lurkers-guide/ftp/Guide/074.The-Illusion-of-Truth

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

     ISN sends a team to do a second story about Babylon 5. [15]Jeff
     Griggs as Dan Randall.
     
[16]P5 Rating: [17]7.56

Production number: 408
Original air week: February 17, 1997

Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Stephen Furst

     _________________________________________________________________
                                      
Plot Points

     * Clark has reinstated the Earth Senate in some form. It has begun
       investigating alleged alien influence in the entertainment
       industry and extracting confessions and lists of collaborators
       from writers and directors.
     * Sheridan's father was a diplomat. The family farm has been burned
       to the ground, and his father's whereabouts are unknown.
     * Earth, according to ISN, is slowly retaking Mars from the rebels
       who took over when Clark's forces attacked ([18]"Severed Dreams.")
       
Unanswered Questions

     * Will the newscast prove convincing to people on Earth?
     * Where is Sheridan's father? What about his mother?
     * What names did Sheridan give his father?
     * Is Garibaldi's salvage business as it appears, or is he using it
       as a cover for other activities?
     * How did Randall get into the cryogenic freezer area? If it's
       really restricted as he says, someone must have let him in.
       
Analysis

     * Psi Corps presumably now knows the fate of the telepaths; two of
       their names are plainly visible behind Randall (see [19]Notes.)
       Will the Corps try to come after them? What about the allies of
       the Shadows, who may have some interest in the telepaths'
       implants? If Shadow ships were left behind (not unlikely,
       considering there were lots of them buried underground) they'll
       need pilots who've gone through the proper preparation
       ([20]"Messages From Earth") and the telepaths are ready-made
       candidates.
     * Garibaldi seems to have turned against Sheridan completely, going
       so far as to allude to him as "the devil." Is that a direct result
       of his programming (or whatever was triggered by the message in
       [21]"Epiphanies") or is there some other reason?
     * ISN's new title sequence reflects the provincial, Earth-centric
       views of the Clark government: after a flight through space, the
       sequence ends up centered on Earth and the Moon.
       
Notes

     * The newscast was broadcast on April 12, 2261. Four historical
       events were cited as taking place on the same date: Yuri Gagarin's
       flight into space (April 12, 1961,) President Clinton's
       establishment of a "Commission on the Future" in 1999, the start
       of construction of the first lunar colony in the Sea of
       Tranquility in 2018, and the founding of the Psi Corps in 2161.
     * The confession of the director bore strong resemblance to the
       confessions extracted by the House Un-American Activities
       Commission in the US during the 1950s. In that case it was
       Communists and homosexuals, not aliens, but the focus on
       entertainers was the same, as was the practice of demanding lists
       of collaborators. Those who refused to cooperated were
       "blacklisted," and found themselves unable to get work in
       Hollywood.
       In fact, the names cited are based on actual people blacklisted in
       the 1950s. Beth Trumbo is likely a reference to writer Dalton
       Trumbo, Adrian Mostel to producer Adrian Scott and actor Zero
       Mostel, and Carleton Jarrico to writer Paul Jarrico.
       Paul Jarrico died in an automobile accident on October 28, 1997,
       the day after receiving a standing ovation at a Hollywood ceremony
       honoring the surviving blacklisted screenwriters.
     * Two names are visible on the cryogenic freezers during Randall's
       report. One, Carolyn Sanderson, is Bester's love ([22]"Ship of
       Tears.") The other is John Flinn III, one of the show's directors.
     * The psychological phenomenon of hostages sympathizing with their
       captors is called the Stockholm syndrome, not the Helsinki
       syndrome as stated in the episode.
     * The newscast misspelled Yuri Gagarin's name; it was spelled
       "Gargarin" on the screen.
       
