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- ### GUIDE ### [3][Background] [4][Synopsis] [5][Credits] [6][Episode
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- _Contents:_ [9]Overview - [10]Backplot - [11]Questions - [12]Analysis
- - [13]Notes - [14]JMS
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- Overview
-
- Sheridan and Ivanova try to deal with an association of cargo
- pilots. An alien probe makes first contact with the station.
- G'Kar's position among the Narn is threatened by the arrival of a
- Centauri-appointed liaison. [15]Stephen Macht as Na'Far.
- [16]Marshall Teague as Ta'Lon. [17]Anne Betancourt as Dr. Gonzalez.
-
- [18]P5 Rating: [19]7.85
-
- Production number: 303
- Original air week: November 20, 1995
-
- Written by J. Michael Straczynski
- Directed by David Eagle
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- Backplot
-
- * The Centauri diplomatic mission on Minbar has been closed for
- several years.
-
- Unanswered Questions
-
- * Who sent the probe?
- * Will Franklin's continuing use of stims have greater
- repercussions, especially now that he's willing to lie about it?
- * What will become of Na'Far? And of Ta'Lon, for that matter -- will
- he remain on the station, and will he look after Sheridan?
-
- Analysis
-
- * Vir is leaving Londo just when Londo seems to need him most; Londo
- is becoming darker and darker, as his conversation with Na'Far
- demonstrates. Now he'll have nobody to slow his descent (though
- it's not clear how much he listened to Vir in the first place.)
- * The favor Delenn owed Londo was most likely the one he earned by
- transporting her and Draal to Epsilon 3 in [20]"A Voice in the
- Wilderness, part 2."
- * Franklin's stim use is nothing new; it was touched on as recently
- as [21]"Confessions and Lamentations." He may feel he has no
- choice and no problem, but he seems to be ignoring the example of
- Dr. Rosen in [22]"The Quality of Mercy," who lost her medical
- license over her stim use.
-
- Notes
-
- * A [23]picture of the probe is available.
- * Vir's departure has, in part, a real-world cause: actor Stephen
- Furst is starring in a sitcom on the Fox network. He will still
- appear on Babylon 5 from time to time.
- * Sheridan's reference to the probe as a "berserker" is probably a
- nod to Fred Saberhagen's "Berserker" novels, which feature huge
- automated war machines that seek out and destroy sentients.
- * A small gaffe: At the end of the episode, when the probe is headed
- away from the station, Sheridan asks the tech if there are any
- security bots in the area. The tech replies that there is just
- one, at 5000km. The next shot is of the bot in question, except
- that there are clearly 2 bots in the shot, and they look
- identical.
- * A related goof: Sheridan orders a securebot sent to look at the
- probe, but the display on the screen reads "Maintbot 12."
-
- jms speaks
-
- * "A Day in the Strife," a fair number of threads, a day in the life
- episode with everything that can go wrong going wrong, some
- elements of humor but mainly a straight-ahead kind of episode...
- * _Is Marshall Teague playing the same character he did in [24]"All
- Alone in the Night?"_
- Yes, it's the same character, and his name is Ta'Lon.
- * "A narn resistance is going to be pretty hard to organize."
- *Exactly* the issue we'll explore in "A Day in the Strife." (Well,
- one of many issues.)
- * _How many Narn dead are there?_
- Actually, yes, there are millions of dead; I think that either Vir
- or Na'Far gets it right in "Strife," and the other misstates the
- figure in the same episode.
- * Just went back and checked the script; Ta'Lon refers to millions
- in his meeting with Sheridan. (Knew I wasn't nuts....)
- * _Londo's comment, "It's nothing personal, Vir," was the same one
- the bomber echoed in "Convictions."_
- Yeah, "it's nothing personal" does echo the other theme; those who
- inflict great harm tend to shrug it off that way.
- * You will see Vir many times again in the course of the third
- season.
- * _Why didn't they ask Delenn or Kosh for help with the questions?_
- Because Delenn doesn't know that information offhand, any more
- than you or I would have casual access to detailed scientific
- information from our own world just off the top of our heads;
- she'd still have to go to her own homeworld for the info, as our
- characters did. And it's not that we didn't have it, it was just
- collating it all. And given how Kosh answers questions, would you
- really want to use his responses in this thing?
