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selenakThis was actually the second ever B5 episode I saw, since the Munich Sci Fi and Fantasy festival showed the B5 pilot and this episode in the year Babylon 5 debuted, which was at least a year before it was shown on German tv. Consequently, I have a bit of a soft spot for it, though it's by no means one of the B5 greats. But even nostalgia aside, it's highly continuity relevant, a solid introduction of Psi Corps and Bester, and in its subplot with G'Kar saving the day for Catherine Sakai tells the audience (unsubtly) that "no one is what they seem" on Babylon5. Now, while Parliament of Dreams was the first episode to flesh out G'Kar somewhat and show him in his own (Narn) context, this is the first where if you're a 1990s tv watcher who has mentally classified him as an antagonist/amusing villain so far, you get a rather heavy hint that it's going to be way more complicated that that. It's also our first sighting of a First One, and I have to admit that during my original watching, I wasn't yet familiar with The Haunting of Hillhouse (either the book or the Robert Wise movie), so it escaped me that JMS shamelessly steals its famous last line ("whatever walks there, walks alone") for G'Kar's last line to Catherine in this episode, bless. It's another neat bit of world building smuggled into this subplot, the information that there are beings in this fictional universe who are older, superpowerful and incomprehensible.
But mainly, of course, this is the episode where Walter Koenig gets his second shot at creating an iconic character in a legendary sci fi series. Most of you reading this know the story, but some don't, so, because it's one of those great examples of fortune and misfortune coming together: the tale of how Walter Koenig came to play Alfred Bester, in short: JMS saw him on stage, wrote a character for him in the just coming into existence B5, who wasn't Bester, it was Knight 2 in the upcoming "Flagful of Stars" episode which while broadcast later was filmed first, Walter Koenig had a heart attack and couldn't made the shooting schedule, JMS then wrote him a second part, who was Bester, and rarely were a part and an actor so made for each other. Looking back, you can see that while the ending does set up Bester returning, it doesn't absolutely need it - it could have been a different Psi Cop -, so if Walter Koenig in the part hadn't worked as well as he did, JMS still could have continued the Psi Corps storylines. Fortunately for everyone involved, Walter Koenig worked out very well indeed, and Alfred Bester remained with us till the end of the show and got his tie-in novels to boot. I have to confess that while Chekov is lovely, I think of Bester first ever since the 1990s when hearing or reading Walter Koenig's name.
Now, this is still early days, which you can tell in the scene of Bester and Kelsey circling Talia - later episodes let telepaths do deep scans without such theatrics -, but since said scene also shows the first sign of Ivanova despite herself warming up to Talia (handing her a glass of water after the scan), it might even have been staged this way in any case. The idea of Jason Ironheart as the result of experiments going for the perfect telekinetic assasssins is something that I later found in one of JMS' comics (I can't remember whether it was "The Twelve" or another one, but it has the same line of how TPTB didn't want telekinesis for literal heavy lifting, they wanted it for discreet assassinations like the pressing of an artery), and of course Bester is named after the sci fi author whose telepath guild influenced some, but not all of Psi Corps' characterisation. Since the only telepaths we've met until now were Lyta in the pilot and then Talia, Bester and Kelsey are the first to demonstrate how frightening they can be, but while both have an equal share of dialogue, on this rewatch, it struck me that both script and performance already indicate which of them is going to survive and become a recurring character. Kelsey is just played (and written) as icy, with an immobile face and solely threatening lines. Bester gets the sarcasm and the quips ("anatomically impossible, Mr. Garibaldi, but you're welcome to try") and the seemingly harmless veneer with the occasional smile that marks a future more-than-one-note villain. It's also never pointed out in the dialogue by anyone, but worth observing that from this first episode on, the show is consisted in Bester being unable to use one of his hands (which is why he aims the way he does). I always wonder whether that was a Walter Koenig or a JMS idea. (The novels give an explanation for it, but then only on screen canon is canon.)
Possible new to B5 readers, now I'm going to add some spoilery remarks, so best skip ahead to the next episode in this review.
