Everyman on Babylon 5, aka Rave #1...
Jan. 31st, 2005 09:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenak...about a Babylon 5 character not a Centauri, not a Narn, and not Bester, as demanded by ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
wychwood. Who cleverly challenged me this way, thereby excluding all my favourites. Now as hard it may be to be believe, judging by the entries in this journal, but I'm fond of the entire B5 universe, even given my Centauri-centric look at same, and shall prove it by raving about...
....ZACK ALLEN.
Zack isn't among the most clever or charismatic of B5's characters. He's not cuddly or especially endearing, either. And still, I think he's an excellent example of what gave B5 its rich emotional and intellectual texture. Zack, starting as a semi-regular in season 2, begins as one of Garibaldi's sidekicks in security. Where he's shown to be competent and getting along with Garibaldi, but that's true for anyone from Lou Welch downwards. (Heck, even Jack the assassin wannabe got along with Garibaldi.) Almost the first thing which distinguishes him from the rest of the security guys in the eyes of the audience is that he enlists in the new organisation the Clark government has started, Nightwatch. A little more payment, and keeping an eye open for trouble - sounds like a good thing for Zack. (If not for the audience, which presumably is aware of its Earth history.)
Earth turning from a democracy (unless you're a telepath, in which case you've always lived in an apartheid state) into a fascist dictatorship is a crucial development of the show and takes nearly two years. The show's regular human heroes wise up to what's coming almost at once, and are against it from the beginning. Zack, at this point not yet a regular, though, doesn't. And that's what makes the Earth arc great instead of black and white. Zack is shown to be a decent guy, not a sadist, or one of nature's thugs. He's a little bit too prone not to question orders, as can be seen when he accepts Sheridan's flimsy excuse in In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum about Garibaldi's "temporary absence" and has no problems with Sheridan abusing Morden's civil rights. As opposed to Garibaldi & Co., we can't be sure he'll make the right choice in the season 3 episodes when the fat hits the fire, because his falling in with Nightwatch has been shown as slowly but steadily as Earth's turning. It was at this point I realized, when first watching the show, that Zack was the Everyman character of Babylon 5, standing for all the humans who were genuinenly confused about the right thing to do, who weren't heroes and probably wouldn't end in chronicles but who were as essential to life as the Sheridans, Garibaldis and Ivanovas. Zack could have gone either way, whereas with all the other human characters we knew how they would decide. That relief I felt when Zack ultimately did turn against Nightwatch and totalitarianism? I wouldn't have felt it for any ot the other characters.
One big factor in Zack's decision was undoubtedly his friendship for Garibaldi. As opposed to, say, Garibaldi and Sinclair, or Garibaldi and G'Kar, or Garibaldi and Londo, though, this comes across as a somewhat one-sided affair. Meaning that during the course of the show, we see Zack repeatedly going out on a limb for Garibaldi, but never see Garibaldi return the favour in any form. On the contrary, Zack ends up in situations where we get confronted with Garibaldi's least likeable side (and Garibaldi is an immensly sympathetic character) - the addict who is an expert in emotional manipulation and blackmail. When in season 4 Zack notices Garibaldi, by then no longer chief of security, is using his old access codes and his know-how to smuggle people and material on the station, he confronts him with it but does not report him out of friendship; this results in Garibaldi giving him the "nobody would have hired you if I hadn't, and did I ever ask anything of you? No, and now I do" treatment. Flashforward to season 5, where Zack is the first to notice Garibaldi has fallen of the wagon and is drinking again. Again, Garibaldi uses the same ploy - "I hired you and never asked anything of you, and now how do you repay me?"
(It's worth noting that in the one Zack/Garibaldi confrontation where Garibaldi is actually completely in the right and fighting for a good cause, not himself, in the season 3 "Point of no Return" fallout, he's not appealing to Zack's friendship and loyalty at all. He's downright vicious instead. Which is good, because influences aside, the decision Zack has to make has to be because it's the right thing to do, not because Garibaldi is nicer than his Nightwatch buddies.)
Mind you, Zack falling for this blackmail is probably unprofessional on his part. No, strike the "probably". But again, this contributes to make Zack a human Everyman. At any rate, his loyalty and unconditional friendship for Garibaldi is on a par with Vir's for Londo, with the difference that Londo eventually comes to care very much for Vir.
