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   _Contents:_ [9]Overview - [10]Backplot - [11]Questions - [12]Analysis
   - [13]Notes - [14]JMS
   
     _________________________________________________________________
                                      
Overview

     Seismic activity on the planet near the station uncovers what may
     be signs of an extinct alien civilization. An old mentor pays a
     visit to Ambassador Delenn. The unrest on the Mars Colony
     intensifies. [15]Louis Turenne as Draal. [16]Curt Lowens as Varn.
     
Sub-genre: Suspense/mystery
[17]P5 Rating: [18]8.50

Production number:  120
Original air date:  July 27, 1994

Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Janet Greek

     _________________________________________________________________
                                      
Backplot

     * Before Sinclair asked him to be security chief on Babylon 5,
       Garibaldi was working for the security division on Mars Colony,
       where he fell in love with a woman named Lise Hampton. Their
       relationship was rocky ("I was pretty messed up") and ended when
       he accepted the B5 assignment.
     * The Psi Corps has a secret training facility very close to one of
       the Mars Colony cities.
     * There is growing lack of purpose and dissatisfaction among the
       ordinary citizens on Minbar.
     * One of Londo's wives was a dancer at a club, who comforted him
       when he was depressed. He married her that night, and regretted it
       the next morning and ever since.
     * The planet the station is orbiting is called Epsilon 3.
       
Unanswered Questions

     * What came through the jumpgate?
     * What is the function of all the machinery buried beneath the
       planet's surface?
     * Why was the alien connected to the machines, apparently against
       his will?
     * How was he able to project himself to Sinclair and Londo on the
       station?
     * Was the defense system designed to prevent someone from finding
       the machinery, or to stop someone from rescuing the alien?
       
Analysis

     * The alien might well be native to Epsilon 3, since he was able to
       breathe the atmosphere once he was disconnected from the
       machinery. In the shuttle, Ivanova can be seen fitting him with a
       breather unit, presumably since the shuttle's air is Earth-style.
       Perhaps the proximity of Babylon 5 to Epsilon 3 is not a simple
       coincidence.
     * A possible inconsistency: if the missiles were being fired from
       within the fissure, how could Sinclair and Ivanova safely enter
       it? All their cover fire was high in the atmosphere; the missiles
       could have hit them before they had time to react once they were
       underground. Of course, it's possible the missiles are only useful
       above a certain altitude (true of some present-day surface-to-air
       missiles,) but in that case, why wasn't the fissure protected by
       short-range weaponry?
       
Notes

     * The scene with Ivanova and Sinclair crossing the tunnel bears
       similarity to a scene from the 1956 film Forbidden Planet. (See
       [19]jms speaks)
       
