Babylon 5 Rewatch: A Race Through Dark Places/ The Coming of Shadows

[selenak]

A Race Through Dark Places

It's really hard to talk about this episode's main plot without spoilers. Through no fault of it's own, my feelings about said plot changed due to Doylist circumstances, about which more in the spoiler section. Unspoilery, on said rewatch I noticed that the episode lets Garibaldi and Sheridan talk early on about how Psi Corps is a monster of the non telepath's own creation, the result of systematically taking away most human rights from telepaths to "protect" "normals"....and yet it never seems to occur to anyone, including Frankklin, that an underground railroad or fighting Psi Cops like Bester might actually do zilch about the root of the problem (as opposed to fighting the symptoms), and changing the legislation for telepaths would be the thing to do. Bear in mind Earth is still a democracy at this point. So poltical activism, founding human rights groups, lobbying senators to bring in new laws for telepaths seems to be the solution most efficient in the long term. It's also entirely legal. And yet absolutely no one suggests it. Even the First Nation telepath who talks about how his brother, after taking the sleepers, would still speak out against the Corps, which is as close as we get to hear of political activism on Earth re: telepaths - he's treating the Corps as the highest authority and the thing to be spoken out at and fought here, not Earth legislation. Basically, this is as if no one in Apartheid South Africa would suggest equal status to the non-white population is the way to go and would limit themselves to smuggling some of them out of the country and fighting a few cop, and if only the police force got removed/altered, then all would be fine. (As opposed removing the unjust laws creating the no human right status and the police force.)

In terms of it as a Talia character episode, first watching me thought it was a good one, moving her story forward, including the relationship with Susan at the end; rewatching me has the Doylist problem to be talked about later. As a Bester episode, this is my least favourite of the lot, simply because it's his most straightforward appearance as a villain. The other episodes he shows up in give him a more complicated role, narratively speaking, which correspondingly allows Walter Koenig to do more. He's solidly good as the bad guy here, mind, but like I said: I like the more complicated stuff better.

On to the other plots: the comic relief one about Sheridan's and Ivanova's quarters and Sheridan's refusal to pay rent or move to smaller ones, complete with him turning out to be a terrible room mate for the long suffering Ivanova (bad jokes, snoring), is still amusing, though a bit ironic if you remember something that happens in s4 re: another character's living quarters situation. The "Sheridan and Delenn go on a date" subplot: decades younger me when first watching cast a cold eye on it and deemed it terribly cutesy - especially since this was before I had warmed up to Sheridan -, and did not approve of Delenn behaving like a high school girl, as I thought then. Rewatching me thinks Delenn has figured out her man pretty quickly and is impressed by her single minded "I'm making this prophecy happen!" determination. It's not that I tihnk she's lying about wanting to learn more about being human, etc., but that she's aware she doesn't have the history with Sheridan she by now has with Sinclair, and she needs to get this new Captain to trust her fast, given all that's to come. (And yes, she does like him, but I don't think Delenn is givng herself the option of not liking Sheridan at this point.)

Now, on to spoilery thoughts.

The

Corps

Is

Mother

The big problem with this episode in retrospect is of course that Andrea Thompson will leave the series, necessitating an abrupt end of Talia's storyline, and thus a lot of what's set up here - Talia's growing powers, her becoming a part of the telepath underground, her relationship with Ivanova taking another turn - will either be transfered to Lyta or just ended, full stop, making her part of the episode something of a shaggy dog story. Not to mention that the later retcon, err, reveal that Talia has a second personality inside her makes you wonder why none of the underground telepaths - some of whom definitely outrank Talia on the psi scale, even taking into account her growing powers - noticed that. Briefly, I wondered whether you could even make a very evil fanwank that actually, the supposed illusion - i.e. Bester and Talia shooting all the rogues - was the reality, and Bester and Control just made Franklin and Sheridan think otherwise, but that doesn't work with the fact we later see Talia and the leader of the rogues a deux talking. Another debatable plot point: we later learn there are various factions within Psi Corps, and Bester is actually not allied to the one currently at the very top (i.e. the one hand in gloves with Clark and later the Shadows). On a purely Watsonian level, is he aware that Talia is also Control, and tries to help maintaining her cover? Or has he no idea and won't find out until after Divided Loyalties?

