lurkers-guide/guide/019

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

<blockquote><cite>
Sinclair fights two turf battles at once as alien invaders claim the planet
the station orbits, and an Earthforce captain disagrees with him about how
to deal with the situation.
</cite>

<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Canada,+Ron">Ron Canada</a> as Capt. Ellis Pierce.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Turenne,+Louis">Louis Turenne</a> as Draal.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Lowens,+Curt">Curt Lowens</a> as Varn.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Gentile,+Denise">Denise Gentile</a> as Lise Hampton.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Aleong,+Aki">Aki Aleong</a> as Senator Hidoshi.
</blockquote>

<pre>
Sub-genre: Action
<a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/019">8.49</a>

Production number: 121
Original air date: August 3, 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 Janet Greek
</pre>

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

<h2><a name="BP">Backplot</a></h2>
<ul>
<li>
In his youth, Londo led the Centauri raid on a planet called Frallis 12.
<li>
Five hundred years earlier, the last of Varn's race died, entrusting him
with a legacy, the guarding and caretaking of Epsilon 3.  Some time prior
to that, a violent, cruel faction of the race was cast aside by the rest,
and since Varn took over Epsilon 3, they have been searching for it.
<li>
Some Earth citizens feel they're heavily subsidizing the Mars colony, and
that may in fact be true.
<li>
The Centauri contributed a substantial amount of money to the construction
of Babylon 5.
</ul>

<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
<ul>
<li>
What is the intended use of Epsilon 3?
<li>
What needs to happen before it will be deemed ready for consumption by the
rest of the galaxy?
<li>
Was Takarn's ship the only one of its kind, or are more outcasts from Varn's
race still out there, searching (or heading) for Epsilon 3?
<li>
Are there any other planets like Epsilon 3 waiting to be discovered?
</ul>

<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
<ul>
<li>
The station potentially has a powerful new ally in Draal.  It remains to be
seen if he will prove willing to come to the station's defense in the future,
but the threat of retaliation by Epsilon 3 might be enough to keep any
would-be attackers at bay.
<li>
Garibaldi's tentative hopes of one day getting back together with Lisa have
now been dashed.  This might make him that much more likely to hit the
bottle again. (cf.
<a href="011.html">"Survivors"</a>)
<li>
Assuming Earth is successful in putting down the revolt on Mars, a continued
presence will likely be necessary to keep things from flaring up again.
This is bound to have political consequences back on Earth, and possibly
on Babylon 5, as Earth has a harder time claiming the moral high ground
if it's occupying one of its own members with soldiers.
<li>
Londo's sense of adventure, now reawakened, might lead him to go even further
in his quest for the "good old days."  Between this and his possession of
the Eye (cf.
<a href="013.html">"Signs and Portents"</a>)
he may be a much more influential figure than he appears.
<li>
Delenn's assessment of Sinclair jibes with the hints in
<a href="015.html">"Grail"</a>
that she considers him a "true seeker," someone whose life is devoted to
a cause.
</ul>

<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>
<ul>

<li>@@@858798423 
The heavy cruiser EAS Hyperion was named after the Babylon 5 Internet archive
(and home of the Lurker's Guide) originally located at Hyperion.COM.

<li>
Ivanova seems to enjoy saying "Boom!" (cf.
<a href="../synops/015.html#boom">"Grail"</a>)

<li>@@@839744251 
When Capt. Pierce is going to launch fighters to land on the planet and
Sinclair threathens to destroy them, Pierce argues for a moment and then
backs down.  When he turns briefly to the screen and a computer graphic is 
displayed showing him calling down the ships, one of the ships in the top
left corner of the screen has the flight number THX-1138, the name of one of
George Lucas' first films.

<li>@@@867349958 
More SF references can be found in the list of words being downloaded from
the station's language files by the aliens.  For instance, "ORAC" is a
computer from the British series <cite>Blake's 7,</cite> and "Skynet" is
from <cite>The Terminator.</cite>
The phrase "I am not a number, I am a free man" (from the title sequence of
<cite>The Prisoner</cite>) can also be seen on several consecutive frames.

</ul>

<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>
<ul>
<li>
BTW, have named an Earth Alliance Cruiser Hyperion, in notation of
the library....

<li>
<em>Does the Earth Alliance have capital ships?</em><br>
Of course there are capital ships.  We never said otherwise.
There's one later this season, for instance, the EAS Hyperion, a heavy Earth
cruiser.  There aren't as many as they'd like -- the majority having been
wiped out in the war -- but they're building 'em as fast as possible.  (The
Hyperion, though it's never mentioned, is one of the leftover capital ships,
not one of the newer ones.)

<li>
<em>Will we see other ships like the Hyperion?</em><br>
That design will never be seen again.

<li>
Correct; the Hyperion didn't have a gravity-positive section.

<li>
Of course, insofar as I recall, it wasn't stated in the episode that 
Varn's people actually *built* the Great Machine; after all, if they
could build it, why would the others have been searching for it so 
frantically for the last several hundred years?

<li>
Actually the Hyperion is one of the few surviving heavy cruisers from
the Earth/Minbari War period; after we lost a LOT of our ships, there
were some new ones commissioned, which we haven't seen yet, which are
far cooler than even the Hyperion (though we'll see them next season).

<li>
The captain of the Hyperion specifically states that he was already
IN hyperspace, en route to another system, when he was ordered to 
stop here.  His ship was already in the area.  Also, there is a fair
amount of time between the actions on the planet initially, and the
arrival of the Hyperion...enough to know there's some kind of tech 
there, based on the initial attacks.  The Hyperion continued to 
monitor reports as they came in.

<li>
And there we get into the contradiction; Ivanova and Sinclair down on
the planet would be mainly more run-and-jump...Draal talking about his
feelings, Delenn showing she is upset that her friend is going away
and will never be seen by her again, their obvious friendship, that to
me is characterization.  And not just throwaway stuff, either, but 
important down the road.
<p>
But hey, what do I know....

</ul>