaldi). This may have been his turn amongst all the others available or maybe he wanted to demonstrate the specific maneuvers and observe how Zeta Squadron was performing. Either way, not surprising to see him out there.
Yeah, but he’s also conspiring against two interplanetary governments while running a space station. I just think there are better things he could be doing with his time. But maybe this is his idea of relaxing.
Earth has not been at war with the Centauri in the past, no, but the treaty means they won’t have to worry about going to war with them in the near future, so they’re “securing the peace” for Earth by throwing the rest of the galaxy under the bus. (That’s one big bus.)
Okay, I was a bit confused by the way the minister said “We will, at last, know peace in our time,” even though I got the reference.
An effective and sadly relevant episode. I like the nuance with which Dotrice’s character was written, making him less an obvious bad guy than the antagonists-of-the-week have often been. As for Welles, I agree Vickery played him a bit smarmy, but it was an interesting twist that he seemed to take Sheridan’s side at first, before twisting the knife by demanding the humiliating apology.
I have a little trouble believing that Sheridan was so blindsided by Earthgov taking the Centauri’s side, when he’s already part of a conspiracy investigating the rise of corruption and fascism in Earthgov. If he already suspects the people in power of being the bad guys, why did he expect them to do the right thing in this case?
The climactic sequence was an impressive FX achievement for its day, and they did a pretty good job with the physics of the situation by this show’s standards. But the visuals on “angel” Kosh were a bit underwhelming, and the actor they cast as his human form (Joshua Patton) did not give a very Kosh-like physical performance when he nodded to Sheridan, so that felt incongruous. I also didn’t care for the music in the scene, which heavily featured a “ping-ping” motif that Christopher Franke would use increasingly over the series and that I grew deathly sick of hearing. This is the first time I’ve noticed it in this rewatch, but it was not pleasant.
I have to admit, Keith, what you say about Keffer, how JMS should’ve tried harder to make something of the character despite not liking the idea of him, reminds me of something I think I suggested to you about Trance Gemini when you were writing Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda: Destruction of Illusions way back in 2002. I thought that if you disliked the character, it would be good to challenge yourself to find something worthwhile in her that you could build on, to turn a negative into a positive; but instead you preferred just to minimize her role in the novel. So it feels a bit ironic to see you criticizing JMS for doing much the same thing. Granted, though, the showrunner of a series has more responsibility for doing justice to all its characters than the author of a tie-in novel, particularly one working on as tight a deadline as you were.
That is a fair point, and looking back over (shudder) 23 years, you were right and I was wrong. I should’ve tried to do more with Trance. But then, I was just writing one story of many, I wasn’t responsible for the entire direction of the franchise….
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
I have a little trouble believing that Sheridan was so blindsided by Earthgov taking the Centauri’s side, when he’s already part of a conspiracy investigating the rise of corruption and fascism in Earthgov. If he already suspects the people in power of being the bad guys, why did he expect them to do the right thing in this case?
I think there are two different issues at play here. Sheridan suspecting that Clark was complicit in Santiago’s assassination is not the same thing as finding out that your own government suddenly took a sharp right turn acting to protect the economic and expansionist interests of another greedy empire. Let’s not forget Earth’s long-standing no involvement in foreign affairs policy that became the norm after the disastrous Earth/Minbari war.
All Sheridan and Hague knew up to that point was that Earth had no interest in the Narn/Centauri affair. For them, Clark’s grab for power was a personal one with some Psi Corps interest in gaining a foothold within the Earth Alliance’s power structure. To see them suddenly supporting a foreign power, taking sides like that would be shocking to anyone, going up against everything Babylon 5 was built for.
P.S. – I’ve always enjoyed Franke’s use of the ‘ping-ping’ motif in the soundtrack. To me, it always made the B5 soundscape unique compared to other shows of the era.
Yes, Clark was after personal power, but he’s the president, so unless Earthgov is set up significantly differently from the US (and we haven’t seen any sign of that as far as I can tell), he’s probably responsible for setting the nation’s foreign policy. So if Sheridan already mistrusts Clark, it seems odd that he’d be so blindly trusting of his foreign policy priorities.
As for the music, there’s just something about that particular “ping” sound that irritates my sensitivities, especially when Franke just keeps on using it over and over again ad nauseam. Though it’s not remotely as hard on my ears as the music for Crusade. I’m not sure I’ll be able to tolerate rewatching the pilot movie for that when the time comes, since its music was fingernails on the blackboard for me (though the subsequent series wasn’t quite as bad). JMS and I have very, very different musical tastes.