The
Corps
Is
Mother
This episode also sets up things that never come to pass due to the cast changes. Presumably, if Andrea Thompson hadn't left the show, the gift Jason Ironheart gives Talia would have allowed her to evolve, as Lyta did later, beyond any Psi rating. And I still think Catherine Sakai would have had Anna Sheridan's fate if Michael O'Hare hadn't left; she'd have found Z'ha'dum, and this time without Narn backup to help her against the First Ones there. Because Andrea Thompson's departure was unplanned, it's also evident that there's no sign of "Talia is Control" in this episode. However, leaving such Doylist explanations aside, and remaining on a Watsonian level: presumably neither Bester or Kelsey at this point are aware Talia is Control, either. (Same goes for Bester's next appearance in s2, of course.) In fanfic, including mine, this usually goes with the assumption that Bester isn't in charge or involved with the sleeper personality program, but that needn't be the only explanation. You could also speculate that Bester's actions here and in the next episode are meant to enhance Talia/Control's cover, though to me "Psi Corps has different factions partially scheming against each other and professionally paranoid, which is why one hand doesn't know what the other is doing " sounds more likely.
The
Corps
Is
Father
You know, only this time, at the nth rewatch, it occurred to me that so far, we've had the "Exes of regulars who still have feelings for them visit the statioiin" trope basically three times in a row - four, if you count the pilot where Sinclair gets a visit from ex Carolyn - : Catherine Sakai, Jason Ironheart and now Malcolm. Of these, Sinclair's exes are benevolent, Jason Ironheart is dangerous for reasons not his fault, but his intentions are good, and Malcolm is an evil racist, so basically, Ivanova's love life on this show is off to a good start. Seriously now, even back in the day during my first watch I was entirely unsurprised that Malcolm turned out to be a rotter, and thus there was no real shock factor at the reveal. Not to mention there was zero chemistry. Maybe another actor would have added emotional depth and heartbreak to this part of the plot? Because "person you thought you knew and loved turns out to hold horrible views and act on them" is alas a very contemporary kind of plot these days.
Otoh, the actress playing Mayan and Mira Furlan make me believe that Delenn and Mayan have an intense and long term friendship, and I can also understand there's some fanfiction. Certainly if you want to slash Delenn, Mayan is your best bet. Even the f/f potential aside, it's great to see her interact with someone who is neither her teacher nor her protege nor her enemy but her equal, with no prophecy of any kind involved.
Mind you: if you're familiar with the rest of B5, it's noticeable that in this episode, which was written by ST legend D.C. Fontana, both the Minbari and the Centauri are ever so slightly off. With the Minbari, it's Mayan's whole "we believe in love and can't comprehend hate" thing - guys, the Earth/Minbari war wasn't fueled by love and understanding, is what I'm saying, and it certainly isn't all love and peace between the different Minbari castes, either. With the Centauri, I'm with
andraste who in her original review of this episode wrote that Fontana didn't think the whole polygamy set up of Centauri marriages through, and that someone, preferably Londo, should have at least suggested to our teenage lovers that Kieran could take his beloved as his second wife in addition to the arranged match. There's also the fact that no one brings up Londo himself has been recently acting the fool for love, and he's not a teenager. I mean, you can interpret a lot in Peter Jurasiki's expression when Shaal Mayan says he's learned to live without love, but I do suspect it's simply the result of the first season scripts being written by several writers and not necessarily with knowledge of the other scripts. Otoh, the one JMS written scene in this Fontana script - the one between Londo and Vir in the garden - is great and important both for Londo's character and the building of the Londo & Vir relationship. Speaking of Centauri continuity: while this episode has the first mention of Londo's wives, the actresses in the photos aren't those who'll end up playing them when we get to meet them in person in s2. Londo nicknaming them after the four horsemen of the Apocalypse makes no real sense in that while Londo used to be a part of the Centauri delegation on Earth, it's doubtful he picked up on Christian imagery, but otoh as many people noted there could have been a Doylist reason beyond the gag, since his nicknames for them are: Famine, Pestilence and Death - which leaves Londo himself as the Fourth Horseman (War).
Something that does feel different on this rewatch is Garibaldi's and Sinclair's confrontational attitudes towards G'Kar, taking it for granted he's just after making trouble instead of granting that humans out to hurt and maim aliens gives him valid concerns. For that matter, is there a reason why Sinclair doesn't tell Delenn about his plan? He doesn't suspect her of being in league with the human supremacists, does he.
Lastly: the coffee gag still works on me, and I do regret we never seen Susan Ivanova, gardener, in action.
All in all: also not a "best of B5" episode, but it has some nice character scenes, which makes me like it.
