“Voices of Authority”
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Menachem Binetski
Season 3, Episode 5
Production episode 304
Original air date: January 29, 1996
It was the dawn of the third age… Garibaldi and Allan are discussing life, the universe, and everything, including that Allan simply cannot get a uniform top that fits him properly no matter how hard he tries. Garibaldi is summoned by Ivanova with a “Code 7R,” a code Allan doesn’t recognize. Garibaldi comes up with a bullshit answer to Allan’s question about it, then sends his deputy off to a meeting without him.
Code 7R is a meeting of the Army of Light War Council: Sheridan, Ivanova, Garibaldi, Franklin, Cole, and Delenn. Delenn believes it is time to try to contact some of the First Ones to try to recruit them to help fight the Shadows. Ivanova wants to know why they aren’t here already, since they fought the Shadows before, but Delenn says that, aside from the Vorlons, they seem to have all buggered off, either from exhaustion or progress. Some have gone beyond the galactic rim. Some are sleeping. Some are wandering.
Cole cautions against this. When he was training as a Ranger on Minbar, he was taught that the First Ones are old, cranky, powerful, and don’t like to be bothered. Delenn, however, believes that the time for circumspection is past. To that end, she has asked Draal to join the meeting, and his holographic avatar appears in the meeting room. Draal has consulted the Great Machine and notes that pretty much every file on the First Ones boils down to “do not approach.” But they all decide that the need is great, so Sheridan agrees to go down to Epsilon III in a few hours and meet with Draal to work out a game plan.
The Ministry of Peace has sent a representative, Julie Musante, to be B5’s political officer. She meets with Sheridan, and her first comment is that there isn’t enough to represent EarthGov in the office. Sheridan tartly points out that it’s his office, and that’s what it represents. It becomes clear that Musante’s job is to make everything on B5 conform to Clark’s creeping fascism, and Sheridan’s attempt to point out that this is a military post gets the response that the military serves the civilian government.
She invites him to dinner, and at first he refuses—because he has to go meet with Draal on Epsilon—but that’s not on his official calendar, obviously, so he is forced to accept and send Ivanova in his place.
G’Kar approaches Delenn, expressing his surprise at all the closed-door meetings going on, which Delenn insists are all related to her diplomatic duties. He also mentions having heard rumors of a group called the Rangers, and does Delenn know anything about that? Delenn lies through her teeth and says no.
Allan escorts Musante to her quarters. She asks him to report to her whatever the captain doesn’t tell her. This makes Allan uncomfortable, which prompts Musante to remind him that he also works for NightWatch.
Ivanova heads down to Epsilon. Draal is cranky at first, as he was expecting Sheridan, but then Ivanova lets loose with some impressive word vomit, which somehow pleases Draal. They get to work, putting Ivanova into the Great Machine.
Sheridan and Musante have dinner, where it becomes clear that Musante’s title should be propaganda officer rather than political officer. When Sheridan mentions the Lurkers, Musante proudly declares that there are no homeless people on Earth and very few criminals, and she dismisses both as the purview of the mentally ill. Musante then admits that all they’re doing is redefining words to fit a goal, but she also believes it’s the first step toward putting Earth back on the right track. Sheridan, in contrast, thinks they’re just ignoring the problems and hoping they’ll go away. Musante says that Sheridan’s candor can get him in trouble, which is why her job is so important.
Ivanova finds some First Ones at Sigma 957, but also encounters something nasty, which she barely gets away from. She also sees the destruction of Earth Force One, but also sees a conversation between then-Vice President Clark and someone unseen (it’s Morden’s voice, though Ivanova wouldn’t necessarily recognize it) making it clear that Clark (a) wanted Santiago dead, and (b) knew that EF1 would go boom. Ivanova urges Draal to make a recording of it, which he does.
Musante has apparently been locked out of her quarters, so Sheridan takes her to his cabin. She immediately gets undressed and endeavors to seduce him. Ivanova chooses that hilariously inappropriate moment to show up using the Great Machine’s holographic projector, thus making everything even more awkward. Sheridan has to kiss the naked Musante in order to keep her from seeing Ivanova, then goes into the bedroom for a moment of privacy.
He and Ivanova have a conversation that somehow Musante doesn’t overhear through the partition. Ivanova says they need to go to Sigma 957 right now this minute or they’ll miss their shot at this batch of First Ones. Sheridan can’t get away from Musante (in more ways than one), so he sends Ivanova, reminding her to make sure there’s someone on board who can speak both English and Minbari.