The

Corps

Is

Father


The Comiing of Shadows

No mixed feelings here, no matter how often I watch this episode. 100% adoration rate, it deserved its Hugo, it deserves all the accolades, and fo rme, it's not just a stellar moment for B5 but for tv, full stop. There isn't a moment I don't love, including the tiny subplot about Sinclair living out his, err, JMS' Tolkien fandom dream and colling his super secret new organisation "Rangers" and making sure they look the part. More seriously, I still recall how happy I was to see Sinclair again and how glad he contacted Garibaldi (and Delenn) when I first watched this. Rewatching, I wonder whether he's not demanding a lot of good old Michael. I mean, he has no idea what kind of guy his successor it, granted, and in theory, for all Sinclair knows at this point, Sheridan is a tool of the Clark government, a government he strongly suspects of having been involved in the Santiago assassination, so asking Garibaldi to keep this secret makes sense. But it still asks Garibaldi to go behind his superior's back and could have backfired terribly.

The main event, of course, is the Narn/Centauri plot, culminating in the start of the second Narn/Centauri war. And everyone is just soooo good, including the guest stars. At this point, neither the Prime Minister nor the Emperor are named, though later episodes, using the first names of the actors, will refer to them as Emperor Turhan and Prime Minister Malachi. They manage to convey a lot of warmth and dignity in what is just a short screen time, so you do care what happens to them beyond the implications for intergalactic peace. I also found the set up of the four female Centauri telepaths serving the Emperor intriguing and always regreted we don't see them again, so I wrote t heir story (cahn, this one has spoilers for the entire show, you can't read it yet). Lord Refa has his second appearance here and is sufficiently dastardly. But really, the heart of it is about G'Kar and Londo and the big corners they turn, with their actors rising to the sublime occasion. (Okay, also Vir and Stephen Furst; it's the first episode in which Vir acts explicitly as Londo's conscience, telling him in crystal clear words not to do this and yes, he does have a choice about it, without backing down or even a hint of shyness, which is a far cry from only a season agao when Vir would immediately back off if Londo got angry.) Those two roles were really a rich gift to actors, but with lesser actors, the characters would not have been who they came. In this single episode, which is heavy on the drama, we still get their comic relief bits as well (G'Kar's ranting about the Emperor having the indecency to die on his own, Londo trying to do a runner when he spots G'Kar), and we get the full Shakespearean drama. G'Kar has three key choices to make in this episode. The first one is the wrong one and one of the very few times the universe, which is generally tough on G'Kar, cuts him a lucky break. By which I mean Turhan's heart attack, which prevents G'Kar from going through with his assassination plan. If G'Kar had assassinated Emperor Turhan, as he'd planned to do, the Narn/Centauri war would have started just the same, but without Sheridan (or anyone else) having sympathies for the Narn, let alone offering their support. Even worse, Turhan's reconciliation policy towards the Narn would have been discredited in the long term on Centauri Prime. G'Kar lucked out there, and I think he knows it, much later, and it informs certain actions in later seasons. Otoh, his next two decisions were hard ones, where no luck helped him. Having learned of the Emperor's intended apology from Franklin, G'Kar could have still dismissed it as "too little too late" and continued in his Centauri-hating ways. Instead, he has his first epiphany and for the first time sincerly reaches out to the Centauri in the person of Londo Mollari, the Centauri whom he knows best. The resulting scene is just - chef's kiss - for both their storylines and tragic irony at its best considering what Londo has just done. But we're not yet at the end of the decision making for G'Kar, who next has to choose between short term revenge and long term benefits for his people when Sheridan stops him from reaching Londo's quarters. And the contrast to G'Kar at the start of the episode, who sees in the visit of the Centauri Emperor nothing but a chance for a glorious martyr's death-cum-assissionation with zero thought for the consequences this might have fo rthis people, could not be greater when he reigns in his temper with a mighty effort and with this gesture effectually starts his alliance with Sheridan.

