lurkers-guide/guide/004

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

<blockquote><cite>
An archaeologist smuggles ancient artifacts onto the station, unleashing
a living weapon.
</cite>

<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+McCallum,+David">David McCallum</a> as Dr. Vance Hendricks.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Teague,+Marshall">Marshall Teague</a> as Nelson Drake.
</blockquote>

<pre>
Sub-genre: Action
<a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/004">6.33</a>

Production number: 101
Original air date: February 18, 1994
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00006HAZ4/thelurkersguidet">DVD release date</a>: November 5, 2002

Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Richard Compton
</pre>

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

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

<ul>

<li> <A NAME="BP:1">Ikarra 7,</A> now a dead world, was a thousand years
     ago home to a highly advanced space-faring society.  Their
     technology was organic: tools and artifacts made of living tissue yet
     immune to decay.  Invaded over a dozen times, they finally built 12
     devastating organic warriors to protect them.  Programmed to
     destroy any but "pure Ikarrans", those warriors repelled the last
     invasion and went on to kill any Ikarran who deviated from the ideal
     (ie all of them).  A
     <a href="004.weapons.html">transcript</a>
     of the scene in which this is discussed is available.

<li> <A NAME="BP:2">Organic technology</A> is, according to archaeologist
     Vance Hendricks, "The one trick Earth hasn't been able to crack.
     The ability to create living ships that thrive in the vacuum of
     space, to create weapons that produce their own power through
     internal generation, like a firefly lights up at night."

<li> <A NAME="BP:3">The Vorlons</A> have organic technology, and it's
     suspected that the Minbari do as well.

<li> <A NAME="BP:4"><B>Sinclair:</B></A> "The last time I gave an
     interview they told me just to relax and say what I really felt -
     ten minutes after the broadcast I got transferred to an outpost so
     far off the star maps you couldn't find it with a hunting dog and a
     Ouija board."  It's not clear whether or not this was a joke.

<li> <A NAME="BP:5"><B>Garibaldi:</B></A> (to the reporter) "...and
     after walking 50 miles, we finally made it out of the desert.
     Later when he was put in charge of Babylon 5, Commander Sinclair
     asked if I'd come work security.  I said yes - it's been a great
     time..."

<li> <A NAME="BP:6">Garibaldi</A> has been fired from 5 different jobs
     for "unspecified personal problems".  His assignment on Babylon 5
     is probably his last shot in Earth Force.

<li> <A NAME="BP:7">Garibaldi</A> was in Earth Force during the E/M war,
     but not on the Line.

</ul>

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

<ul>

<li> <A NAME="UQ:1">Who</A> invaded Ikarra so many times?  What was so
     valuable about it?

<li> <A NAME="UQ:2">Why</A> is Sinclair so prone to heroism (read:
     suicidal bravery)?  He's deliberately put his life on the line
     three times now in the past year (cf <A HREF="000.html#AN:10">"The
     Gathering"</A>, <A HREF="002.html#AN:3">"Soul Hunter"</A>).
     Garibaldi suggests an answer: when the war ended it took away the
     direction it gave his life, as happened to many veterans.  So now
     he's "looking for something worth dying for because it's easier
     than finding something worth living for."  Sinclair's not entirely
     satisfied with that answer, and resolves to give it more thought.

</ul>

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

<ul>

<li> <A NAME="AN:1">A "Bio-weapons" supplier</A> backed Hendricks'
     original expedition to Ikarra - they must have had advance
     information about what was to be found there.

<li> <A NAME="AN:2">Ivanova</A> has little faith in the ethics of big
     government organizations (cf <A HREF="006.html">"Mind War"</A>,
     <A HREF="009.html">"Deathwalker"</A>).

<li> <A NAME="AN:3">Franklin</A> appeared to seriously ponder the image
     of great wealth Hendricks offered, before the guards took him away.

<li> <A NAME="AN:4">A team</A> from Earth Force Defense, Bio-weapons
     Division confiscated the Ikarran artifacts just as the dust from the
     weapon-chase was settling. Earth now has bio-tech of its own to study.

</ul>

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

<ul>

<li> <A NAME="NO:1"><B>Garibaldi:</B></A> "The commander's a hands-on
     kind of guy, he'll grab any chance he can get to take out a ship -
     he's like that."