G’Kar tries to find out what’s going on from Garibaldi, but he stonewalls even better than Delenn does.
Sheridan managed to avoid sleeping with Musante, er, somehow, as Allan finds her the next morning all peevish that she wasn’t able to seal the deal with the captain. She deflects Allan’s attempts to hit on her and tells him to be there for the NightWatch meeting in three hours. (She also points out that his uniform top doesn’t fit right.) At that meeting, Musante makes it clear that military personnel are no longer permitted to say anything negative about EarthGov, and that civilians who do so should be monitored. Rules of evidence and procedure are also more broad-ranging now, though Musante assures them that this is temporary until the crisis is past. What the crisis actually is remains unclear…
Musante also mentions purges of disloyal government officials and other fun stuff.
The White Star disembarks. Ivanova is surprised to see, not Lennier, but Cole serving as liaison with the crew. Cole says that he spent a year training on Minbar, and picked up the language while there. They arrive at Sigma 957, and a funky ship shows up, with an alien whose face resembles a wooden mask appears on the flight deck. Ivanova tries to communicate with them, though they do not respond in English or Minbari. They get particularly cranky at the mention of the Vorlons. After Ivanova makes her request, they disappear. Cole opines that they’re thinking it over.
Garibaldi shows Sheridan the recording that Draal provided of Clark and Morden. Sheridan wants it sent to General Hague, who will be able to release it in a way that won’t tie back to B5.
The Sigma 957 First Ones return, say the word, “Zog” and then disappear. Ivanova is frustrated, though it appears they’ve rejected them. Ivanova refuses to take Zog for an answer, and tries to figure out a way to talk them into it. Cole jokingly says he can put a lampshade on his head and pretend to be the Vorlon god Booji. That gives Ivanova an idea, and she sends a message to the First Ones saying that the Vorlons said that these guys would be useless and approaching them was a waste of time, and further that the Vorlons said they totally carried the Sigma 957 dudes last time.
Amazingly, this works, and the First Ones say, in English, to call on them here at the appropriate time and they will come.
The footage of Clark gleefully talking about how much he wanted Santiago dead hits the news, which causes a shitstorm of epic proportions. Musante is recalled to Earth, though she tells Allan that she will be back once this nonsense is dealt with. Garibaldi tells his security people that, if anyone asks, they’re just waiting for the truth to come out. Allan hangs back after the meeting. The two of them have an unpleasant chat, with Garibaldi not happy about Allan’s continued work for NightWatch, especially given that he has tons of trust issues given what happened with his last deputy. For his part, Allan doesn’t feel like he’s being trusted even a little bit—he still has no idea what a Code 7R is.
G’Kar shows up at Garibaldi’s quarters in the middle of the night, waking him up, and hands him a copy of the Book of G’Quan, telling him to read it. Garibaldi points out that he can’t read Narn, to which G’Kar says, “Learn!”
Get the hell out of our galaxy! Sheridan has to play verbal hockey with Musante, countering her propaganda with rationality—which never works—and also tonsil hockey with her to keep her from seeing Ivanova. However, he manages to avoid sleeping with her, despite her best efforts.
Ivanova is God. Busy episode for Ivanova, as she gets to be plugged into the Great Machine, command the White Star, negotiate successfully with a First One despite not understanding hardly anything they say, and peek on her captain being seduced.
Also Draal is surprised at how well Ivanova is able to work with the Great Machine.
The household god of frustration. Garibaldi says to G’Kar that he sees no way that the two of them can help each other. Part of this is Garibaldi compartmentalizing his duties as security chief from his duties as part of the Army of Light, of course. However, G’Kar doesn’t give up that easily…
If you value your lives, be somewhere else. Delenn lies directly to G’Kar’s face. It’s not an evasion, and there’s no face-saving involved. She just lies like a cheap rug in order to keep the existence of the Rangers a secret. That’s a pretty big faux pas on her part…
Though it take a thousand years, we will be free. G’Kar, not being an idiot, knows there’s important stuff happening on the station. He very obviously isn’t going to give up until he gets a straight answer, and he also knows full well that neither Delenn nor Garibaldi gave him one.
We live for the one, we die for the one. Part of the Ranger training includes learning about the First Ones. For that reason, Cole is initially against the notion of contacting them, as they are scary and mean.