The other thing which always fascinates me about G'Kar's reactions here is when he hears about the attack is that he immediately personalizes it to Londo. Now he doesn't know or guess yet that Londo is indeed directly and personally responsible for the attack, but it's still "he knew!" and "he betrayed me!", not "they're at it again!" (The "they" comes later, when talking to Sheridan.) It is, I think, fair to say that at this point, the Centauri are Londo to G'Kar.

Meanwhile, Londo has a couple of choices to make in this episode as well. The alliance with Refa itself is one. As Londo himself points out, what Refa is originally planning is sabotage, which goes beyond political team ups and into the illegal. Never mind intergalactic peace, this, as a purely inner Centauri matter, is wrong, and an early signal about Refa, but Londo continues. (As opposed to, say, inform the Emperor about it.) Next we get Londo crossing the Rubicon by for the first time deliberately and knowing exactly what he asks for using his Morden connection to conquer a colony/outpost, with the blood now on his hands not just that of the Narn who die in this attack but everyone in the war unfolding, which he knows he will start. When I watched this in the 1990s, I was reminded of Macbeth for the first time (but not the last), another guy who knows very well (unlike Lady M) that once he starts this path, the killling won't end, he knows it's wrong, and he does it anyway. By said choices, Londo is creating his own fate, hence the audience for the first time seeing (instead of just hearing about) his death dream, now with additional scenes (Londo seeing the Shadows flying over Centauri Prime, Londo getting crowned Emperor) which caused andraste to wonder whether Londo got more than the usual Centauri gift for seeing bits of the future, because those other scenes will happen years and years before he dies. I like her theory about it and worked into one of my stories, but on this rewatch, it strikes me that he might simply get the additional footage, so to speak, because they show events leading to his death in the long term and which he set in motion by the choices he made in this episode. Londo's last choice - not to ask Refa for a position at the Royal Court - is due to the visions, not a moral awakening, but it's actually a good one, since if Londo had joined the Royal Court at this point already, I strongly suspect he wouldn't have survived it long and would definitely not have been in a position to deal with the consequences of his other actions (see later season storylines).

The meeting with G'Kar, otoh, is perhaps the one point where Londo's "i have no choice" excuse, otherwise rightly rejected by the narrative (and Vir), is true in that at this point it's too late to stop the destrustion of the Narn Colony (it has already happened) or the resulting Narn/Centauri war (iimpending); he's condenmend, by his own previous choices, to listen to G'Kar's happy monologue and realise there could have been true peace and a genuine alteration of the Narn/Centauri relationship, and he just ruined it. As mentioned in an s1 rewatch review, early Londo doesn't believe in his job, he sees it as a joke at his expense. I think this scene, right there, is when it first occurs to Londo Mollari that yes, this job has the potential to truly make a difference, and not in the sense of using it as a jumping point to rise at the Royal Court. That the Centauri and Narn need not to go through endless cycles. And the recognition comes at the exact moment when he himself has engineered the next vicious cycle. Again, that's high Shakespearean tragedy, and not something you'd think you'd see when an excentric plumb middleaged man with a ridiculous hair style and a drink first shows up on your vew screen.

Now it gets to spoilerly addenda, so , new viewers, avert your eyes.

How

wlll

this

end?

The two most explicit call backs/pay offs in later episodes to two key scenes here are: 1) re Turhan's "this won't end until a Centauri stands here, in neutral territory, and tells a Narn "I'm sorry". Now, Vir attempts that a season down the line, and G'Kar rejects it, which in turn inspires Vir to take action re: the Narn. It's also that Vir, personally, represents just himself, and he is only guilty by silence (re: Londo's plans) and association. Londo, otoh, is personally guilty in the very literal sense, and as the future Emperor by s5 he represents the Centauri Republic the way Turhan does here, so his apology to G'Kar in s5 (after the liberatoin of Narn, not before, which is important, imo) at the climax of "The Very Long Night of Londo Mollari" are truly the fulfillment of what Turhan wanted to do but could not. 2) The drink. It's appropriate that G'Kar at first rejects it when Londo offers in late s4, and not just, but also because Londo hasn't apologized yet. However, that Londo tries that in the first place, instead of leaving well enough alone and be content with G'Kar not killing him, that he pushes for true reconciliation between them, showcases that quality of Londo's that can produce both terrible and amazing results - ignoring the voice of common sense in pursuit of his goal. At its best, it gets you Cartagia toppled and Narn liberated. At its worst, it gets the Narn/Centauri war. Either way, the Narn/Centauri conflict is intensely personal to Londo, too, and if he's the Centauri to G'Kar, G'Kar is the Narn to him.