He may mistrust Clark, but they still don’t have a firm connection between him and the Earthforce One explosion. Plus, I think Sheridan still has some of that patriotic mindset as Hague put it, and part of him is still willing to trust the institutions and that they’ll do the right thing when it comes to foreign policy (they did put an official request to send observers to Quadrant 14 during the events of “The Coming of Shadows”). And I think it’s an ongoing transition for him to fully admit there is no going back to the Earth Alliance he knew.
Brutal is just about right a description for this finale as any. Ivanova’s season-ending voiceover sets the mournful tone for next year like nothing else. JMS once called B5 the story of Londo Mollari. But to me, the most enduring narrator by far is Susan. We see much of the show from her point of view – that shot of her lighting the Hanukkah candles in an ending montage full of violence and repression is one of the most haunting bits in the show.
30 years ago, I would have agreed with your assessment of Welles being too broad a bad guy. And yet, the way he smartly plays things down and cozies up to Sheridan’s side of the story makes him a lot more nuanced. We’re currently living a real world where tech billionaires like Musk and Thiel literally bullied their way into power and have zero compuction over their actions. They wouldn’t even bother to listen to the other side of things before putting them under the gun. Real-life bad guys at their core to the point that even the fictional ones are having a hard time catching up.
And the truly scary part of the Nightwatch arc is that one brief scene with the female CnC officer going over Sheridan and Ivanova’s orders, breaking the chain of command with a chainsaw. That’s the worst part of fascism: we can’t even trust the people that are closest to us. It’s the one of the most effective frightening aspects of the Earth Alliance arc, especially Sheridan outraged reaction and commenting over what the EA uniform represents to him (“I felt ten feet tall”). And Lantze is such an effective antagonist, who probably in his mind had good intentions, but is also a sad reminder of what happens when you use names like “peace” in a misguided action that will only cause anything but.
The Centauri scuffle is brief, but just as brutal. I love it how Sheridan and Ivanova quickly piece together that reinforcements are coming given Londo’s sudden warning. Those upgrades came at the right moment, since even them aren’t quite enough to prevent the station from suffering some major damage to the upper cargo stabilizers. It becomes painfully clear that if the station has this much difficulty defending itself from a Centauri heavy cruiser, there is no hope they could ever repel a Shadow attack.
One set I wish the show would use more is the station’s inner tram system. That entire sequence with Sheridan and the other passengers before the bomb goes off is an effective exercise in building suspense. Which of course leads to that memorable Kosh moment. It’s pretty clear it involves some form of telepathy or something else that makes everyone view something different. Worth it for Londo’s distraught realization.
In an otherwise perfect finale, there is only one little detail that bugs me: the camera footage from Keffer’s starfury. He ejected the recording before being blown to bits, but the camera’s POV shows us the Shadow’ literally blasting it to bits before cutting to the old-fashioned TV static before the credits. So this means ISN couldn’t have possibly gotten usable footage to air. if the camera had been ejected, we should have instead been treated to an outside shot of Keffer’s starfury being blown up by the Shadows. But that would have looked less interesting as a season-ending shot. Dramatic license and all that.
JMS answered the camera-footage thing: “Yeah, I kinda figured that recorders like this would be outfitted with a receiver for the ship’s gun camera. This would be vital to locate ships that got lost, and track as long as possible what happened after the log was ejected, and before the recorder moved out of range… or, in this case, the transmitter was destroyed.”
http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/guide/044.html#JS
Yeah, I should have considered the ejected recorder was still receiving starfury broadcast data before the cutoff.
This is a solid finale to the season. I’ve always liked how it manages to bring so many threads together. When my partner was recently watching the show with me for the first time, she actually had to stop and take a moment to let the tension ease. And many of the themes are distressingly relevant now.
The reveal with Kosh was a big deal for many of us back when the episode first aired. I remember that some bought into the “angelic” aspect as though the Vorlons were *really* angels, while others quickly caught on to what Sheridan was suggesting. Sheridan’s questions make sense in light of their recent experience with Sebastian, and it’s interesting that Delenn is still somewhat less inclined to think about it in negative terms. (Especially since it was partially the reason why she was invested enough to fulfill prophecy.)
Though I agree that Keffer got the shaft from JMS, I do find it interesting that he ultimately served a purpose in the overall plot by transmitting the video of the Shadows that made it to ISN. But he definitely didn’t live up to the prominence that his introduction would have suggested.
I can’t help but wonder if JMS borrowed the idea that Vorlons look differently based on who observes them from the John Byrne run on Fantastic Four, where the same is true of Galactus.
Personally, I found it a bit disappointing, given what was established previously. But it is what it is.