Short fics by yours truly related to these specific episodes, originally written for the Firing Line community:
Mind War: Loss
The War Prayer: Services Rendered
The other episodes
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Date: 2021-12-19 04:40 pm (UTC)So I gotta say Mind War is the one where I am now invested :P I was like, we're on what, the fourth? fifth? episode and we're already getting apotheosis?? WHAT EVEN IS THIS SHOW. And also I was not expecting G'Kar saving Sakai (I mean, I clued in at about the point where she was like "are there any other ships around? No?!" and I started thinking, "...waaaait a second, there will be!") and that just blew me away because yes, I was expecting him to be an amusing villain type.
Also I had totally forgotten you had mentioned Walter Koenig showing up this episode (I remembered you'd said he was showing up eventually, I just didn't remember when specifically and in what context) and I was like OMG IT'S EVIL (or at least ambivalently moral) CHEKHOV and that was so great! Koenig/Bester was awesomeness! (I was also wondering if the name was a reference to Bester the writer, since I didn't catch his first name, ha.)
-random observation I had: you can tell this is not the utopian future because Talia is wearing super HIGH HEELS on duty, what. (Okay, I realize it's just her, Ivanova doesn't, and her duties presumably don't involve having to run anywhere so she can wear whatever shoes she wants and it's actually a character beat. But I still kind of did a double take.)
("anatomically impossible, Mr. Garibaldi, but you're welcome to try")
I laughed out loud at this, and at Bester's smilingly menacing delivery. Bester did get the best lines.
It's also never pointed out in the dialogue by anyone, but worth observing that from this first episode on, the show is consisted in Bester being unable to use one of his hands (which is why he aims the way he does). I always wonder whether that was a Walter Koenig or a JMS idea. (The novels give an explanation for it, but then only on screen canon is canon.)
Oh, huuuuuh! I didn't notice that.
Also, please do not spoil me, but I am so curious as to how Talia's new TK skill (which it's specifically set up is super super rare) is going to play out in the rest of the show. (I mean... it's never a spoiler to tell me that something *won't* play out in the rest of the show; if I need to have low expectations I like to know that going in. But I'm guessing that I can be trusting JMS here.)
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Date: 2021-12-19 05:07 pm (UTC)Talia is as far as I recall the only one dressed in this distinctive 1940s echoing look, high heels included, so yes, it's a character beat. (Also a characterisation -as I wrote in the post for the first episode, the film noir associations for Talia Winters are definitely intentional.
Bester did get the best lines.
JMS said that Londo and Bester were the two characters who just would not shut up for him and whom he could always hear. (Probably why these two never ever share a single scene in five years.) Also that Bester sounds like Oscar Wilde in his mind. (Err, not in pesonality. Just with the Wildean gift for bon mots.)
Talia's new skill: alas I cannot answer that without spoiling you at least a little.
Sci fi writers: in addition to Alfred Bester, JMS paid homage to a few others by working their names in. You'll notice when we get there.
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Date: 2021-12-20 03:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-12-20 03:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-12-19 10:19 pm (UTC)It's Laurel Darkhaven in Rising Stars. I think the idea of murder by tiny, precise, untraceable telekinesis must be something that scares JMS, which is fair; it's scary.
I had pretty much just discovered The Demolished Man at the point where I discovered Bester the character—and I recognized "Be seeing you" from The Prisoner—so he and the Corps were one of my first experiences of seeing references from earlier generations of a tradition built deliberately into a new world, but I don't believe that accounts for my fondness for him. He is my definitive image of Walter Koenig as well, and one of my favorites of the human characters.
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Date: 2021-12-20 07:45 am (UTC)I think the idea of murder by tiny, precise, untraceable telekinesis must be something that scares JMS, which is fair; it's scary.
True. And he's not wrong that this is a use of telekinesis which would be more in demand by the rich and powerful than weight lifting, unfortunately.
re: The Prisoner, for me it was the other way around, I only learned about the series because of B5 and other fans pointing out the salute was a reference. But JMS was the first series creator where even as a young fan I could see he was a complete geek and loved several of the same fandoms I did, referencing them in his work. I don't think I had consciously picked up on other people doing that before.
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Date: 2021-12-22 06:15 am (UTC)I had to return to this conversation because I ran into a headshot of Elliot Page while I was looking for another actor and realized that if there is ever a call to cast a younger Bester, he should totally be it.
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Date: 2021-12-22 10:51 am (UTC)Huge ginormous spoilers for anyone who hasn't watched before
Date: 2021-12-21 11:18 pm (UTC)How do you think the Ironheart gives Talia superpowers (you know what I mean) works out if 1) Talia Winters isn't Control (does she basically get Lyta's story?) and 2) if she is Control.