Of course, unrequited feelings are pretty much a pattern for our Mr. Allen. In season 4, he falls for Lyta Alexander and becames the only one of B5's human crew who doesn't treat her like an instrument to be used and discarded. This development starts in the episode Epiphanies. Zack, who always gets the thankless jobs on this station (he's the one Sheridan sends to collect Garibaldi's badge and weapon) has to tell Lyta, who has just risked her life and sanity for Our Heroes, that she has to move into smaller quarters because the budget is tight. Her bitter reaction causes him to do a rather sweet thing by the end of the episode - bringing her pizza to share. He continues to try and be her friend. Unfortunately, the one time he actually sums up the courage to tell her he feels more than friendship, in Thirdspace, she's not even in a condition of hearing him. Of all the B5 staff, Zack is the only one who sees Lyta off when she leaves near the end of season 5, hidden in the shadows. To everyone else, she has become a distrusted living bomb at that point.
Now before I get too much into Woobie!Zack ponderings, I have to point out that we get reminded of his less likeable sides as the story continues as well. The season 5 episode The Corps is Mother, The Corps is Father, offers a glimpse at the B5 characters from an antagonist's pov, and it is far from flattering. Zack, for example, comes across as a bigotted racist, if you can call telepaths a race. It's Zack, not Bester, who is first shown to be callous about death, making the crack about what being bad about a dead Psi Cop, when earlier we have seen Bester consoling the widow of the murdered man in pointed contrast. (And reversing the usual pov of the show.) Psi Cop intern Lauren tells Franklin that Zack loathes them all (not just Bester with whom the station has a history), and she's probably right. But this, too, belongs to Zack's Everyman aspect, because, let's face it, the telepaths in this society get a rotten deal (from everyone but Franklin, who is the only one shown to be helping and accepting telepaths he does not intend to use or has not romantic feelings for). Fear and prejudice abound, even among the good guys.
In the last but one episode, Objects at Rest, Zack jokes he'll probably be with the station till the lights are switched off, and as we see in the very last episode, Sleeping in Light, so he is. (Which is good, because otherwise we wouldn't have seen him again - he wasn't invited to that gathering of old friends on Minbar.) While everyone else has gone and left on different paths, Zack Allen remained with Babylon 5. He never saved it, he never lead it; sometimes he helped keeping it what it became, sometimes he screwed up, but he always did his job to the best of his abilities, and, with his sense of duty, capacity for deep friendship and loyalty, prejudices and sometimes wrong choices, was the not-so-flashy but immensly true embodiment of humanity.
wychwood. Who cleverly challenged me this way, thereby excluding all my favourites. Now as hard it may be to be believe, judging by the entries in this journal, but I'm fond of the entire B5 universe, even given my Centauri-centric look at same, and shall prove it by raving about.......ZACK ALLEN.
Zack isn't among the most clever or charismatic of B5's characters. He's not cuddly or especially endearing, either. And still, I think he's an excellent example of what gave B5 its rich emotional and intellectual texture. Zack, starting as a semi-regular in season 2, begins as one of Garibaldi's sidekicks in security. Where he's shown to be competent and getting along with Garibaldi, but that's true for anyone from Lou Welch downwards. (Heck, even Jack the assassin wannabe got along with Garibaldi.) Almost the first thing which distinguishes him from the rest of the security guys in the eyes of the audience is that he enlists in the new organisation the Clark government has started, Nightwatch. A little more payment, and keeping an eye open for trouble - sounds like a good thing for Zack. (If not for the audience, which presumably is aware of its Earth history.)
Earth turning from a democracy (unless you're a telepath, in which case you've always lived in an apartheid state) into a fascist dictatorship is a crucial development of the show and takes nearly two years. The show's regular human heroes wise up to what's coming almost at once, and are against it from the beginning. Zack, at this point not yet a regular, though, doesn't. And that's what makes the Earth arc great instead of black and white. Zack is shown to be a decent guy, not a sadist, or one of nature's thugs. He's a little bit too prone not to question orders, as can be seen when he accepts Sheridan's flimsy excuse in In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum about Garibaldi's "temporary absence" and has no problems with Sheridan abusing Morden's civil rights. As opposed to Garibaldi & Co., we can't be sure he'll make the right choice in the season 3 episodes when the fat hits the fire, because his falling in with Nightwatch has been shown as slowly but steadily as Earth's turning. It was at this point I realized, when first watching the show, that Zack was the Everyman character of Babylon 5, standing for all the humans who were genuinenly confused about the right thing to do, who weren't heroes and probably wouldn't end in chronicles but who were as essential to life as the Sheridans, Garibaldis and Ivanovas. Zack could have gone either way, whereas with all the other human characters we knew how they would decide. That relief I felt when Zack ultimately did turn against Nightwatch and totalitarianism? I wouldn't have felt it for any ot the other characters.