In

Fire

Says

Kosh

Lastly: Sheridan is pretty brusque to G'Kar here at the beginning, underlining he's really not a professional diplomat (or any kind of diplomat). But it's that very quality that allows him later to get through to G'Kar, and makes G'Kar trust him. I suspect G'Kar considers Sheridan as a straight arrow, more or less, from this point on (who might say no but would not lie to him).

The other episodes

Comments

[princessofgeeks]

I adored both these episodes and they are very clear in my mind. The actors for G'Kar and Londo were indeed AWESOME through the whole show.

I too was very sad that we didn't get to see some of the Talia storylines play out. I really loved her character and the actor.

Thank you for these posts.

Spoilers for the entire show

[selenak]

You‘re very welcome. I love the show as it is, but every now and then, I do wonder about the show that never was where neither Sinclair nor Talia leave, and also not Ivanova…

[cahn]

A Race Through Dark Places:

So poltical activism, founding human rights groups, lobbying senators to bring in new laws for telepaths seems to be the solution most efficient in the long term.

Oh wow. This statement made me realize that I'd fabricated this whole worldbuilding idea in my head of the Psi Corps as this shadow-government that's morphed into an entity whose chief goal is to perpetuate themselves. You speak out against the Psi Corps? If you're just like "I don't like you," they're cool with that, they get that all the time and they're invested in at least the appearance of a democratic government. But the instant you try to seriously propagate some sort of political remedy against them? They will find you. And they will read your thoughts (even if it's supposed to be illegal). And they will figure out a way to dispose of you. So no one tries. At this point everyone tries really hard not to even think of it. Which of course is easier if you don't have a psi rating, you just try not to keep it in mind at all. (So, North Korea rather than South Africa.)

...Now, we never actually see any of this happen -- this is all in my head, and all built up from the fact that the Psi Corps is clearly this powerful thing that people are really scared of, including the people within it, but which no one seems to actually do anything about in a democratic-society kind of way -- so, I mean, I agree it's a worldbuilding hole because now that I actually examine it, my headcanon doesn't make much sense because how would a Psi-Corps shadow-government really coexist with a democratic government like that? :)

(what can I say, I have huge conspiracies on the brain these days I guess and Franklin's a doctor!! COINCIDENCE??)

the comic relief one about Sheridan's and Ivanova's quarters and Sheridan's refusal to pay rent or move to smaller ones

this was greeeeat

decades younger me when first watching cast a cold eye on it and deemed it terribly cutesy - especially since this was before I had warmed up to Sheridan -, and did not approve of Delenn behaving like a high school girl, as I thought then.

Heh. I didn't mind it, though I did wonder about her motivations and whether this was supposed to be a meet-cute sort of thing.

The Coming of Shadows: my reaction: AAAAAAAH NOOOOOOO
(I loved it)

Me: NO LONDO DON'T DO IT
Vir: Londo, don't do it!
Me: WHAT HE SAID!
Londo: *does it*

Franklin to G'Kar: The tragedy of it is that you didn't know the Emperor was going to say that.
Me: I can think of a BIGGER TRAGEDY that is going to happen in about five minutes, actually.
Bigger tragedy: *happens*

his super secret new organisation "Rangers" and making sure they look the part. More seriously, I still recall how happy I was to see Sinclair again

Yessss it was so lovely to see Sinclair again! (And I thought JMS did a reasonably good job of selling his "Sinclair has other things he has to be doing right now" line.) I liked the Ranger's cloak a lot!

I also found the set up of the four female Centauri telepaths serving the Emperor intriguing and always regreted we don't see them again, so I wrote t heir story ([personal profile] cahn, this one has spoilers for the entire show, you can't read it yet).

OH GOOD because I wanted to know more about them too!

G'Kar's ranting about the Emperor having the indecency to die on his own

this is awesome!