I'm always haunted by a version of the story where it's Talia they find, not Bester's Carolyn.
Re: Huge ginormous spoilers for anyone who hasn't watched before
Date: 2021-12-22 11:13 am (UTC)If 2), I've seen some fanfiction where Ironheart specifically gave the powers to Talia, meaning Control can't access them, due to being a separate personality. I've also read a story where Control was in fact a P8 as opposed to Talia's P5, and the original personality while Talia was an artificial creation, but that story didn't mention whether or not Control was able to access Ironheart's gift. (It's a WIP AU about Ivanova and Bester as unwilling allies, and naturally Ivanova makes "finding out what exactly has become of Talia?" one of the conditions. This one goes with Bester sincerely not knowing at first (beyond "she was debriefed") and at the point where the story is right now having just found out she wasn't among the frozen telepaths.
Now I myself have written two stories dealing (partly) with Control/Talia, and in one, she is in fact among the telepaths on the same ship as Carolyn, but under another name and with some cosmetic surgery, so no one but Bester recognized her, and he kept the knowledge to himself just in case, which means she's among the telepaths used by Sheridan in the big s4 battle (since her persona does not have any family), and Lyta finds out only when Bester tells her in a post s4 confrontation. Now, if Control has access to Ironheart's gift, I really doubt the faction of Psi Corps that's in league with the Shadows would have handed her over, since they would have wanted to use her for themselves, and she would have told them about it for self preservation purposes if nothing else.
Another possible, more positive variation that just occurs to me: Talia is Control, Control can't access the power, gets handed over to the Shadows, gets turned into a steering device and intercepted - and Kosh then hands over that crystal with the recording of Talia's personality made in s1. Because the Shadows have already done so much damage to each of the personalities of the telepaths given to them, what remains of Control dies but Franklin and Lyta are able to restore Talia's personality via the crystal.
With the remaining philosophical question: is who remains Talia, or did Talia die when Lyta sent the password, and this person now is someone who has Talia's memories (up to the point where Kosh made the recording), but is basically a clone?
Re: Huge ginormous spoilers for anyone who hasn't watched before
Date: 2022-03-28 01:49 am (UTC)That is a fantastic what-if. What a thought-provoking canon divergence.
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Date: 2021-12-24 02:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-12-24 02:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-12-25 02:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-03-28 02:11 am (UTC)It's not evident until a rewatch, but Jason Ironheart's transformation and the Sigma 957 B-plot plant ideas that will cross each other again in S3/S4.
Since I've noted when actors struggle with JMS's monologues, I'm also going to highlight Andreas Katsulas pulling off the "ant" monologue in this episode.
"The War Prayer" - "...person you thought you knew and loved turns out to hold horrible views and act on them" is alas a very contemporary kind of plot these days. This has probably been true over the course of human existence, but it's particularly relevant as we struggle through waves of the covid pandemic, overlaid with American, European, and other political events.
On a lighter note, Ivanova's true love seems to be coffee, from the care we're told she lavishes on that coffee tree.
It's Londo's turn to get awesome lines: the "shoes" line has stayed with me, and on the humor side, "LOVE! What does marriage have to do with love?!"
War Prayer has a lot to say about love, inadvertently and deliberately: Mayaan and Delenn's long friendship (or friendship with benefits, if you're feeling slashy), Kiron and Aria's star-crossed romance, Ivanova and Malcolm's bitterly dashed re-introduction. The cynic in me wonders if Malcolm was on station specifically to try to reconnect with Ivanova for his Homeguard contacts, but the same cynic notes that implies a lot more organization than Homeguard may be capable of at this point in the story.
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Date: 2022-03-28 12:15 pm (UTC)Andreas Katsulas makes every monologue he‘s handed sound profound and terrific. I always use him as one extreme and Robin What‘s his name who played Byron as the other as the very different effect a JMS written monologue can have in the hands of the right or wrong actor.
Good point about the Ivanova/Coffee OTP!
Re: Homeguard, if it was Psi Corps I‘d be sure it was planned in advance, but Homeguard at this point seems to be not efficient and organized enough. (As opposed to later with the Santiago assassination.) That they‘re willing to believe Ivanova and Sinclair would join them more or less on their say-so also speaks of a organization without much practice yet in more than spreading some terror among „easy“ targets.