The Shadowy Vorlons. Apparently, the Vorlons pissed the Sigma 957 First Ones off at some point in the past. They did so to a sufficient degree that Ivanova is able to use some pretty bog-standard reverse psychology on the Sigma 957 First Ones to get them to play ball.
No sex, please, we’re EarthForce. Musante attempts to seduce Sheridan, because of course she does. Just in case there was any doubt that this episode was written by a dude.
Welcome aboard. Shari Shattuck gets to be blonde, pretty, and occasionally naked as Musante. We’ve also got recurring regulars John Schuck, making his second and final appearance as Draal following “The Long, Twilight Struggle”; Joshua Cox as Corwin, last seen in “A Day in the Strife,” next to appear in “Exogenesis”; and Gary McGurk as Clark, last seen in “Revelations,” next to appear in “Endgame.”
Two other recurring regulars make uncredited voice-only appearances. Ardwight Chamberlain, normally the voice of Kosh, provides the voice of the Sigma 957 First Ones, and Ed Wasser as Morden is heard speaking to Clark in the Great Machine footage found by Ivanova.
Trivial matters. The First Ones from Sigma 957 previously appeared in “Mind War” when Sakai encountered them. They’ll return (when summoned, as requested in this episode) in “Into the Fire.”
This was not intended to be John Schuck’s final appearance as Draal, but when the character was scripted to return in “Conflicts of Interest” in season four, Schuck was performing on Broadway and unavailable.
According to an online posting from J. Michael Straczynski, the Sigma 957 First Ones’ comment of “Vorlons tavutna chog!” loosely translates to, “The Vorlons can kiss my ass!”
Following the airing of this episode, Jason Carter was known to, when appearing at conventions, put a lampshade over his head and claim to be the Vorlon god Booji.
The echoes of all of our conversations.
“Zog.”
“Zog? Zog what? Zog yes, zog no? What does it mean?”
—The Sigma 957 First Ones failing their saving roll versus communicating with Ivanova.
The name of the place is Babylon 5. “I think you’re about to go where everyone has gone before.” It’s funny, but over on the Lurker’s Guide, there’s a response J. Michael Straczynski had to an online question regarding this episode that just made me shake my head. Someone asked why Sheridan didn’t just kick Musante out of his room and/or off the station after the attempted seduction. Straczynski replied that that may be the right thing to do by TV Logic, but not by Real Logic. Musante was sent by the Senate Oversight Committee, and is part of the political landscape that Sheridan has no access to or control over: EarthGov. He can’t just get rid of her.
And he’s right, but what’s really ridiculous about this oh-so-noble assertion is that it’s in defense of a scene that is defined, not by TV Logic or Real Logic, but by Porn Movie Logic. Musante’s attempted seduction of Sheridan had nothing to do with Real Logic and everything to do with Hollywood expectations and the fact that Musante was played by a very attractive woman. If Straczynski wanted to write a realistic example of a powerful official using sex as a tool of asserting authority, it should’ve been a male character forcing himself on a female character who didn’t feel she could refuse, as there are a lot more examples of that in the world governed by Real Logic. Succubi, however, are purely the stuff of stories.
On the one hand, I love the idea of putting a political officer on B5, and I wish the assignment was permanent, as that creates all kinds of fun possibilities—particularly the disposition of that character later this season during a particularly big status quo change. On the other hand, this particular political officer outstayed her welcome pretty quickly, and the fact that she won’t return comes as something of a relief. On the third hand, her reasons for being recalled to Earth make no sense. If anything, the release of the Clark-and-Morden footage would make it more imperative for there to be an EarthGov watchdog on B5.
The rest of the episode works just fine. I like that G’Kar has wasted no time in figuring out that something is going on and he wants in on it. G’Kar has brains, resources, and a need to help folks who can return the favor and help his oppressed people. It’s always a joy to see John Schuck in anything, and his bombastic portrayal of Draal is particularly entertaining, and it’s a pity this is his swan song. (I especially love his comment to Ivanova that he needs to dust his body off more often.) We get more delightful Ivanova-Cole banter, which will continue to be a fun feature of the show for this and next season, and for all that I don’t entirely buy that the First Ones would fall for a reverse-psychology schoolyard taunt, Ivanova delivered it with such gusto that I am willing to forgive it.
Next week: “Dust to Dust.”
“Cole jokingly says he can put a lampshade on his head and pretend to be the Vorlon god Booji.”
IIRC it’s a bucket, not a lampshade.
Riffable moments
Draal: I like you!
That’s why I’ll kill you last.