<p>
<li> <A NAME="NO:2">This episode</A> occurs right around the 2nd
     anniversary of Babylon 5 going on-line.

<p>
<li> <A NAME="NO:3">In a poll,</A> 75% of "Interstellar Network News"
     said B5 wouldn't last 5 minutes.  Lloyd's of London put the odds at
     500 to 1 against it lasting one year.

<p>
<li> <A NAME="NO:4">The "Narn-Centauri negotiations"</A> are to occur in
     the near future.

<p>
<li> <A NAME="NO:5"><B>Sinclair:</B></A> "How sharper than a serpent's
     tooth." (His reply to Garibaldi's joking guess that Sinclair's
     interview would get him shipped off the station and himself
     promoted into Sinclair's position.)  This is a quote from
     Shakespeare (King Lear.)

<p>
<li>@@@884367861 Dr. Hendricks says to Franklin, "There's a Martian war
	machine outside, and it wants to speak to you about the common cold."
	That's a reference to H. G. Wells' "The War of the Worlds," in which
	the Martian invaders are killed by common microbes.

<p>
<li> <A NAME="NO:6"><B>Sinclair:</B></A> "When you become obsessed with
     the enemy, you become the enemy."

<p>
<li> <A NAME="NO:7">At the last,</A> the Ikarran begs forgiveness from
     the "Great Maker".

<p>
<li> <A NAME="NO:8"><B>Franklin:</B></A> "I'm starting to wonder if what
     we just saw is a preview of things to come" (re: Pro-earth groups).

<p>
<li> <A NAME="NO:9"><B>The Interview</B></A><br>
     <B>Reporter:</B> "After all that you've just gone through, I have
     to ask you the same question a lot of people back home are asking
     about space these days.  Is it worth it?  Should we just pull back,
     forget the whole thing as a bad idea, and take care of our own
     problems, at home?"<br> <B>Sinclair:</B> "No.  We have to stay here,
     and there's a simple reason why.  Ask ten different scientists
     about the environment, population control, genetics - and you'll
     get ten different answers.  But there's one thing every scientist
     on the planet agrees on: whether it happens in a hundred years, or
     a thousand years, or a million years, eventually our sun will grow
     cold, and go out.  When that happens, it won't just take us, it'll
     take Marilyn Monroe, and Lao-tsu, Einstein, Maruputo, Buddy Holly,
     Aristophanes - all of this.  All of this was for nothing, unless we
     go to the stars."

<p>
<li> Ikarra may be an Australian Aboriginal word.
     <p>
     The Australian DSTO (Defence Sciences and Technology Organisation) 
     developed the anti-submarine weapon "Ikara" in the 1950's. It is no 
     longer in use in the Australian Navy, having been fired for the last time 
     in 1990. The Brazilian Navy may still use a variation of it.

     <p>
     Since the DSTO has a tradition of naming its products after warlike
     Aboriginal animals, it's plausible that the word refers to an animal.

<p>
<li> A slight visual gaffe: When the bioweapon self-destructs and falls to
     the ground, its head is facing to the left (away from the camera.)  But
     when Sinclair watches him turn human again, Nelson's head is facing to
     the right (toward the camera.)

</ul>

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

<ul>

<li> We'll definitely be dealing with the aspects of how fighting in a war
     can affect you.  And this isn't just a vague promise: watch the end of
     the third (currently) scheduled episode, "Infection," for a scene 
     between Sinclair and Garibaldi that really deals very straightforwardly
     with this issue.  It's a conversation you wouldn't expect to see in a
     show like this.

<p>
<li> [Infection] has a lot of action, which you'd expect, and a big
     conclusion, which you'd expect.  What you *won't* expect, I think,
     is what happens afterward, in a conversation no one generally has
     in TV after big action stuff has gone down.  And it's something to
     chew on, I think....

<p>
<li> Thanks.  Sinclair's final speech there is the simplest truth about
     space exploration that I can think of...and the most
     compelling..and the most overlooked.  As Henry Kissinger once said,
     "It has the added benefit of being true."

<p>
<li> Sorry; there's no one more critical of my work than me, and when it
     comes to "Infection," I'd just kinda prefer it if it kinda vanished
     in the night.  I feel that way about only two episodes out of 22,
     so that's not too bad, I suppose.

