Babylon 5 Rewatch: Voices of Autority/ Dust to Dust

[selenak]

Voices of Authority
Wherein we learn that Garibaldi is a bad liar, Delenn a better one, but then we already knew that, and nothing recruits a F'irst One as quickly as a little petty rivalry. :) This is a moving-the-plot-forward kind of episode which I neither particularly love nor dislike. 'The Ivanova vs the gigantic Christmas ball scenes are fun. Ivanova accidentally coming across a recording of Clark (talking to Morden's unmistakable voice) admitting his complicity in Santiago's assassination while in the Great Machine is a bit of an Evidence ex Machina and makes devoting an entire episode to Clark's doctor and his evidence earlier a bit pointless, not to mention that 20 years after the original broadcast, it seems to come from a more naive age. Yes, Sheridan's line about the unique stamp on each government channel providing proof this is not a fake is meant to disarm the argument Team Clark would just call lit a fake, but in the age of the Orange Menace and half of the country with access to other information still beliieving his every claim and voting for him, it's hard not to conclude that in reality, Clark and Co. needn't have worried, that crying "fake news!" would have been enough, no other authoritarian efforts necessary.

Otoh, Julie Mussante, the political officer who back in the day mainly brought me the obvious Orwell/Nazi associations, this time around echoed for me not just the past (the Stalinist methods which of course partly inspired Orwell) but the present: China, where unemployment and poverty can't happen because the Party made it a paradise, Hungary and Viktor Orban. Her demeanour and looks, otoh, echoes the creepy unimodel blondes on Fox TV and prefigures so much of the current Republican attitude. (Well, except for the attempt to have sex with Sheridan. Julie Mussante written today would more likely accuse him of being involved in a pedophile ring.)

G'Kar being sick of being left out of the loop and being lied to by Our Heroes partly sets up his actions in the next episode, and his handing the book of G'Quan over to Garibaldi and challenging him to learn the Narn language will later become a plot point. Incidentally, Sheridan and Delenn at this point still hesitating to let him into their secrets is one of those things which I would call surprising realism - yes, we the audience know G'Kar is all about the patriotism and fight of evil now and would not betray them, but Delenn in particular has reason to recall G'Kar hasn't always been reliable when his temper gets the better of him - except that Sheridan was ready to reveal his being part of an anti government plot to Ivanova, Franklin and Garibaldi at the end of s2 on shorter aquaintance (except for Ivanova) and with less reason to trust they'd go along with him.

Lastly: Sheridan's indignance at the thought of civilian control or co-control reminds me of something others have observed is a bit of a general problem. Of course, the Ministery of Peace is a creepy Orwellian institution and a part of Earth turning more and more authoritarian/fascist, and therefore, Sheridan not wanting anything to do with it is of the good. However, so far all the secret reisstance figures we know of are part of the military, and they are setting themselves against a civilian elected government. Again, circumstances - they know Clark came to power through an illegal secret coup via assassination - are an excuse, but it would have been good had JMS thought of at least letting someone mention there's some contact to some non-military people back on Earth involved in the resistance. (Even the July 20th 1944 conspirators against Hitler, who were, by and large, not democrats by nature, and not just because many of them were conservative nobility, did not plan to make one of the generals the next head of government had their plot succeeded, but had chosen a civilian as the next chancellor until the war was over and elections could be held. The man intended as Chancellor was Carl Friedricih Goerdeler, the former Mayor of Lepzig, and he hadn't been the only civilian involved in the 20th July plot.)



Dust to Dust

This, otoh, is one of my favourite B5 episodes, uniting - and I think it's the only episode to do so - a Londo-G'Kar-Vir plot with a Bester plot. It's from this point onwards the show uses Bester as something other than a straightforward villain. (Meaning not that he's suddenly a good guy, but that his reasons for showing up on B5 can include goals that can coincide with those of Our Heroes - or not. It varies, and that makes it extra interesting and him unpredictable.) And he continues to get the best lines from JMS. ("So you think of me as something bright and cheerfull, full of toys for small children? Thank you! That makes me feel so much better about our relationship" is my favourite on this time around.) He's also shown as competent without using his telepathy, which we hadn't seen before. Ironically, in universe, it's at this point, imo, that Bester concludes Garibaldi is good at his job, which, well, will have consequences. Oh, and speaking of foreshadowing: "We may be all that stands between you and the abyss."