JMS and Byrne could both have gotten it from Star Trek: “The Man Trap,” in the early scene where Kirk, McCoy, and a crewman see three different versions of “Nancy Crater” simultaneously. Or all of them could’ve gotten it from an earlier reference, such as the Arisians in E.E. “Doc” Smith’s Lensman series from the 1940s-50s, or some even older tradition from culture or mythology. Normally I’d argue for the latter, but in this case, I know Byrne is a Trek fan and JMS is familiar with both Trek and Marvel, so I can’t rule out those possibilities.
JMS often noted that one of his big influences for B5 was the Lensman series, so you might be on the right track with that.
Vorlons as angels could just as easily have come from Styx “Come Sail Away”.
FWIW, Larry DiTillio noted in the script books that. though he tried to give Rusler more depth in ‘GROPOS’ by way of a speech to Yang, Rusler couldn’t make it work and it was dropped.
The character JMS was forced to give up for Rusler would have been far mor interesting.
I’m curious, what character did he have to give up? I always knew that Keffer was forced on him, I hadn’t seen that he actually wanted to introduce a new character in season 2, other than Sheridan, who had to replace Sinclair due to Michael O’Hare’s departure.
So much in this episode is what is good and what is…less good…about the writing on B5. All the stuff with Sheridan Doing The Right Thing works great. His position is principled and reflects well on him and the people he represents/serves. Well done, all.
The Keffer stuff is bad if only because it makes JMS look like a petulant baby. I was already pretty much on Claudia Christian’s side in the debate about her departure, but behavior like this (see also: Talia Winters’ departure) pretty much sealed it for me.
Back in the good column, the stakes felt earned, both for the Centauri expansion and the Shadow conflict overall. The only part that nags me is literally quoting “peace in our time.” I’ve joked to friends JMS should have just named the character Schmeville Schmamberlain. It has the subtlety of air raid siren. We get it. You are drawing comparisons to 1930s Germany.
A friend once described the dialogue on Babylon 5 as every character saying every thought they are having in real time. While I’m sure that’s not literally true, JMS does seem unable to let a moment be implied for the audience. The character can never just look sad and the audience acknowledge it; the character has to say (usually while needlessly name dropping a 20th century historical/cultural reference) that they are sad. Even when a character is lying, the acting/writing hang flashing lights on it. Welles is just the latest example of a character who is practically wearing a name tag that says “Villain of the Week” on their shirt. And by the same token, he can’t just evoke 1930s appeasement, he has to hang a lantern on it.
But still, the main arc of the show got a nice leap forward this week. And as much as I rag on the show for being unsubtle, I can’t deny the show would be a very different one without that quality.
Yeah, I feel like a lot of the allusions on B5 (e.g., Clark’s government having a Ministry of Peace, abbreviated in Newspeak) are a lot less subtle than JMS probably thought they were.
I don’t think JMS wanted his references to be subtle. One of his role models is Rod Serling, and Serling’s work, at least in The Twilight Zone, tended to wear its literary references and its messages on its sleeve.
I will avoid repeating points already made, especially the chilling echos of current international politics. Instead, I want to emphasize the brilliance of the Lennier/Vir opening bit. It was laugh-out-loud funny the first time I saw it, it still brings a chuckle, and is one of the scenes that I have always remembered in detail. One of JMS’ strengths as a writer is to realize that you need to occasional leaven the heavy emotional stuff with some real humor. Few shows do this, or do it well. And, at the same time they add a subtle bit of depth to the life of an ambassador’s assistant. This is a case of understatement, unlike how JMS may write other dialogue.
It always makes me think that at least Vir can (and does) drown his sorrows. Lennier is there commiserating and can’t drink the alcohol.
A diplomat being handed an insult and then ordered to apologise is absolutely something that should have STAYED fictional.
There’s an echo here with keffer in the shop that’s shut down; I seem to recall thi is a shopkeeper we’ve never really seen before, so his grumbling and his disappearance are all about *Allan* having regrets and not, y’know, about a shopkeeper who is now in jail and we never hear about him again.
It seems to me that it would have made a nice resonance, and a great deal more poignancy and a much darker threat if that was the same shop that Ivanova was protesting when it was opened several episodes ago, and had made a whole sequence of cameos afterwards (instead of being shut down via station commander temper tantrum over a stuffed bear who was spaced for no crime whatever.) Just like Keffer would have more poignancy if we’d had a personality and some plot besides “mystery ship”.
JMS just never seems to work well with things he’s handed but doesn’t like.
Did the Season 2 overview go up today, or is it delayed?
I think their content manage system must be Having Issues. Nothing went up on Monday at all.