The other thing which always fascinates me about G'Kar's reactions here is when he hears about the attack is that he immediately personalizes it to Londo. Now he doesn't know or guess yet that Londo is indeed directly and personally responsible for the attack, but it's still "he knew!" and "he betrayed me!", not "they're at it again!"

I was actually so worried at this point that "he" meant the Emperor, and I was actually relieved when it turned out he meant Londo. I don't think I could have borne G'Kar thinking that the Emperor had lied to him about what he said. (Doylistically, I actually kind of wonder if that's part of the reason why they had G'Kar say that. I mean, yes, it says a lot that he personalizes it to Londo, but if he'd used "they" in that moment I would definitely have thought he meant the Emperor had lied to him, and I would have been really really upset (like possibly-not-finishing-the-episode upset).

After that, it won't be a surprise that I actually ended the episode feeling the absolute worst for the Emperor. I mean, not quite as bad as I would have felt for both him and G'Kar if G'Kar had blamed the Emperor, but... Dude finally, at the end of his life, makes one (ONE) decision that he's absolutely happy with and knows it's the right decision, and then sees it all go to pieces right before he dies. NOOOOOOO

[selenak]

This statement made me realize that I'd fabricated this whole worldbuilding idea in my head of the Psi Corps as this shadow-government

I don't blame you, because certainly the first two seasons help with that impression. But as the conversation between Sheridan and Garibaldi points out, Psi Corps actually came into being as the result of civil rights systematically being taken away from telepaths because people were that afraid of them, and the whole idea of the organisation was one of non-telepaths. (In tie-in media, we also learn that the leader of Psi Corps isn't allowed to be a telepath, it always has to be a "normal". So they weren't even allowed to govern themselves within the the organisation they had to form.) That they now are powerful is without a question, also that their primary goal is to perpuate themselves, but the fact of the matter is that they didn't spring into life by themselves, and that the ghetto like existence for telepaths wasn't something Psi Corps invented in the first place.

World building hole: I'm never quite sure about this - i.e. whether it was an oversight that among Garibaldi, Sheridan and Ivanova (and Franklin, for that matter), no one seems to consider solving the Psi Corps problem by changing the laws for telepaths, or whether JMS wants to say something very not-flattering about our non-telepaths here right now - due to certain events in later seasons, but I can't discuss this in detail.

The Coming of Shadows: my reaction: AAAAAAAH NOOOOOOO
(I loved it)

LOL, yes, that's the universal reaction, it seems. It certainly was and is mine. You can see why this one got all the awards. I think it was at this point that people in sci fi fandoms started to take JMS' claim he had it all planned out for five seasons as a novel on tv seriously, and saw B5 as doing something that ST (at this point) could not have done. The Coming of Shadows is a perfect episode, but it needed the build up of one and a half seasons so the audience cares that there is a Narn/Centauri war now - if this had happened at the start of s1, the emotional result would have been very different -, and it could not have happened in the episodic kind of tv which was then still the universal standard.

Yessss it was so lovely to see Sinclair again! (And I thought JMS did a reasonably good job of selling his "Sinclair has other things he has to be doing right now" line.) I liked the Ranger's cloak a lot!

I thought you might. :) Yes, having to switch your leading man must be a showrunner's nightmare, but this works with the character and the situation as established.


I was actually so worried at this point that "he" meant the Emperor

Huh, that never occurred to me, but now that you mention it,it was a mistake G'Kar could indeed have made, given the situation, and that would have been additionally awful given the poor Emperor's tragedy. I doubt finally seeing a Vorlon made up for the shattering knowledge. For him, it would have been more merciful if he'd never woken up from his coma. He's one of the show's most memorable one-episode-only characters, and as I said in the review, the actor, Turhan Bey, managed to fill him with a lot of warmth and melancholic dignity.

[cahn]

That they now are powerful is without a question, also that their primary goal is to perpuate themselves, but the fact of the matter is that they didn't spring into life by themselves, and that the ghetto like existence for telepaths wasn't something Psi Corps invented in the first place.

Ohhhh, as usual I've mucked up the chronology :) I'd seen that it was made by non-telepaths, but I figured all the complaints that the people in this episode and others have had were reasonably recent (although I guess that guy's brother might well have been a while back, and Ivanova's mother was -- duh -- many years ago).

