lurkers-guide/guide/003

<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>

<blockquote><cite>
Londo's career is in jeopardy when a beautiful slave seduces him and steals
a sensitive computer file.  Garibaldi investigates an unauthorized use of
a restricted communications channel.
</cite>

<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Udenio,+Fabiana">Fabiana Udenio</a> as Adira Tyree.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Revill,+Clive">Clive Revill</a> as Trakis.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Phalen,+Robert">Robert Phalen</a> as Andrei Ivanov.
</blockquote>

<pre><a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/003">6.79</a>

Production number: 104
Original air date: February 9, 1994
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00006HAZ4/thelurkersguidet">DVD release date</a>: November 5, 2002

Written by Larry DiTillio
Directed by Bruce Seth Green
</pre>

<p>
<hr size=3>
<p>

<H2><A NAME="BP">Backplot</A></H2>

<ul>

<li> <A NAME="BP:1">Trakis: "Do you know why a drunken fool like
Mollari</A>
	has the power he does?  Because his family has been collecting
	dirt on other families for years, like all the 'noble' houses of
	the Centauri republic."

<li> <A NAME="BP:2">Londo: "We Centauri live our lives for appearances:</A>
	position, status, title.  These are the things by which we
	define ourselves.  But when I look beneath the mask I am forced
	to wear, I see only emptiness."

<li> <A NAME="BP:3">Centauri law permits individuals to own Centauri</A>
	slaves.  Owners are legally responsible for the actions of their
	slaves.  This appears to be a slave system of economics rather
	than of caste.  According to Trakis, powerlessness and slavery
	is the fate of all Centauri who don't play the game of blackmail
	and backstabbing.

</ul>

<H2><A NAME="UQ">Unanswered Questions</A></H2>

<ul>

<li> What was the Euphrates treaty compromise that Sinclair forced Londo
to accept?

</ul>

<H2><A NAME="AN">Analysis</A></H2>

<ul>

   <li> <A NAME="AN:1">Londo and G'Kar agree over a drink that females are</A>
 	the finest of all things in life.  They are much more friendly
	with each other now than when last we saw them (cf:
	<A HREF="001.html#AN:1">"Midnight on the Firing Line"</A>).  The
	Narn must have been very pacifying in the meantime.

   <li> <A NAME="AN:2">Intense anger from a couple nearby people is enough</A>
	to send Talia away for a breather.

   <li> <A NAME="AN:3">Londo agrees to Sinclair's compromise on the
Euphrates</A>
	treaty in exchange for his personal help recovering the purple
	files.  However, this should not be taken as another example of
	Londo putting personal concerns above state concerns.  In a
	profoundly blackmailable culture like the Centauri, power lost
	by one individual or family would always be gained by another.
	But if an outsider were to get hold of a treasure trove like
	Londo's purple files, all of Centauri would be diminished.
	There is an interesting parallel here to the Minbari concern for
	souls (cf: <A HREF="002.html#AN:2:2">"Soul Hunter"</A>).

   <li> <A NAME="AN:4">Ivanova's brother was killed in the Earth/Minbari
war,</A>
	her mother committed suicide
	(cf: <A HREF="001.html#BP:6">"Midnight on the Firing Line"</A>),
	and she's been estranged from her father for years.  Thus it's
	unsurprising she's so hard-edged.

   <li> <A NAME="AN:5">Talia is willing to skirt Psi Corps regulations
	when</A>
	a life is at stake (though she has no concern for Londo's
	career).  The Psi Corps' hold on remote psis appears to be
	pretty weak.

   <li>@@@884630840 When she was approached about the plan, Talia asked
	Sinclair if Londo was serious about a woman's life being at stake.
	Shouldn't she have sensed Londo's distress?  Strong emotions are
	difficult to block out, she says
	(<a href="006.html">"Mind War,"</a>)
	and with Adira's life and his career at stake, Londo would presumably
	be quite anxious.  Of course, she may have sensed the anxiety but not
	its reason.

   <li> <A NAME="AN:6">Ivanova is willing to skirt EA regulations for</A>
	personal perks. (cf: <A HREF="007.html">"War Prayer"</A>)

   <li> <A NAME="AN:7">When G'Kar meets with Trakis to exchange the</A>
	information, Trakis says to him, "You said nothing about a
	telepath."  From this it is clear that G'Kar was the one who
	contacted Trakis.  However, Trakis knew through the bug he
	planted on Londo that Sinclair was onto him.  So, Sinclair must
	have set up G'Kar's call to Trakis in such a way that it
	wouldn't arouse his suspicions.