jms speaks

     * We're halfway through filming the two-parter, "A Voice in the
       Wilderness," which is coming along nicely. From a CGI and sets
       point of view, this is the largest and most ambitious thing we've
       shot yet, with ore of each category than in any other episode.
     * In the two-parter, btw, [Christopher Franke] went absolutely
       full-out and gave us some of the best scoring of the
       season...gorgeous stuff, second only to either "Sky" or
       "Chrysalis."
     * ...Delenn has quite a few moments when she's laughing, and funny,
       but always in a dignified fashion; it's a strange but very
       appealing combination. (And there's one scene she's in that is
       played *absolutely* straight, but is fall-down funny.)
     * It was always intended to be a two-parter, and was written that
       way. Background: the B5 2-hour pilot has done VERY well overseas
       in cassette form. Many of the prejudices in the american press
       that caused us problems don't exist overseas (it's done
       *extremely* well in Japan on laserdisk, in Germany, and England,
       among others). So they asked if we could do a two-parter that
       could be sold as a two-hour episode overseas. By all means, sez I.
       So I structured it accordingly.
       Bit of B5 trivia: during the dead of winter last year, I got hit
       by the flu as badly as I've ever been hit. Temperature so high
       that I was near delerious at times, but refused to go to the
       hospital (I don't like doctors, and I was under deadline and
       couldn't afford the potential time away.) We're talking mondo
       sicko here. It was during this time that I wrote "The Quality of
       Mercy," a script which I have *no* memory of ever writing. I know
       it's here, and I know I wrote it on an intellectual level, but the
       process...gone in the fever.
       It was also around this time -- either at the top or bottom of the
       flu, I can't remember now -- that I wrote the "Voice" two parter.
       And here's the trivia part...this isn't the original two-parter
       that I wrote. My brain already deteriorating, I wrote something
       that even I could see wasn't up to par. Wrote the entire two-hour
       script. Printed it up, and gave it to Doug and John. Before they
       could even respond, I looked at it and decided it had to go. So I
       trashed the entire script. By now we were getting very close to
       pre-production, and I was getting sicker and sicker...but I more
       or less locked myself in my office, swallowed down massive amounts
       of vitamins (as much as my stomach could handle), kept forcing
       down coffee, and wrote 12 hours a day for about six days, after
       which the original draft was finished. Turned it in; did some mild
       polishes thereafter, but what was filmed was essentially what I
       turned in in first-draft stage. In this case I do remember some of
       the process because the only way I could focus was to keep the
       stereo up full blast; in the writing of "Quality," it didn't
       help...I was beyond recall.
     * I tried to develop a basic language structure for each of the
       races on B5. There are certain commonalities to the structure of
       names. I came up with some prefixes and suffixes, and assigned
       meanings to them, the same as real names. For instance, Rathenn
       (referred to by Delenn in "Voices") and Delenn have the same
       suffix, which has a specific meaning. You can break it down;
       Ner-oon (Legacies), Del-enn, Rath-enn, Der-onn, and so forth. The
       various parts do have specific meanings, but I generally keep that
       to myself, just for amusement.
     * I try not to hype shows that I like unless I know beyond a doubt
       that it's absolutely kick-ass. I like "Voice" a lot; it is the
       point at which we really start cranking, speeding things up as we
       barrel toward "Chrysalis." I think the CGi is nothing less than
       terrific, Christopher Franke went balls-to-the-wall and did an
       *amazing* job with the music, the performances are good. I like it
       a lot. I haven't commented upon it a lot because it's kind of the
       weird child in the brood; when I write, I generally write tight
       and fast. By the third act, you're *moving*. In this case, you
       have to pace yourself out *very* differently, so part of my brain
       keeps doing this "c'mon, speed it up, speed it up" when I'm
       watching the first part because I'm used to a different one-hour
       kind of pacing.
       Kathryn says I'm nuts. But then this is nothing new.
       Anyway, I do think it's pretty cool, and does a lot with virtual
       sets and composite sets.
     * Re: the elevator/transport tube gag...yes, we set this stuff up
       WAY in advance. The first time is in the tube where he tells Talia
       about his second favorite thing in the universe. The second time
       is in "Mind War" when he gives her the mental once-over and she
       belts him. And then we paid it off later with her line about him
       always being there.
       One nice thing about the way we're doing this show is that we
       don't just have to set up gags within an episode; we can set them
       up *weeks* ahead of time, as long as the payoff is self-contained,
       but then when you see the earlier shows, now you get more out of
       it.
     * A First Contact situation is one unlike any other: you don't want