- * My sense is that Delenn is not a godlike font of information; I
- don't think anyone, alien or human, at the station would just
- happen to know all the information required. How much would Delenn
- know about molecular biology, for instance? (And if you asked Kosh
- a question about the subject, he'd probably come back with "The
- heart does not sing with its parts." Not exactly useful.)
- Anyone there would have to go back to their own world for experts
- in the various fields...so you're back where you started. Earth
- *has* the info, it's just getting it, and getting it fast. If you
- add the overlay of going through another government, you're going
- to run out of time that much faster.
- Logically, a probe like this would be sent off looking for
- information on the very cusp of technology that could pose a
- threat. That's why it *didn't* go off when the probe presumed them
- to be a less developed civilization; it was looking for
- civilizations that *are* sufficiently advanced to pose a possible
- threat; Sheridan says exactly that as he walks across C&C.
- Interesting aside on this, btw, in the "where do you get your
- ideas?" department. The US House Science Sub-Committee held a
- series of hearings into the question of extraterrestrial contact
- during the 1970s, to determine what we should do in the event of
- contact. The most likely scenario, the scientists agreed, was a
- probe coming into our solar system. So what do we do in response
- to a message asking if anybody's home?
- Believe it or not, it was the consensus of the Subcommittee that
- we should not respond...in case it was a berserker, just as shown
- in the episode. That is our government's official policy on the
- subject.
- * I just went through my stuff trying to find it...there was a
- formal report published by the Government Printing Agency in
- around 1978 or so. I think it was entitled something like
- "Prospects for Contact by Extra- Terrestrial Intelligence," and
- went into the whole CETI issue at great length. (Back then, it was
- CETI, for Contact With Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence, changed
- shortly after the House hearing on the subject to SETI, Search For
- Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence.) Any GPA office should have the
- report on file.
- * _Would the explosion have taken out a planet?_
- No, it probably couldn't take out a planet, though it'd sure
- disrupt all communications in and out for a long time, maybe throw
- up a dust curtain to bring down the temperature quite a bit.
- Certainly it'd debilitate the planet long enough for additional
- probes to be sent in. If one can do the job, one does the job; if
- more are required, more are sent.
- * _What kind of alien was sick in medlab?_
- I'll have to go back and check, but from memory I'm pretty sure
- he's a Llort.
- * _What happened to Na'Fon?_
- When he failed to convince the other Narns to accept him as their
- new leader -- which was the whole point to his being sent to B5 in
- the first place -- he had no choice but to go home.
- * _Why don't we ever see worker-caste Minbari?_
- Worker caste tend to fade into the background; we've seen them
- here and there; pilots and traders (visible in "Strife") are
- worker caste, and others. They don't have as much a stylized
- manner of bone-carving as the other castes.
-
-
- [30][Next]
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- [31]Last update: January 12, 1998
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- References
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- 1. file://localhost/cgi-bin/imagemap/titlebar
- 2. LYNXIMGMAP:file://localhost/lurk/maps/maps.html#titlebar
- 3. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/background/047.shtml
- 4. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/synops/047.html
- 5. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/credits/047.html
- 6. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/episodes.php
- 7. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/046.html
- 8. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/048.html
- 9. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/047.html#OV
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- 14. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/047.html#JS
- 15. http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Macht,+Stephen
- 16. http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Teague,+Marshall
- 17. http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Betancourt,+Anne
- 18. file://localhost/lurk/p5/intro.html
- 19. file://localhost/lurk/p5/047
- 20. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/019.html
- 21. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/040.html
- 22. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/021.html
- 23. file://localhost/b5/Pictures/Effects/ship1.gif
- 24. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/033.html
- 25. file://localhost/lurk/lurker.html
- 26. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/047.html#TOP
- 27. file://localhost/cgi-bin/uncgi/lgmail
- 28. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/episodes.php
- 29. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/046.html
- 30. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/048.html
- 31. file://localhost/lurk/lastmod.html
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