   <li> <A NAME="AN:8">Telepath-aided negotiation must make future
diplomacy</A>
	much different than it is now.  No posturing, tailored versions
	of the situation back home, empty threats, or hidden agendas.
	Parties have the same freedom to make choices for their
	governments, but there are vanishingly few tactics left to gain
	more advantage over one's adversary than one already has.

</ul>

<H2><A NAME="NO">Notes</A></H2>

<ul>

<li> <a name="NO:purple">The episode's title</a> is a term dating back
	to Roman times, still in use in Britain.  Roman senators in the days
	of the Republic wore purple edged togas as a symbol of royalty,
	since purple dye was very expensive.  Today,
	members of the House of Lords wear purple robes for state occasions.
	When someone is made a peer in the UK they are said to have been
	"raised to the purple."
	Hereditary peers are "born to the purple".  Perhaps
	this implies that the purple files are so named because
	they are what keeps Londo's family in its preeminent position.

<li> <A NAME="NO:1">G'Kar glances no less than four times at the human</A>
	dancer behind him when he and Sinclair first confront Londo
	about the treaty.

<li> <A NAME="NO:2">Babylon 5 communications has a priority "Gold
Channel"</A>
	reserved for emergency communications.  Sinclair's express
	permission is required to use it, and its existence is known
	only to the ambassadors and senior officers.

<li> <A NAME="NO:3">Londo's family heirloom, from the earliest days of
the</A>
	Empire, is a stylized eye-and-teardrop.

<li> <A NAME="NO:4">Universe Today main headline:</A> Homeguard Leader
	Convicted

<li> <A NAME="NO:5">"Fresh Air" is the finest restaurant on Babylon 5.</A>

<li> <A NAME="NO:6">Talia used to work for the "Political Bureau".</A>

<li> <A NAME="NO:7">"I like to know all there is about Babylon 5,"</A>
	Sinclair says, "and Garibaldi's files are very thorough."

<li> <A NAME="NO:8">Ivanova appears to wear only one earring, though
it's</A>
	hard to tell since throughout the episode we get no more than a
	glimpse of the right side of her head.

</ul>

<H2><A NAME="JS">jms speaks</A></H2>

<ul>

<li> We're currently finishing up production on "Born to the Purple,"
with Clive Revell and Fabiana Udeno.  It's a very offbeat and funny
story (by Larry DiTillio, natch) which adds a new side to Londo's
character.  It puts our characters into different situations than we're
used to, and it's fun seeing how they react to these new conditions.

<p>
<li> Trakis, Adira's owner, was not a Centauri, but (and this is something we
may bring up at some point down the road), was at one point a Centauri slave.

<p>
<li> Re: Londo as a romantic character...bless your heart.  You are the
first to have nailed it absolutely on the head.  If I had to write a
description of the character, I doubt I could have done any better 
than what you just wrote.  There are a *lot* of episodes that bring
this out in him, including the next one up, "Born to the Purple," 
which I suspect will end virtually all of the hair jokes once and 
for all.

<p>
Anyway...yes, and thank you, that's it *precisely*.

<p>
<li> Let's just say for now that you'll learn something very unusual about
Centauri "intimacy" in "The Quality of Mercy."

<p>
<li> Fabiana didn't shave her head to play Adira; that's a prosthetic head
piece.  Ditto with all our Centauri women.  (Funnily enough, the one
time we DID have a bald woman as a background extra, those not in the
know on stage kept commenting on how fake the bald-cap looked....)

<p>
<li> The point you raise is exactly correct; which is why we've set up
the Psi Corps in such a way as to *prevent* them from becoming a deus
ex machina all the time.  This is what's always bothered me about the
way "empaths" are treated on ST; it's a terrible invasion of privacy.
The Psi Corps has strict rules about who can and can't be scanned, 
and under what conditions.  In "Purple," she couldn't just go scan
Trakis; she had to be hired, had to be already engaged in a business
capacity, and had to find it *only* in surface thoughts, no deliberate
poking.  And this is the ONLY -- repeat, the ONLY -- time this is 
done in the entire season, aside from the accidental run-in with Londo
in the pilot episode.