jms speaks

     * It's a good and creepy episode. I like it when things get creepy.
     * Stephen has directed before, yes, though he hasn't done that much
       episodic TV work.
       The final shot was strictly described in the script; the monitor
       POV, the relative positions of everyone, the slight fisheye look
       and the absolute silence.
     * _Was Garibaldi's flashback shot in advance?_
       Somtimes, yeah, we'll gang together shots in one location that
       will spill across several episodes, and definitely did that in
       Garibaldi's case. I just figure out what's coming, and write those
       specific additional scenes prior to the rest of the scripts.
     * _Where did the Starfury model Sheridan was looking at in the war
       room come from?_
       Actually, I think the Starfury model was an illegal one we
       confiscated.
       Waste not, want not...
     * _Was the psychologist reading from a teleprompter?_
       Actually, no, he wasn't reading off a teleprompter at all. His
       eyes may have been moving, but there was no reading involved.
     * "In the Delenn/Sheridan interview, there is a change in the vocal
       acoustics of the journalist for the "new" questions he asked."
       And not just in the voice quality...look at the footage again.
       He's sitting in a different chair, in a different room.
     * _About the names cited in the confession_
       Yes, they're based on the real names of writers who were
       blacklisted, Dalton Trumbo and Paul Jarrico.
     * Parks (the person who's naming names) was also named after one of
       those who testified before HUAC.
     * _Were the names dubbed in?_
       Only Jarrico was dubbed, because it was mispronounced.
     * It's a period too few people really know much about, and it never
       hurts to point to the past in order to warn about the future.
     * This ep is one that'll be discussed a lot, but not rewatched a
       lot, because it's just really hard to watch, knowing what's
       coming. It really does tend to upset people.
     * If it's a little close to home...you have to remember I came out
       of journalism, that was where I cut my teeth as a writer, working
       for newspapers and magazines. You see a lot of the tricks, some
       good, some not so good, used for purposes that are sometimes good
       or not so good, distortions on the left and distortions on the
       right. So it wasn't hard to just tweak it a bit.
       Thing to remember, though, is that this isn't ISN as we've known
       it in the past, at least not to this extreme. If anything, this ep
       should point to the difference between journalism, albeit biased,
       and propaganda, which is all ISN is now, and how only an informed
       viewership can prevent the one from sliding into the other.
     * _Aren't there networks besides ISN?_
       ISN is the one network that can handle *interstellar* broadcasts,
       which reqire a massive amount of energy, logistics, setup...there
       are other, local, planetary networks around Earth, and a few
       specialized channels for military and some commercial use...but
       ISN is the biggest, and because of that is very much in Earthgov's
       pocket.
     * It was most definitely difficult and painful for me to write. I I
       am as much involved with these characters as anyone else, and
       doing this kind of thing to them is hard. And you have to put
       yourself in the minds of those doing this, and that's a dark place
       to be.
       And yeah, I know people who were harmed in the blacklist, and I've
       seen others, and myself, sometimes harmed by those who like to
       twist things around to their own benefit.
     * "FWIW, that was your most courageous episode yet, IMHO."
       I appreciate the sentiment, so don't take this as lack of
       gratitude on my part; I'm happy you perceive it that way.
       But courageous? No.
       Courageous as an apellation belongs to the South American writers
       who insist on telling the truth about their governments, who risk
       death on a daily basis for doing so...and to other writers doing
       similar work in other countries.
       Yeah, it was kind of a shot to the midsection for some groups,
       with a certain element of biting the hand that feeds you, but the
       truth is, ain't nobody gonna come to my door in the middle of the
       night with death squads, take me away, and torture me. If you want
       to hear about real courage, join PEN International, or Amnesty
       International. They can always use the help.
     * "This B5 episode should be required viewing in University media
       and history classes."
       Funny thing is, I've since received several requests from
       instructors at various colleges asking if they could use the show
       in their classroom to illustrate the points raised. Kinda nice....
     * I don't make any blanket condemnations of journalists. For one
       thing, there's a difference between portraying journalism in a
       relatively free society, and one that's operating under a
       dictatorship, a la President Clark. It's the difference between
       journalism and propaganda.
       In "Midnight on the Firing Line," we had a reporter there doing a
       straight-ahead story; in "Point of No Return" we had the Good
       Journalists fighting to reveal the truth even as Clark was
       shutting them down.
       There have been favorable portrayals; it's just that under the
       current regime, they don't have access to the media.
     * I am definitely *not* anti-reporter...I'm against the *control* of
       truth by any government or political agenda. We are made stronger
       by a multiplicity of voices, and the more those voices are allowed
       access to a level playing field, the more often the truth will
       come out to play.
       The third name was Jarrico, after Paul Jarrico, also blacklisted.
     * The ISN cameras are not capable of autonomous operation, but they
       can be progammed within a parameter set. The wand is a control
       device to change those parameters. Thus, one operator, two cameras
       (or more!)
       There was a distinct anti Minbar/Minbari sentiment among this
       particular crew, as evidenced by the later parts of the show, and
       it isn't hard to imagine that the bumping was at the behest of the
       wand wielder. If Lennier was simply annoyed, advantage ISN. If he
       reacted violently, advantage ISN. I'm sure that footage will be
       used on another ISN propoganda broadcast. (You can see it on
       Channel 134 of your cable)(Oh, sorry, Channel 134 is not availbale
       in all sectors after curfew)
       George Johnsen
       CoProducer, B5
       

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      [29]Last update: October 29, 1997

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