One big factor in Zack's decision was undoubtedly his friendship for Garibaldi. As opposed to, say, Garibaldi and Sinclair, or Garibaldi and G'Kar, or Garibaldi and Londo, though, this comes across as a somewhat one-sided affair. Meaning that during the course of the show, we see Zack repeatedly going out on a limb for Garibaldi, but never see Garibaldi return the favour in any form. On the contrary, Zack ends up in situations where we get confronted with Garibaldi's least likeable side (and Garibaldi is an immensly sympathetic character) - the addict who is an expert in emotional manipulation and blackmail. When in season 4 Zack notices Garibaldi, by then no longer chief of security, is using his old access codes and his know-how to smuggle people and material on the station, he confronts him with it but does not report him out of friendship; this results in Garibaldi giving him the "nobody would have hired you if I hadn't, and did I ever ask anything of you? No, and now I do" treatment. Flashforward to season 5, where Zack is the first to notice Garibaldi has fallen of the wagon and is drinking again. Again, Garibaldi uses the same ploy - "I hired you and never asked anything of you, and now how do you repay me?"
(It's worth noting that in the one Zack/Garibaldi confrontation where Garibaldi is actually completely in the right and fighting for a good cause, not himself, in the season 3 "Point of no Return" fallout, he's not appealing to Zack's friendship and loyalty at all. He's downright vicious instead. Which is good, because influences aside, the decision Zack has to make has to be because it's the right thing to do, not because Garibaldi is nicer than his Nightwatch buddies.)
Mind you, Zack falling for this blackmail is probably unprofessional on his part. No, strike the "probably". But again, this contributes to make Zack a human Everyman. At any rate, his loyalty and unconditional friendship for Garibaldi is on a par with Vir's for Londo, with the difference that Londo eventually comes to care very much for Vir.
Of course, unrequited feelings are pretty much a pattern for our Mr. Allen. In season 4, he falls for Lyta Alexander and becames the only one of B5's human crew who doesn't treat her like an instrument to be used and discarded. This development starts in the episode Epiphanies. Zack, who always gets the thankless jobs on this station (he's the one Sheridan sends to collect Garibaldi's badge and weapon) has to tell Lyta, who has just risked her life and sanity for Our Heroes, that she has to move into smaller quarters because the budget is tight. Her bitter reaction causes him to do a rather sweet thing by the end of the episode - bringing her pizza to share. He continues to try and be her friend. Unfortunately, the one time he actually sums up the courage to tell her he feels more than friendship, in Thirdspace, she's not even in a condition of hearing him. Of all the B5 staff, Zack is the only one who sees Lyta off when she leaves near the end of season 5, hidden in the shadows. To everyone else, she has become a distrusted living bomb at that point.
Now before I get too much into Woobie!Zack ponderings, I have to point out that we get reminded of his less likeable sides as the story continues as well. The season 5 episode The Corps is Mother, The Corps is Father, offers a glimpse at the B5 characters from an antagonist's pov, and it is far from flattering. Zack, for example, comes across as a bigotted racist, if you can call telepaths a race. It's Zack, not Bester, who is first shown to be callous about death, making the crack about what being bad about a dead Psi Cop, when earlier we have seen Bester consoling the widow of the murdered man in pointed contrast. (And reversing the usual pov of the show.) Psi Cop intern Lauren tells Franklin that Zack loathes them all (not just Bester with whom the station has a history), and she's probably right. But this, too, belongs to Zack's Everyman aspect, because, let's face it, the telepaths in this society get a rotten deal (from everyone but Franklin, who is the only one shown to be helping and accepting telepaths he does not intend to use or has not romantic feelings for). Fear and prejudice abound, even among the good guys.
In the last but one episode, Objects at Rest, Zack jokes he'll probably be with the station till the lights are switched off, and as we see in the very last episode, Sleeping in Light, so he is. (Which is good, because otherwise we wouldn't have seen him again - he wasn't invited to that gathering of old friends on Minbar.) While everyone else has gone and left on different paths, Zack Allen remained with Babylon 5. He never saved it, he never lead it; sometimes he helped keeping it what it became, sometimes he screwed up, but he always did his job to the best of his abilities, and, with his sense of duty, capacity for deep friendship and loyalty, prejudices and sometimes wrong choices, was the not-so-flashy but immensly true embodiment of humanity.