Draal: Focus on the First Ones, on the most ancient of ancients.
[hum Doctor Who theme]
I get that the Code 7R thing was a way to get Zack wondering what’s going on and put him in a dilemma between his loyalty to Garibaldi and his work for the Nightwatch. But that meeting was not urgent and could have been scheduled well in advance.
I love that first interaction between Draal and Ivanova, although it’s her second best conversation on Epsilon III. I really can’t see Louis Turenne delivering that “I like you. You’re trouble.” line with the same panache as John Schuck. We also get another Tolkien quote. I’m pretty sure Draal’s warning about staying on the path is word for word what Gandalf tells Bilbo and the Dwarves before they enter Mirkwood.
Musante’s attempted seduction of Sheridan is clumsy and bad, but I can see the logic behind it. It’s a way to get information and leverage. Of course, normally the political officer would only be running the honeypot operation, not acting as the bait as well.
It’s also funny they’re using such a bad code– like, it’s as if it was designed to raise curiosity and get people to ask questions. If it was “Lurker Outreach Program” or “Water Reclamation Logistics,” I guarantee Zack would have fewer questions. I guess this is what happens when you have soldiers not trained in spycraft run a conspiracy.
Yes, I was thinking along similar lines recently. Our Heroes in the conspiracy of light are very obviously bad at tradecraft. Whether that reflects an intentional authorial choice (e.g. to show that they are not inclined or used to operating in the shadows, so to speak) or just a byproduct of JMS’ writing style (which prioritizes the big picture over the finer details) is less clear.
Perhaps it was scheduled, and Code 7-R means, “You’re late, jackass!” OSLT.
“military personnel are no longer permitted to say anything negative about EarthGov”
Paging the (now former) commander of the US base in Greenland…
Yeah. This is tracking too close to my current reality for comfort.
I could see Musante using sex for a few reasons, one of them the potential to discredit Sheridan down the road. In that case, getting him to sleep with her might have been the main objective. But that’s all speculation. The actual episode as presented doesn’t indicate anything other than she wanted to sleep with him and thought he would be into it, and then she was peeved that he wasn’t. In either case she could have expected more success if she’d been just a little more patient but of course the script didn’t give her time for that, and it wouldn’t have worked anyway.
On the matter of using sex to assert authority, I think you’re being a little hard on the episode, Keith. Keep in mind that Musante was sent by her superiors, presumably men (as fascism is an overwhelmingly male activity), and was probably acting under specific orders to seduce Sheridan, to prostitute herself for her masters. So this is very much an illustration of men pressuring a woman to perform sexually as a tool of power and manipulation. She’s chosen to perform that assigned role readily enough, but she probably wouldn’t have been given the job if she hadn’t been willing to prostitute herself as proof of her loyalty to the state. It’s misreading the episode entirely to assume she’s the one in the position of control. She’s a tool of her masters.
It was pretty chilling to watch this at a time when all its predictions are coming true. Musante was even the exact type we tend to see these days as right-wing press secretaries and newsreaders.
JMS referred to the Sigma 957 aliens as Walkers, I guess because they “walk among the stars,” as Delenn likes to say. So I guess the scene where Marcus was nervous about the aliens could be described as… “Walker Vexes Ranger.” (Okay, Marcus wasn’t that nervous, but I needed to make the pun work.)
Christopher: your explanation would earn you a No-Prize if this was a Marvel comic, but there’s no evidence anywhere in this episode that she was under orders to seduce Sheridan. It’s likely, especially since everything else she does is obviously dictated by Clark and his staff, but still, the fact that you have to come up with a reason that the script itself failed to provide just shows how the script failed.
And you didn’t need make that pun work at all. *laughs*
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
Sometimes evidence isn’t needed when inference will do. Fascism is toxic masculinity and abuse on a national scale. Women in fascist systems are not leaders but subordinates. And Musante’s role as “political officer” is basically that of a propagandist, like a Trump press secretary or a Faux News anchorblonde. That means her job is to speak for her superiors, and to put a desirable face on the regime’s ugliness.
Even if she seduced Sheridan on her own initiative, the scene didn’t feel to me like it was about her dominating him — more like she felt she needed to use her sexuality to do the job she’d been ordered to do. If anything, it seems likely that her superiors hired for the job because they assessed her as someone willing to do that for them.