I can never make up my mind about: whether or not Bester is lying on either of his claims re: Talia. I mean, my general assumption is that he's definitely lying in the second one ("dissection") for the reason Ivanova names - he wanted to provoke Our Heroes in order to scan them - , and likely genuinely did not know Talia was Control. (His actions in A Race through Dark Places don't really fit with him knowing this.) Otoh I don't believe the program being discontinued is true on any level. (Though as we'll see again later this season, and it's worth remembering, Bester is not the head of 'Psi Corps, and Psi Corps is an institution that thrives on secrets within secrets and playing out various branches against each other.9

Bester's description of a Dust-created invasion of someone's mind as mental rape in the briefing scene sets up the climax of the episode. Now, G'Kar consideirng Dust (before he experiences it) as a useful resistance weapon against the Centauri makes sense from his pov (and is a reminder G'Kar the resistance fighter of old would agree with Kira on DS9 that any method is justified against an oppressor). As his people are his foremost concern, it also makes sense that he would test it on himself, rather than make someone else do it, especially after having been warned by Lindstrom about possible effects. However, choosing to use it to get into Londo's head is entirely personal and irrational. (From a purely pragmatic pov: there's no way G'Kar could have disguised an assault on the most prominent Centauri on the station as anything but what it was, even if Vir hadn't been there to witness it. Anything he'd learn from Londo in terms of Centauri secrets couldn't have been useful enough for the resistance to justify the likely Centauri retaliation had Londo died, especiallly since the Centauri would have known that all of Londo's intelligence was compromised. Purely from a pragmatic pov, testing the capacity of Dust when used by a Narn should have been done on a lurker no one would discover or miss any time soon. But wanting to invade Londo's mind isn't about learning secrets for the Narn resistance, not really. It goes back to "he knew, and he betrayed me!", G'Kar's initial reaction in Coming of Shadows , not "those Centauri are at it again!"', and even further than that. Londo at tihs point isn't an abstract symbol of Centauri opression. G'Kar's feelings re: Londo Mollari might be intermingled iwth how he feels about the Centauri in general, but they are not the same, and the relationship with Londo is intensely personal to him, the sense of betrayal is personal, and therefore the need for revenge is personal. And so G'Kar does get into Londo's head, literally.

For both their arcs, it's important that G'Kar learns all of Londo's secrets here. Of course, he already knew that Londo knew about the Centauri attack ahead of time, and that Londo was on board with the Narn/Centauri war. But he hadn't known Londo made the initial request and contact with the Shadows, and of course he didn't know about Londo's prophetic dreams. (Londo had told Sinclair about his death vision involving G'Kar, but not anyone else, at least not on screen, and certainly not G'Kar.) (That he didn't know before Londo got his job because it was considered a joke and no one else wanted it is a bit surprising, because Londo's status and behavior in s1 all but screams this from the walls.) It's one of those things where a sci fi element - telepathy - comes in really handy, because I can't think of a "mundane"present day AU where G'Kar would find out all of this with the same degree of reliability and absolute knowledge. (If he'd, say, tortured it out of Londo in a physical way, he always would have to wonder whether Londo didn't just say what G'Kar wanted to hear so that the pain would stop.) And while such a personal assault is not the equivalent of starting a brutal war and a second occupation, it means that now Londo isn't the only one having done something to the other in their relationship.

Meanwhile, Londo and Vir: Londo's spinning Vir's positive reports on the Minbari in the negative is both present day relevant and darkly funny, but Londo's cynicism in doing so not withstanding, I think certain s4 events bear out Vir was somewhat rosy-eyed about Minbar, planet of peace and enlightenment, and the wonderful religious caste. What's blatant in this particular episode is the by now strong affection between them, despite their complete difference of political opinions. Not just because Vir is the last person left who still believes Londo is capable of positive change, but because even Londo as he's now means such a lot to him - and vice versa. The wordless interaction in gestures in sickbay is one of my favourite Londo and Vir scenes.


The other episodes

Comments

[selenak]

I hear you. I mean, we'll never know whether or not Hitler would have gone ahead in 1938, but going by all I've read, there weren't nearly enough Hitler-sceptical people in the army and way too many who wanted a big part of that Eastern territory for an army coup to have happened.

[jesuswasbatman]

Just in case, I should say that the anti-Chamberlain fanatic in the comments wasn't the person who posted the original review.