lurkers-guide/guide/093

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

<blockquote><cite>
Two Minbari Rangers-in-training come to the station and learn a difficult
lesson.  A new underworld boss tries to take control of DownBelow.
</cite>

Nathan Anderson as Rastenn.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Bey,+Turhan">Turhan Bey</a> as Turval.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Ford,+Brendan">Brendan Ford</a> as Tannier.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Goddard,+Trevor">Trevor Goddard</a> as Trace.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/Name?McDermott,+Brian+(III)">Brian McDermott</a> as Durhan.
</blockquote>

<pre><a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/093">7.65</a>

Production number: 506
Original air date: February 18, 1998
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00019071C/thelurkersguidet">DVD release date</a>: April 13, 2004

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

<p>
<hr size=3>

<h2><a name="BP">Plot Points</a></h2>
<ul>

   <li>@@@888197814 Lochley wasn't on Sheridan's side in the civil war,
	though she may not have been on Clark's side either.  She
	feels her role as a soldier is to follow orders until she's given a
	specific order she finds immoral.  As a soldier, she says, the most
	important words in her vocabulary are loyalty, duty, and honor,
	and turning against the chain of command would mean sacrificing one
	of the three, rendering the other two meaningless.

   <li>@@@887871957 Sheridan and Lochley appear to have had a relationship of
	some sort in the past.

   <li>@@@887871957 Several races are now represented in the ranks of Ranger
	trainees, including the Pak'ma'ra, who will specialize as couriers
	and infiltrators since they're so unpleasant to most other races
	that everyone goes to great lengths to ignore them.

   <li>@@@887871957 The two telepaths supplied by Byron to Garibaldi
	(<a href="091.html">"The Paragon of Animals"</a>)
	have begun their training.

   <li>@@@888197896 Lennier, according to one of his instructors, is pushing
	himself too hard in his Ranger training, most likely in an attempt to
	impress Delenn.

</ul>

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

   <li>@@@887927755 Did Lochley disobey any of Clark's orders during the
	war, as Garibaldi tried to discover?

   <li>@@@887871157 What history do Sheridan and Lochley share?

   <li>@@@888197814 Lochley said Garibaldi was the second man she'd met who
	was as stubborn as she was; who was the first?  Sheridan?

   <li>@@@888197896 Did Garibaldi read Lochley's file after Zack left?

</ul>

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

   <li>@@@887871957 One aspect of Ranger training is Mora'Dum, the application
	of terror.  Marcus referred to that aspect during his conversation
	with Franklin in
	<a href="057.html">"A Late Delivery from Avalon."</a>

<p>
   <li>@@@887927344 The friction between the Minbari castes hasn't gone away
	completely, but does seem to have been reduced to the level of
	conversational sarcasm, at least within the ranks of the Rangers.

<p>
   <li>@@@887927344 Durhan has been mentioned once before, during the
	fight between Marcus and Neroon in
	<a href="063.html">"Grey 17 is Missing."</a>
	Marcus was given personal training in pike combat by Durhan.

<p>
   <li>@@@888481178 Turval's philosophy about meaningful deaths isn't shared
	by Delenn: in
	<a href="091.html">"The Paragon of Animals,"</a>
	she told Franklin that the Ranger's death would be meaningless if he
	took his information to the grave with him.  Turval wouldn't consider
	it meaningless, since the Ranger was pursuing a noble cause when he
	died.

<p>
   <li>@@@887927543 This episode marks the second time Lochley has been
	overruled on something she considered a station matter (the first was
	Sheridan's decision to allow the telepath colony in
	<a href="089.html">"No Compromises."</a>)
	Given her insistence to Sheridan that she be allowed the authority to
	run the station her way, this incident probably isn't sitting well with
	her.  At what point will she decide she's had enough and begin to
	confront Sheridan on the subject?

<p>
   <li>@@@888197814 It's not clear whether Lochley actually fought for
	Clark or not.  By her own admission she didn't support the rebellion,
	but as she pointed out to Garibaldi, not every conflict has only
	two sides.  Her comment about making a decision that affects only
	oneself suggests she might have deserted or otherwise refused to
	cooperate.  Perhaps she was even punished for it.

</ul>

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

   <li>@@@887871957 The station's underworld has had a hole in its power
	structure since the departure of n'grath
	(<a href="002.html">"Soul Hunter,"</a>
	among other episodes.)  It wasn't explicitly stated, but the implication
	was that n'grath was assassinated.

   <li>@@@887871957 Turhan Bey played the Centauri Emperor in
	<a href="031.html">"The Coming of Shadows."</a>

   <li>@@@889480981 A conceptual error on Trace's part: Trace's right-hand man
	told him that "everybody in security went up two levels or down one."
	Moments later, Trace posited that whatever was going on was "just
	these three levels."  But if security went up two levels or down one,
	it'd only leave two levels empty: if, for illustration's sake, Trace
	were on level 5, the security people would have gone down to level 6 or
	up to level 3, leaving levels 4 and 5.

</ul>

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

   <li>@@@888197289 <em>Lochley would never get away with chewing out a
	superior like she did Garibaldi.</em><br>
	That might apply in a straight hierarchical organization, but
	Garibaldi is not her superior; they are on parallel lines of command,
	not vertical, he doesn't answer to her, she doesn't answer to him.  She
	has total and complete authority over the station and is answerable
	only to Earthdome and, in political matters, to Sheridan.

	<p>
	You may not think this sort of thing happens, but it does, and
	it would. You're talking to the only producer to go out and berate
	Angela Lansbury's son who was then directing an episode of Murder, She
	Wrote, in front of his whole crew, and still remain employed afterward.

</ul>