And let’s face it — if she so readily takes her clothes off in the presence of a male authority figure, it implies that she has a lot of practice doing just that. I consider it highly likely that she was offering Sheridan the same services she already provides to her superiors in Nightwatch. They’re the ones using her — including using her to manipulate Sheridan.
The Fox News spokesblondes!
It would also be a very different story with a male political officer trying to coerce Ivanova: the realism would be a justification not to tell that story.
If Musante was to be a season-long character, you could slow-roll her trying to get leverage on Sheridan. Failing that, this acceleration and the decision to play it comically is suspect but not extremely objectionable. My objection is less that it plays into male sexual fantasy tropes and more that it reads as Musante happily plying her sex appeal for Dear Leader, where the stories of sexual abuse and the Fox News blondes ™ suggest that coercion runs far more one direction than the other. Musante is never presented as a victim of any stripe. Then again, there’s some point at which one must limit sympathy for a willing tool of fascism who seems eager enough to exercise her authority; if the show gave us some context for Musante this scene might read better.
Not a victim, no, but my point is that her role still arguably fits into the paradigm of powerful men requiring female subordinates to perform sexually as a requirement of their jobs. It’s just that those men are offstage here, so we only see the subordinate carrying out the orders she’s implicitly been given. She’s not a superior pressuring Sheridan to submit to her, she’s a reward her bosses are offering Sheridan if he gets with the program.
This episode always gave me a weird vibe, and I’m not even talking about the seduction plotline.
No, I’m talking about the convenient way the script chose to reveal President Clark’s damning footage. Up to this point, the show had been slowly and quietly building a grassroots underground movement led by General Hague that was wary of Clark’s fascist policies and firmly believed that he might have been complicit in Santiago’s assassination – just without the evidence to back it up. An intriguing build up of events that could have naturally led to a spy game with them uncovering the evidence.
But then Ivanova coincidentally stumbles across that very evidence while scanning the universe for First Ones while plugged inside Draal’s chamber on Epsilon III? I know it’s the point in season 3 where the show needs a major triggering event to accelerate the Earth arc, and it’s plausible that the Great Machine would be capable of extending its capabilities to the point of intercepting secret messages across thousands of light-years, but it still feels like a gratuitous act of Deus Ex Machina.
And now back to the seduction plotline. On one hand it’s definitely gratuitous. But on the other, it’s also an act of imposing power and authority, which is the real intent of the story. Yes, it’s a bit far-fetched to see a scenario with an attractive woman being sexually aggressive with an unwilling male commanding officer, but I’d argue that had the show done the reverse – say, a male political officer forcing himself on someone like Ivanova or Lyta – it would have a been a completely different episode. The political aspect would become irrelevant because the story would be built around the fact that a woman was forced upon without her consent, which would obscure everything else and would be anything but a cloak-and-dagger First Ones chase story with little fun character moments. It wouldn’t even feel like B5.
On a side note, Musante talks exactly like a right-wing paid Twitter account. Scary, to say the least.
It occurs to me that Delenn’s lying to G’Kar is very much a faux pas, but also very much in character. Minbari are taught from birth not to lie (unless it’s to save family honor). Of course most of them will be pretty bad at it when forced to do so. And I just love G’Kar’s perseverance and final solution – put the doorstop on Garibaldi’s door and force them to include him.
Yeah, I meant to complain about that, but I was so annoyed at the way Musante was written and performed, I kinda lost track of that. In addition to everything you say, Eduardo, which is absolutely true about the convenient ease with which this evidence falls into our heroes’ lap, is how incredibly ridiculous Clark’s dialogue is. Straczynski has never exactly been a paragon of naturalistic dialogue, but this is bad even by his standards, not helped by yet another nowhere line reading by Gary McGurk. Clark’s pretty much speaking in exposition here….
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
No kidding. Not even Season One G’Kar was that mustache twirly. Even Snidely Whiplash might urge him dial it back.
Okay but given that Snidely Whiplash would tell this current administration to dial it back I think maybe JMS was on to something.
When I rewatched this episode recently, I didn’t think it was a contrived coincidence or side effect of Ivanova’s telepathy that she was able to uncover that recording of Clark’s and Morden conspiracy. For me now. It felt like random browsing on Google and rearching on Wiki, and stumbling on that fact. Surely Draal had seen it before, but him being a Minbari and not fully aware of Earth political intricacies, he most likely ignored it as minor irrelevant internal Earth conversation. Ivanova stabled on it because she was looking for something Ancient, Vorlons, Shadows, her mind wandering off “clicking on random links” of interest and just stabled on Ancient’s (Shadow) related conspiracy connected to Earth government
Draal is taking in information from all over the galaxy, so I doubt he’s paid conscious attention to every bit of it; rather, he focuses on a part of it when there’s a reason to. I figure the Machine’s memory is like a museum’s archives. There can be countless archaeological treasures sitting undiscovered in a museum basement because there’s so much stuff stored there that it can take years or decades just to sift through it all.