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no subject
Date: 2005-01-31 10:22 am (UTC)I love your ravings... when/if you ever feel inspired/inclined, I'd really love to hear one about Lyta. ;-)
no subject
Date: 2005-01-31 12:36 pm (UTC)Lyta: is cool, and maybe I'll write one about her too, yes.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-31 10:36 am (UTC)Is too! :P Great rant all around, otherwise.
(I'd comment further, but my screwy sleep pattern means I've been up for nearly twelve hours, and it's just past 10:30 AM. Argh.)
no subject
Date: 2005-01-31 12:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-31 01:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-31 11:18 am (UTC)That relief I felt when Zack ultimately did turn against Nightwatch and totalitarianism? I wouldn't have felt it for any ot the other characters.
Yes, exactly; it's easy enough to imagine the decisions you'd make in, say, Sheridan's position (or at least to imagine how you'd cope with having to make them), but much more difficult to know what you'd think if you were in Zack's place. But we needed to see someone turn against Nightwatch because of what Nightwatch was actually doing, not because they knew all the details of what President Clarke was up to.
It does make me wonder, given Garibaldi's level of suspicion and anger over not knowing/having a say in what's happening with Sheridan's decisions in Season 4 (admittedly Psi Corps enhanced, but they couldn't have worked with what wasn't there in the first place), why he didn't sympathise more with Zack's perfectly justified complaints over not being told what was going on. And still, Zack's always expected to trust them and do the right thing anyway, no matter that from his perspective they must look no less secretive that Nightwatch. No wonder he sympathises with Lyta.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-31 12:41 pm (UTC)Yes, exactly. It's that special kind of courage we call "Zivilcourage" in German, and Zack showed it.
And still, Zack's always expected to trust them and do the right thing anyway, no matter that from his perspective they must look no less secretive that Nightwatch. No wonder he sympathises with Lyta.
I think in Garibaldi's case, he just takes Zack for granted, and Sheridan has the "I'm doing the right thing, so any good person should naturally agree with me" attitude down to pat anyway...
no subject
Date: 2005-01-31 01:21 pm (UTC)Speaking of underrated characters, does Lyta fall into this category, or are her champions in corners of fandom I've just never seen much before?
no subject
Date: 2005-01-31 05:22 pm (UTC)Now through lj I got the impression Lyta was fairly popular, and she has her share of fanfic at FFN, too, though I didn't find the samples I tried very well written. Otoh, Andraste wrote one story about her and Kosh which rocks.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-31 01:31 pm (UTC)Is it Zack who has the trouble with the badly-fitting uniform?
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Date: 2005-01-31 04:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-31 04:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-31 05:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-31 05:47 pm (UTC)Last time, when
no subject
Date: 2005-01-31 06:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-31 05:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-31 05:19 pm (UTC)Black Out question
Date: 2005-01-31 01:53 pm (UTC)Re: Black Out question
Date: 2005-01-31 05:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-31 04:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-31 05:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-31 06:08 pm (UTC)That was interesting. Zack has never been one of my favourite characters, though I did quite like him, especially through the Nightwatch arc and his relationship with Lyta. But you've definitely made me look at him again.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-31 06:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-31 07:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-01 06:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-01 10:14 am (UTC)Zack is one of those characters I didn't really care for during the original run, but who has grown on me since the show ended. But seriously, it wasn't until last week when I finally watched the S2 from beginning to end in one go that I really noticed of the Zack-arc and fell in love with the character.
As for Lyta and the telepaths, I agree. People tend to gloss over the fact that even the good guys weren't that nice to the telepaths. As much as I love Sheridan, I have to admit that he was a regular bastard towards Lyta (and in my opinion one of the reasons why Lyta eventually chose the "dark side").
no subject
Date: 2005-02-01 01:35 pm (UTC)Absolutely he was, and this is my one example of canon deliberately showing Sheridan to be in the wrong post-Z'ha'dum.
Have you read Alan Jenoff's reviews of B5? This one (http://www.centrinity.com/~jenoff/hindsight/b5mapa.htm) contains some great thoughts about the telepaths versus the Good Guys, and the prejudices displayed.
no subject
Date: 2005-02-02 02:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-02 07:09 am (UTC)