<p>
<li> "Infection" is definitely not indicative of the season overall; that
     is, in my view, one of our weaker, possibly weakest episodes.

<p>
<li> And like I said...I have problems with "Infection" as well, so there 
     is no flame from me.  I guess part of it is knowing what was in the
     script that should've been carried off better, but wasn't.  And part
     of it is my fault; I tried to use the Nelson/machine as a metaphor;
     it wasn't supposed to be about the Nelson/machine, but about the kind
     of people who would create it, the kind of people who would sell it,
     and the kind of people who would confiscate it even KNOWING what it
     was (and of course the kind of people who would *use* it). 
     Unfortunatly, when you put  somebody in that kind of suit, that
     *becomes* the story, and from that point on you're pretty much doomed.
     It was also in places too much an obvious metaphor, and the "hand of
     the author" is showing too much.  It was the first script written for
     this season, after the long break after the pilot, and I think I was
     trying to find the characters' "fingerprints" and getting into the
     flow of the series, which took a script or two.

<p>
<li> The problem with "Infection" from a writing POV is that it was the
     FIRST one written for this season, and I was having a hard time 
     finding the "fingerprints" of the characters again after so much time
     had passed after the pilot (it was nearly a year between the revising/
     shooting of the pilot, and the writing of the first series script). 
     As on *any* show, it takes a while to get up to speed once you hit 
     series.  That was the real problem, and there wasn't any  real way to
     get past it except to write it, re-acquaint myself with the characters,
     and move on.  I probably would have opted out of doing it had we had
     more scripts on hand, but we didn't.  And oddly, many on the 
     production team *liked* the script quite a lot, and kept saying it had
     to be done.

<p>
<li> I'd slice this a little finer and suggest that it wasn't so much the
     *stupidity* of racism and the whole genetic purity aspect, but the
     IMPRACTICALITY of such ideas.  If you follow the idea to its logical
     conclusion, *nobody* is pure.  Which was kind of the point.

     <p>
     And oddly enough, there's a pro-genocide discussion in "Deathwalker."

<p>
<li> I allow a small smile...in the course of any given script, I put in
     little things that I figure nobody will ever notice, but which for me
     help just a bit to keep on track with the character, and which may
     resonate to anyone paying attention.  You cite Sinclair's line about
     joining Garibaldi "on the LINE," and Garibaldi noting that Sinclair
     keeps putting his life "on the LINE," and the similarity to the 
     phrase "the Battle of the Line."

     <p>
     It was a throwaway...but a conscious one.

     <p>
     He's still fighting the same battle.  He's never stopped.  In one way
     or another, he keeps putting himself out there, caught in a loop....

<p>
<li> Actually, the reporter's question was *not* (from a 2258 point of
     view) stupid.  Earth is far enough from the other major races not to
     have to worry about iminent invasion.  At the time of the story, there
     is a VERY strong isolationist movement growing back home, which you'll
     hear more about as we go in.  Space travel is *expensive*, even in
     2258, and there are still a lot of problems to be resolved back home.
     While the Earth administration in Earthdome keeps pressing to go
     further and further, various nation/states in the Earth senate are
     taxed further to finance explorations which they don't always share in
     equally, the Mars Colony is threatening secession...things are falling
     apart by degrees.  So in light of all that, the question is
     *absolutely* valid.

<p>
<li> The ONLY reason that they were able to pick up the blasts in
     "Infection" was because they were SO powerful that they registered on
     the station's sensors.  Ordinary PPG blasts don't show up.

<p>
<li> I have nothing to do with the description applied to the show by
     others.  In that episode, the affected person isn't "turned into" a
     machine.  It is sort of a living armor-like compound that grows over 
     the person's body, and begins to influence the person in question.  
     That is the sum and substance of it; he isn't transmuted, his biology
     isn't changed, his brain isn't replaced, and so on.

     <p>
     My suggestion: judge the episode based on the episode, not on what
     choice of words someone else used in trying to synopsize the episode.
     Because Moby Dick can be summed up as, "A nut chasing a big fish."  
     But there's obviously more to the story than that, and it's not 
     entirely accurate.

</ul>

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