I had the same thought– as I’ve noted repeatedly in the rewatch, this shows run on the people of walking into a room so they can have a chance encounter with the information they need for the plot to work. This is like that on steroids, it’s time for Big Events to happen so let’s just have the characters stumble across what they need. It feels pretty unearned, notwithstanding that the machine is magic and Ivanova’s telepathy is pretty vaguely defined. I liked, at least, that they addressed authentication. Looking and sounding like Clark proves nothing in a galaxy that has changeling nets, so it’s good that they established there’s a code that proves authenticity. Luckily Draal is largely on our side, because apparently it’s impossible to keep a secret from this dude.
The clear intent is that Ivanova’s telepathic abilities interact with the Great Machine, that she has a close encounter with the Shadow’s “Eye” defensive systems, and that she manages to pick up a strand of Shadow communications as a result of that brush up against their systems. It’s just that the implementation of those graphics implies a camera moving around and not threads of influence or lines of communiction and activity.
Delenn’s outright lies are important for the season ending episode, which pretty squarely places blame on her for her deceit here and elsewhere.
The Great Machine is, of course, a palantir…
I looked up “palantir,” and it said the name comes from words meaning “far” and “watch over.” Which means that “palantir” is literally the Quenya translation of “television.”
Given Prof. Tolkien’s antipathy to modern contrivances, and that the palantíri were most notably used to let the devil into your brain, that may even have been intentional on his part when he published LOTR in the 1950s.
Back to this topic at hand though, the Great Machine is kind of a combination palantír/Skynet/time-travel device that is used for a little more than just snooping around the galaxy.
He wrote the initial palantir chapter during WWII. While television existed as a concept and the BBC even broadcast briefly prewar, the social impact of TV was far in the future.
Ivanova’s seeing things that are, things that were, etc. also probably owes a bit to the Mirror of Galadriel, where Sam is likewise tempted to try to act on something that he can’t affect.
Yeah, probably not a commentary, just a parallel derivation for the same idea.
Even if we assume there are Shadow communications out there she stumbles upon, it still doesn’t explain why would the Shadows would let a covert message from 2258 – 18 months before – sit idly by undeleted or purged. Up to this point, the Shadows have been working in secrecy. Keeping evidence of their involvement with Santiago’s assassination intact goes against that bit of common sense (and they don’t strike me as blackmailers after the fact – they come and occupy worlds, plain and simple).
From Ivanova’s conviction that she could warn EF1 about the bomb and Draal’s explicit warning not to try doing that, I had the impression that there were some timey-wimey shenanigans going on. I think rather than the Shadows failing to purge their databases, she picked up that transmission live.
No, when Ivanova thought she was watching it in real time, Draal said, “No, it’s too late. You’re seeing the shadow of things long gone.” So her perception of moving back through time was presumably an illusion resulting from the fully immersive nature of the experience.
Remember, the Great Machine has been constantly monitoring and recording events throughout the galaxy for a very long time, so the transmission would’ve already been picked up by the Machine when it was originally broadcast over a year before. It was just a question of sifting it out of the mass of data. I guess Ivanova’s subconscious sensed it and her latent psi ability let her draw it out of the Machine’s memory.
I like some aspects of the episode. G’Kar’s move to learn more about the Rangers and the Army of Light makes sense. He would have feelers out for anything or anyone that might be able to help the Narn Resistance. It’s perhaps more of a surprise that it took this long.
I like Ivanova’s subplot, for the most part. Her arc with Marcus is always fun to watch. I wish she could have had more interactions with Draal. The only thing that bugs me is how she just happens upon the footage of Clark. There are moments in the script that attempt to give it an explanation, but it still feels very clunky.
There are moments in this episode that are incredibly uncomfortable to watch given current events. So much of it is happening in real time, sometimes word for word.
That’s the sad thing — JMS and other writers spent decades explicitly telling us how to recognize fascism so that we’d be ready to stop it when it came, and too many of us just didn’t listen.
Or refused to accept that IT CAN’T HAPPEN HERE was a bitterly ironic title.