       junior officers around to screw it up. Remember, the Earth/Minbari
       War began when a First Contact situation got screwed up. EA's
       policy is that it's better to risk two people than a full war, and
       those two people have got to be command-level personnel. Soldiers
       get killed; it happens. And yeah, you can leave a backup person at
       the shuttle ...but what if *he's* the one to make actual first
       contact? You're screwed. Ivanova and Sinclairhave been trained in
       this; in "Soul Hunter," Sinclair makes reference to the rules of
       First Contact Protocol. If you like, I'll elaborate on this in
       some future episode.
     * Re: the commander and Ivanova going...remember, this is a First
       Contact situation, and that requires the presence of at minimum
       one command officer under EA regs. Two is preferred. You don't
       want junior officers hanging around or taking hostile stances
       which might provoke a fight. Remember that the last major First
       Contact situation was with the Minbari, which went afoul and gave
       us the Earth/Minbari War. EA would rather lose two replaceable
       officers than start another war via misunderstanding or a fouled
       move. This is a part of their First Contact Protocol, referenced
       in "Soul Hunter." (I should probably expandupon this a bit in
       future episodes.)
     * RE: the big bridge shot...the storyboard artist came up with 3
       shots we could use. One of them was a wide shot across a
       crystalline ground like area, through which a path can be seen at
       ground level, but it was narrow and still really didn't convey the
       scale of what I wanted. One other was not much different. The
       third was a downshot designed to pull back, and though I knew it
       would make folks say "Krell!", I knew that it was the right shot
       for that scene, so chose that one and decided to live with it.
     * It's real simple. Ron Thornton showed me three variations on the
       Great Machine shot. Because you're looking at a composite shot,
       you have to shoot either sharply angled down, or dead across, and
       full-figured, since you have to put them into another piece. That
       meant either a horizontal shot, or a 3/4's vertical shot.
       Two of the shots on the storyboards were horizontal; one showed
       our characters way off in the distance on a ribboned path lined by
       crystals. It'd be pretty, but it looked like another tunnel shot,
       and I wanted to show something that wasn't claustrophobic. Also,
       we'd be limited in the camera move, and our characters would look
       kinda like peanuts. Not terribly dramatic. The second shot just
       didn't work for me, I don't entirely recall the reason now. The
       third possibility seemed the most dramatic...it was a high angle
       shot, it had depth, it would let us start on our characters and do
       a camera move/pullback in post production, it worked on every
       level.
       My second thought was, "Shit, somebody's going to gig us on the
       Forbidden Planet thing." Nonetheless, it was the right shot, for
       the right reasons, and we chose to go with it.
     * How does one come up with stuff like Londo's song? Easy, really;
       you start by putting yourself in the position of an alien trying
       to understand us. And if you step back for a second, we do some
       *very* weird stuff. What he says about the song is exactly right
       in terms of its meaning.
     * Yeah...I love Londo's song, that whole scene. The director wanted
       to cut Ivanova's coda after her mantra, but I really felt we
       needed it, and it played perfectly with her Russian character,
       which tends to have this unusual relationship with higher forces
       (he said vaguely). I love character based humor, because it's very
       powerful once you know the characters, and it can really
       blind-side you if done right. Ivanova's reaction in the core area
       was about as real as would probably happen, but it's funny to hear
       her *say* it.
     * Londo and Garibaldi really are two sides of the same coin, in some
       ways. There's an odd friendship there, almost grudging; Londo had
       little to gain by cheering up Garibaldi, except a drink perhaps,
       but that's what friends do.
     * I love monologues. They are a legitimate part of any drama. The
       MTV generation has had its tastes so thoroughly bastardized by
       quick cuts, lowering the attention span further and further, that
       any bite of more than ten seconds and they start to wander, it
       becomes a block of words and they blur out.
       Go rent Network by Paddy Chayefsky, watch nearly any of the TZs by
       Rod Serling, go see "The Lady's Not for Burning" by Christopher
       Fry...all chockablock with moments where you park for a moment and
       let fly with a chunk of dialogue that smashes your head against
       the wall. Not every single exchange has to be foreshortened so
       that you lose the *impact* of what's being said. Because people's
       attention spans have been greatly foreshortened, suddenly more
       than 3 lines at a time is somehow viewed as wrong. It ain't. Just
       that lots of folks are afraid to try it, afraid to rely on just
       the words and the actors. And sometimes it works, and sometimes it
       doesn't. But it's legitimate.
       The monologue in particular, done right, isn't just to convey