<p>
We'll get deeper into the rules and regs of the Psi Corps as we go,
further establishing that there's a lot they're expressly forbidden
from doing by law.

<p>
<li> I confess I don't see the problem.  In real life, some women are
scientists, and doctors, and atheletes...and some women dance in 
bars, some women hook part- or full-time.  Some men are scholars and 
diplomats and teachers...and some men are gigolos and thieves and 
*also* dance in bars.  Where exactly is the problem in portraying 
both sides of this?  Have we become so concerned with being 
politically correct that we can not show a legitimate part of human
existence?

<p>
B5 has all kinds, and both sides of all kinds.  Male and female,
equally.  I "chose" exotic dancers for a kind of sleazy, not-entirely
legitimate operation, a backroom club.  What would one *expect* to 
find there?  Opera singers?  You look at the situation, and you choose
what is *appropriate to the situation*.

<p>
I would also point out that the dancers didn't "eagerly rush forward
to betray their friend."  Londo was trying to find Adira in hopes of
helping her.  He didn't say he was going to do anything bad to her,
and he was probably known to more than a few of them.  He was simply
trying to find her.  The coin was an added incentive.  Back when I 
was an investigative reporter, I did some research on strip joints
while I was living in SAn Diego.  Spent a LOT of time talking to nude
dancers (when they had their clothes on, I hasten to add).  And 99.9%
of them had a rule: you want to ask questions, you pay.  That simple.
That's how this stuff *works*.  My job is to keep the B5 reality as
close as possible to our reality in that respect.

<p>
Some of them probably wanted to help, knowing Londo was okay.  Some
probably didn't care.  And some probably would've betrayed her at the
tip of a coin.  Life's like that.  So again, where in this is the
problem?

<p>
<li> Re: the club owner recognizing Sinclair (or not)...this is something
we discussed.  Can Sinclair go places in the station and not be
recognized?  In some cases, no.  In a place like the Dark Star, maybe
so; this isn't the kind of place he generally hangs out in.  It's a
question of how much day-to-day interaction somebody would have with
him.  Yes, he's an important figure; but I'm not sure if I'd 
immediately recognize L.A. Mayor Richard Riordan at first glance, 
particularly in different style of dress, in an unusual location.
We're *not* going to do it a lot -- just once this season -- but we
thought it was a reasonable approach.

<p>
<li> This was a bit cut from the script for time; Gold Channels are ONLY 
for official use, they're high-priority channels that can go anywhere
back on Earth.  Commercial communications are less reliable and only
have a few channels available; you've got to wait for a call to go
through.  To use a Gold Channel for personal communications is a
No-No.

<p>
<li> Regarding Ivanova...it's not really an attempt to pull at heart 
strings, as it is to establish that this is someone who's had, and is
still having, a pretty rough life.  It's a real roller-coaster for 
her, and the way she survives it is to absolutely bottle it up 
inside.  She has had angst throughout her life, and she's in for more.

<p>
We start to track that in little ways that probably no one will 
notice, as well as making it the occasional story point.  A little 
way nobody'll notice: after this episode, she starts messing with her
hair, which we'd deliberately set as extremely tight until now.
Suddenly she doesn't have someone for whom she has to be a certain 
way, and she has to start finding her *own* identity, and it ain't
easy.

<p>
<li> Larry DiTillio's episodes this season are "Born to the Purple," and
"Deathwalker."  He's currently working on a third, tentatively 
entitled "TKO."  And yes, he uses blood instead of ink...unfortunately,
it's mine.

<p>
<li> There will be both sex and romance on B5 (sometimes together, 
sometimes not).  It's perversely appropriate that in the B5 series,
it's not the Commander who gets laid first, or Garibaldi, or G'Kar...
it's Londo.  And it's a very funny, but very touching and moving
episode.

<p>
<li> It's a standard bed, works fine.  Though we *did* have a thing in 
mind where Londo sits up in bed, having just had wonderful sex, and
his hair is now hanging limp...but in a sudden burst of sanity we
decided against it.

</ul>

<HR>
Originally compiled by Matthew Ryan <i>mattryan@pobox.com</i>