Maybe the Walkers change their minds thanks to crude reverse psychology. Or maybe they have more insight into the situation from the start, and understand already that the final confrontation isn’t going to be purely against the Shadows. An extreme reading would be that Ivanova’s obvious reverse psychology “we don’t need you, we have the Vorlons” is, in its massive insincerity, strong evidence that Ivanova, at least, doesn’t especially love or trust the Vorlons, because obviously she doesn’t believe a word of what she’s saying. From that perspective, they go from “go away, Vorlon puppet” to “hmm, you seem an independent sort, so we can respect you.” I mean, it’d be bad writing to have the Walkers say “We like you; you’re trouble” but it’s possible to read that into the response.
At the least, I observe that they’re grumbly and irritated initially, and when provoked by. Ivanova’s “we have the Vorlons” speech, they reapond in English but also with a tone of perfect serenity. When your “provoke them into anger” approach gets that kind of response, I’d argue some other motivation is at work.
I was thinking, actually, that you could justify the whole exchange by something other than JMS’s own “logic” for it and some bare-bones and really blatant manipulation. They’re able to pick out the actual purpose and intent of the White Star crew from the start, but they know their mind to mind contact will be overwhelming to the point of disastrous to these lesser beings. So they try audio communication, but they only have enough of a sample of English to make some approximate syllables the first time that don’t mean what they wanted to say. What they were waiting for was for Ivanova to speak enough verbal language to finally create a parseable message that correctly conveys their meaning.
Like humans trying to figure out the meanings of crow-caws and play some back to actual crows to see if they got the right message across.
Such alien beings wouldn’t necessarily express anger in terms a human would recognize. The voice they use is probably synthesized anyway, or telepathically projected, so it doesn’t necessarily reflect their emotions. (Notably, according to JMS, Ardwight Chamberlain did the voice. So the Walkers chose to use the same “human voice” that Kosh’s translator uses, despite their evident rivalry with the Vorlons.)
I have a fan-theory based on this episode – haven’t seen the thought elsewhere, don’t know if there’s been any confirmation or denial.
Do I need a spoiler tag? I’ll use one anyway:
At the point the Triluminaries were taken from Epsilon 3, Draal had been linked to the Great Machine for most of two years – possibly providing the template of a completely male Minbari for Sinclair. Ivanova is linked to the Great Machine in this episode for only a short time; does she provide a partial template for a female human, and is that why Delenn’s transformation is only partial where Sinclair’s was complete?
It makes for a strange family tree, but it doesn’t seem unreasonable to me.
The whole rewatch series is filled with spoilers, so I’m not bothering tagging here.
Interesting theory, one I haven’t heard before. It would make for an interesting resonance for the scene with Delenn begs Ivanova to teach her how to manage what is essentially Ivanova’s own hair!
A related theory that made its way into my own headcanon is that the Trilumnaries were constructed using Great Machine tech, from Sinclair’s B5 link (communicator), which were keyed to his DNA. Only thing missing would be a slapstick scene at the top of Season 2 when Draal sends Zathras to break and enter into Sinclair’s quarters and swipe his link and his backup links without getting caught.
Zathras cannot be seen. Seeing, would be known. Cannot see, so cannot know. Draal needs this, Draal needs that… some “long term research project…” no one ever ask Zathras what HE needs. Pfah.
Draal was supposed to appear in “War Without End, Part I” but John Schuck was unavailable and so his lines were given to Delenn.
I think the scene with Zathras in “Conflicts of Interest” was always intended to be with that character – at the time the plan was for him to be part of Crusade.
I was under the impression that Musante was going to be a permanent, or at least recurring, addition, and I wondered why the writing (and Shattuck’s performance) was working so hard to stack the deck against her from the moment she introduced herself to Sheridan, so I was glad when it turned out that she wasn’t sticking around. I would have appreciated at least one moment where she expressed herself as a person rather than a mouthpiece or a seductress before she left, though.
The rest of the story was more enjoyable. I liked the visuals of Ivanova’s out-of-body experience, though it did seem more than a little convenient that she stumbled upon such an incriminating transmission. Once again, Andreas Katsulas provides the best part of the episode, shifting effortlessly between humor, sincerity and outrage. I do wonder why he’s being kept out of the loop, though, since Sheridan has already promised to help him in his cause.
well i’m guessing one of the reasons they didn’t trust G’kar was that, up until recentely, they didn’t have a reason to trust him. remember, in season 1 how decitful he was.