I doubt finally seeing a Vorlon made up for the shattering knowledge.

Oh, I'd managed to forget about that! I have certainly gotten the vague impression that Vorlons are extremely powerful and mysteriously knowledgeable (and we know foreknowledge is a thing in this universe in general), so I am now hoping that Kosh told him something nice about how the future turned out, to make his death easier. (Your comment doesn't make me think he actually did, or at least not that anyone knows of, but this is now going to be my headcanon anyway. :P )

[watervole]

My only teeny niggle is that I want to know why Rangers wear uniforms when they don't want to be noticed.

Another plus is that Turhan Bey used an accent very close to Londo's. Clearly they both come from the same part of Centauri Prime.

[selenak]

:) I think Turhan Bey and the actor who plays Refa are the only ones who attempt to sound a bit like Londo does. All the other actors playing Centauri just use their own accent.

[watervole]

The Coming of Shadows is superb all round, but the acting lifts it even higher than the writing and all that has gone before would have made it.

[selenak]

Very true.

[vivdunstan]

We just rewatched "A Race Through Dark Places" in our weekly rewatch. I'm probably really gullible, but I still tend to take Delenn's actions at innocent face value, rather than thinking of them as a deliberate ploy to snare Sheridan! But yup, that's a fair interpretation :) And agreed re the Talia stuff. There's so much potential established here, that's just thrown away later. Which seems a real shame. Do you know if that was necessitated by the actress suddenly leaving? It just seems odd in a slow-build series.

I may well be back commenting here in a week. The next episode is my absolute favourite.

[selenak]

Re: Talia, I have no particular inside knowledge, just what I heard at conventions back in the day, which was that Andrea Thompson‘s departure was suprising and in no way planned. But then, Talia herself had not been planned, either, she exists because the network hadn‘t liked Pat Tallman as Lyta in the pilot. And I think it’s a safe assumption that whoever would have been the female telepath would have gotten the following story: starts out as loyal Corps member, range P5, has encounter that leaves her with the seed for her powers growing while also shaking her certainties, goes rogue and leaves the Corps in time to side with the B5 rebels, later post Earth Civil War sides with the evolving telepath resistence and becomes some version of Dark Phoenix, i.e. so powerful that she has to leave the station. Assuming there would not have been the need for a switcheroo of storylines because of even more unexpectedly departing cast members, I‘m also pretty sure that last part of the storyline would have pitched the station commander, now Ivanova, against her former beloved, and not because she has a Control personality, because they now genuinely have opposing ideological differences and professional priorities. (Part of the reason for this is that JMS did say Ivanova would have fallen in love with Byron in s5 had she stayed. I could never see how previous developments would have led up to this, and then it hit me that minus various departures, presumably it would not have been Byron but the female telepath herself leading the rogues at this point.) And that, in turn, would have given a very different feeling to the s5 telepath storylne.

ETA: re: Delenn, let me put it this way: Delenn wouldn‘t think of it as „play to snare Sheridan“ but „doing my share to ensure the prophecy comes true which I know I but so, it can be no other, and also, he‘s cute“. Like I said, it‘s not that I don‘t believe she truly likes Sheridan, but that I don‘t believe she‘s giving herself the option of not liking him this early on, because for her, the stakes are too high. She‘s just made herself half human and an outcast among her people, and she has a war guilt in the back of her head.

Though I agree that the show makes it entirely possible she had nothing planned beyond dinner and getting to know Sheridan. ;) (But she does have a track record of not telling him half of what‘s going on and of her intentions throughout the show. I‘m just saying.)

[vivdunstan]

Thanks for that! Very interesting thoughts re Talia etc. For me she was the original station telepath. I didn't see The Gathering until quite a while after the start of season 1 properly in 1994. I can't even remember properly now when The Gathering first aired in the UK. Very possibly after season 1. So when all that built up potential for Talia is lost part way through season 2 it was a big shock to me. More so than Sinclair leaving.

I will probably still take a very innocent view of Delenn and Sheridan. But really appreciate the alternative perspective. Thanks!