       information, it's to create a mood, to paint pictures with words,
       to expand on the obvious. Yeah, I could've just written, "The
       narns hate us, we hate them, it's equal math." But that doesn't
       carry the same meaning, the same sense as "so here we
       are...victims of mathematics." The use of the word "victim"
       connotes, hey, it's not my fault. Yeah, the former is shorter, but
       you lose the rhythms, the imagery, and the *sense* of what is
       intended. You could say, "The narn hate us." But to say, "if the
       narns gathered together in one place, and hated, all at the same
       time, that hatred would fly across dozens of light years and
       reduce Centauri Prime to a ball of ash," draws a picture, lends
       power to the emotion.
       Point being...I like 'em, there's nothing wrong with them, and
       they're staying.
     * Re: your suspenders of disbelief becoming unhitched....
       You will learn how the alien knows English in the next part of the
       two parter. (Hint: after all, he's been there for a long while, in
       a high-tech machine...you'd think maybe he could monitor
       transmissions.)
       I don't think the Sinclair or Ivanova did automatically believe
       him; but they also had no real reason *not* to believe him. And
       granted the place was going to hell, quakes and danger. He wasn't
       armed, he seems rather sick, had to be helped away, almost
       carried...they won't turn the station over to him, they'll keep
       him isolated on the station, but there was no reason *not* to try
       and help him.
       How do you know he's a good guy? You don't. But he wasn't exactly
       imprisoned in that thing; it was a support, more than anything
       else, a was shown by the fact that they were able to get him out
       fairly easily.
       (And yes, your first guess was correct, it is a life support
       gizmo.)
       Regards to your suspenders.
     * Once removed from his place, Varn was able to lead them back to
       their shuttle. It's not terribly dramatic, and I figured that was
       a fairly logical leap, so didn't feel the need to put in a scene
       which would just consist of Varn saying, "Left....now right...."
     * Ivanova's line: "We don't know if we can find our way back or
       not," not that it was closed off. So showing them wandering around
       to find another open tunnel seemed not dramatically interesting;
       you have to pick what's important and what's not, and what will
       work dramaticall on screen. If she had said "there's no other way
       out," then you would've had to show it. She didn't. One can also
       argue that the alien showed them which way to get out. Either
       way...all you've got is one hour to tell your story. You can't
       show everything, you have to let your audience assume some things.
       Roy: there is a quantum difference between a computer game and a
       TV show. It's not "lowest common denominator," which means making
       the story stupid; I'm saying that if you showed the missiles at
       full speed, YOU WOULD NOT SEE THEM AT ALL. And, again, there's
       nothing nearby with which to get a sense of how fast they're
       going, no landmarks, so it's very hard to convey that. Again, look
       at space footage; the shuttle is going *incredibly* fast...but as
       far as we can tell it looks nearly motionless, because there are
       no landmarks.
       Re: not explaining WHY the Starfuries can't enter the atmosphere,
       we did that. Ivanova says that they're not built to function
       within an atmosphere. Now, I could stop the scene for a long
       dissertation on the relative aerodynamics of planes with wings vs.
       starfuries, but here you say only what you have to. You show,
       don't tell.
       It seems like in the same breath, it's accused of catering to the
       lowest-common denominator, and being over the head of its viewers
       by requiring them to *think* about what they're seeing.
       Which means we're probably doing it right.
     * It seems to me that every generation thinks that things are
       changing, usually for the worse. In some cases, they may be right.
       The B5 story is set at a point in time where things are very much
       in a state of flux. Every so often, the wheel turns. Everybody's
       feeling a sense of growing uncertainty, of the chairs being moved
       around. They're right.
     * Actually, this was not the first B5 or Sinclair had heard about
       the escalating problem on Mars; remember, that was the main reason
       that Ben Zayn had been sent to B5 in "Eyes," smoking out
       sympathisers with the Free Mars movement.
     * The Mars Colony situation will be raising its ugly head on and off
       again for quite some time to come.
       Also, the fissure wasn't created by the quakes; Tasaki mentions it
       was artificial, but nudged open by the tremors.
     * No, a shuttle like this, which is designed to function in
       alternate atmospheres, and may have to evacuate groups, has about
       7 standard or most common atmosphere cannisters. Medlab has the
       same thing, but in larger numbers. This is SOP on the show.
     * No, the sets weren't redresses of regular sets; they were built
       new and entirely for the two-parter; you can get a better look at
       them in the second part, and some angles of the first.
       

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