“I do wonder why he’s being kept out of the loop, though, since Sheridan has already promised to help him in his cause.”
Probably because Sheridan doesn’t yet know (I think) that the Shadows were behind the Centauri invasion of Narn, so he doesn’t realize that working against the Shadows has any relevance to G’Kar’s cause, or vice-versa. Besides, G’Kar may have become more sympathetic lately, but in the past he’s given Sheridan plenty of reason to be slow to trust him.
Those are both very good points. I still think I’d want to pool my resources if I were trying to accomplish the overthrow of two regimes and battle an ancient evil, but you’re right that he doesn’t have a long list of reasons to trust G’Kar, though I’d argue that most of the latter’s bad behavior happened before he showed up on the station.
to be fair, it’s not even Sheridan who is denying him the information and brushing him off. He goes to Delen and Garibaldi, who DO have very good reasons to not trust him
Yeah, but I wasn’t wondering why Delenn and Garibaldi didn’t bring G’Kar into the loop. I was wondering why Sheridan hadn’t already. He’s the one running the show, and he’s the one who also committed to helping G’Kar. However, perhaps Delenn and Garibaldi talked him out of it.
Like I said, though, why would he? G’Kar’s concern is freeing Narn from the Centauri. Sheridan doesn’t yet know that has anything to do with the Shadows. As far as he knows, it’s a separate problem. He’d have no more reason to bring in G’Kar than he would to bring in the head of the station dockworkers.
I do think the Narn insurgents and the Earth insurgents have more in common with one another than they do with the dockworkers. However, like I said, earlier, your point is taken.
I’m not going to lie, my overpowering impression is that Musante was prestigious, connected and committed enough to get handed Babylon 5 (Not exactly a plum assignment, but far from an unimportant one) but was very quickly reeled back in when she completely failed to be anything but a poster girl.
Not the worst illustration of a Fascist Regime in action, in all honesty: it’s just a pity the episode doesn’t make more of the fact that Musante’s own short-lived promotion is the very clearest possible evidence that the emphasis on appearances over actual results which she herself advocates is worthless to the point of being completely detrimental.
On a less high-minded note, Ms. Shari Shattuck looks just ridiculously attractive: you can tell that the character
must have been an absolute horror for Captain Sheridan to treat her advances with such wary disgust.
Man, it really is eye opening how similar this episode is about just renaming things and saying its “fixed” and using a vague unnamed “crisis against our lifestyle” to walk all over human rights. this was made only 30 years ago. . anyway, great episode.
That’s the thing. Fascists all follow the same predictable playbook, and stories like this are written to teach us what to look for when they try their tricks again. Unfortunately, not enough people listened.
It’s weird, I could have sworn that there were more episodes with Draal.
It always feels weird that he’s set up the way he is and then when it comes he disappears from sight so completely – although if they didn’t truncate the shadow war maybe he was planned to appear a few times in the original plan for season 4.
Ahh…so Star Trek is a tv show in the B5 universe, just like it is in Stargate and Blake’s 7. :)
and Farscape!
I don’t recall anyone in Blake’s 7 referring to Star Trek at any point. They’re far enough in the future that they have little knowledge of 20th-century Earth culture. (They’re 700 years past the first interstellar ships, which might be anywhere from 800 to 1000 years ahead or more.)
Or are you joking about the fact that the B7 Federation emblem looks kind of like a TOS movie-era Starfleet arrowhead-and-circle rotated sideways?
Regarding the perceived lameness of Ivanova’s reverse psychology, it could just be a case where the trope had not yet gone stale at the time the episode was broadcast.
A couple more riffable moments
Ivanova: [arriving on the White Star bridge] Lennier?
He’s on tour with Barnes & Barnes.
Ivanova: I need someone who speaks Minbari.
Marcus: You’ve found him.
I’m not a stalker!
Are you kidding? That was hardly a recent trope at the time; it goes back to antiquity. That was kind of the point. The irony is that Ivanova dealt with these super-advanced beings by realizing they still had classic, ancient weaknesses like pride and an ability to hold grudges.
Which probably ties into JMS’s professed motivation for giving Marcus that “Who knew they were French?” line. He said he’d observed how deep the ancient national grudges in Europe, like between the English and the French, still endured because of the centuries of history behind them. It follows, then, that species with thousands or millions of years of history and rivalry might hold particularly intractable grudges. (Not that I agree with that, but it may have been his thinking.)