lurkers-guide/guide/047

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

<blockquote><cite>
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.
</cite>

<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Macht,+Stephen">Stephen Macht</a> as Na'Far.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Teague,+Marshall">Marshall Teague</a> as Ta'Lon.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Betancourt,+Anne">Anne Betancourt</a> as Dr. Gonzalez.
</blockquote>

<pre><a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/047">7.85</a>

Production number: 303
Original air week: November 20, 1995
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00009OOFK/thelurkersguidet">DVD release date</a>: August 12, 2003

Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by David Eagle
</pre>

<p>
<hr size=3>

<h2><a name="BP">Backplot</a></h2>
<ul>

   <li> The Centauri diplomatic mission on Minbar has been closed for
	several years.

</ul>

<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
<ul>

   <li> Who sent the probe?

   <li> Will Franklin's continuing use of stims have greater repercussions,
	especially now that he's willing to lie about it?

   <li> 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?

</ul>

<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
<ul>

   <li> 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.)

   <li> The favor Delenn owed Londo was most likely the one he earned by
	transporting her and Draal to Epsilon 3 in
	<a href="019.html">"A Voice in the Wilderness, part 2."</a>

   <li> Franklin's stim use is nothing new; it was touched on as recently as
	<a href="040.html">"Confessions and Lamentations."</a>
	He may feel he has no choice and no problem, but he seems to be
	ignoring the example of Dr. Rosen in
	<a href="021.html">"The Quality of Mercy,"</a>
	who lost her medical license over her stim use.

</ul>

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

   <li> A <a href="/lurk/ftp/Pictures/Effects/ship1.gif">picture</a> of the probe is
	available.

   <li> 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
	<cite>Babylon 5</cite> from time to time.

   <li> 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.

   <li> 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.  

   <li> A related goof: Sheridan orders a securebot sent to look at the probe,
	but the display on the screen reads "Maintbot 12."

</ul>

<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>
<ul>

   <li> "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...

<p>
   <li> <em>Is Marshall Teague playing the same character he did in
	<a href="033.html">"All Alone in the Night?"</a></em><br>
	Yes, it's the same character, and his name is Ta'Lon.

<p>
   <li> "A narn resistance is going to be pretty hard to organize."

	<p>
	*Exactly* the issue we'll explore in "A Day in the Strife."  (Well,
	one of many issues.)

<p>
   <li> <em>How many Narn dead are there?</em><br>
	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.

<p>
   <li> Just went back and checked the script; Ta'Lon refers to millions in
	his  meeting with Sheridan.  (Knew I wasn't nuts....)

<p>
   <li> <em>Londo's comment, "It's nothing personal, Vir," was the same one
	the bomber echoed in "Convictions."</em><br>
	Yeah, "it's nothing personal" does echo the other theme; those
	who inflict great harm tend to shrug it off that way.

<p>
   <li> You will see Vir many times again in the course of the third season.

<p>
   <li> <em>Why didn't they ask Delenn or Kosh for help with the
	questions?</em><br>
	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?

<p>
   <li> 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.)

	<p>
	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.

	<p>
	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.

	<p>
	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?

	<p>
	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.

<p>
   <li> 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.

<p>
   <li> <em>Would the explosion have taken out a planet?</em><br>
	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.

<p>
   <li> <em>What kind of alien was sick in medlab?</em><br>
	I'll have to go back and check, but from memory I'm pretty sure he's a
	Llort.

<p>
   <li> <em>What happened to Na'Fon?</em><br>
	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.

<p>
   <li>@@@864890926 <em>Why don't we ever see worker-caste Minbari?</em><br>
	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.

</ul>