lurkers-guide/guide/094

<!-- TITLE Strange Relations -->

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

<blockquote><cite>
Bester arrives to try to retrieve the refugee telepaths.  Garibaldi confronts
Lochley.  Delenn chooses a bodyguard for Londo.
</cite>

<a href="http://us.imdb.com/Name?Downes,+Robin+Atkin">Robin Atkin Downes</a> as 
Byron.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Koenig,+Walter">Walter Koenig</a> as Bester.
</blockquote>

<pre><a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/094">7.84</a>

Production number: 507
Original air date: February 25, 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 John C. Flinn III
</pre>

<p>
<hr size=3>

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

   <li>@@@888480810 Lochley and Sheridan were married for a brief time many
	years ago.  The relationship ended quickly because both of them wanted
	to be in control all the time.  But it's thanks to their time together
	that Sheridan knows he can trust her even though she was on the other
	side in the civil war.

   <li>@@@888480810 Lochley was stationed on an outpost on which a rogue
	telepath murdered two crewmen.  Bester and his people arrived and
	tracked down the rogue, saving the lives of additional people under
	Lochley's command.

   <li>@@@888480810 Many of Byron's people have been the subjects of Psi Corps
	medical experiments, and don't trust doctors.

   <li>@@@888481016 Lyta appears to have genuinely joined Byron's cause.  The
	two of them appear to be developing either a close friendship or
	romantic attraction.

   <li>@@@888480810 G'Kar is now working as Londo's bodyguard.  He accepted
	the assignment largely to see the looks on the faces of the Centauri
	royal court when a Narn is present at important state functions and
	the like.

   <li>@@@888480810 Londo is the second Mollari to become Emperor.  Londo
	says his ancestor's life ended badly.

   <li>@@@888480810 The Centauri Regent's health is failing; Londo will soon
	spend much of his time shuttling back and forth between B5 and Centauri
	Prime.

   <li>@@@888480810 Franklin has been given a new assignment, to thoroughly
	catalog any diseases of various races which might be able to cross
	species.  His new duties will take him away from Babylon 5 to visit
	the homeworlds of Alliance member races.

</ul>

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

   <li>@@@888480810 Who tried to assassinate Londo?

   <li>@@@888480810 Do the Regent's health problems have anything to do
	with the Keeper on his neck
	(<a href="073.html">"Epiphanies?"</a>)

   <li>@@@888480810 Is there actually a quarantine regulation as Lochley
	claimed?  If not, how did she get her lie past Bester?  If so, did
	Franklin invent it on her behalf, implying that he has the authority to
	issue medical regulations on his own?

</ul>

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

   <li>@@@888480810 Lyta's power has limits, though even she doesn't know
	exactly what they are.  <em>Could</em> she have held off all of
	Bester's men?  Is she telekinetic, or was she simply activating
	nerve endings as Bester speculated?

<p>
   <li>@@@889635224 What's the significance of Lyta removing her Psi Corps
	badge as she joined Byron's song?  Is she officially resigning her
	fake Corps membership
	(<a href="080.html">"Moments of Transition?"</a>)
	If so, does that mean that the entire contract with Bester is canceled,
	or just that she's giving up the benefits of supposed Corps membership?
	Will she be considered a rogue when Bester returns in sixty days?  Or
	did she just remove it to be polite and avoid offending the others?

<p>
   <li>@@@890010985 Lyta has all the makings of a cult member:
	she feels abandoned by the world, she appears to have a need to follow
	someone (be it Kosh or Sheridan or Byron,) and she's used to complying
	with others' demands without question (as Byron pointed out in
	<a href="091.html">"The Paragon of Animals."</a>)
	Byron's group appears very much like a cult: a small group of
	people who feel they're different than everyone else (in this
	case, of course, they <em>are</em>) and a charismatic leader who's
	willing to sacrifice himself for his cause and to give personal
	attention to each of his people.  He's even holding out the hope
	of a promised land in the form of B5 (and eventually a homeworld.)

<p>
   <li>@@@888480810 Byron's people have a sixty-day reprieve, at least until
	Bester either decides Lochley was lying or that he's waited long
	enough.  If Byron's people aren't allowed to leave the station
	before then, what will they do when the sixty days are up?  That
	deadline may be what sparks the hostage situation shown in
	<a href="088.html">"The Deconstruction of Falling Stars,"</a>
	if indeed Byron's people (or some non-pacifist faction of his
	group) were the ones holding Garibaldi hostage.

	<p>
	Zack described Byron as a martyr.  If that's literally true -- if he
	is indeed fated to die for his cause (and he does appear to be willing
	to do so) -- then his death might also incite his followers to
	violence.  Of course, his death and the expiration of the sixty-day
	grace period aren't necessarily separate events; Bester's people
	are willing to injure him at the very least.

<p>
   <li>@@@888480810 What medical experiments did Byron's people undergo?  Lyta
	said many of them don't trust doctors as a result, but as telepaths
	who don't block out normals' thoughts, wouldn't they be able to
	sense Franklin's good intentions?

<p>
   <li>@@@889502663 What did Bester mean when he commented that Byron knew
	all about turning against someone?  What history do Bester and
	Byron share?  Perhaps Byron was once a Psi Cop, which would be
	consistent with the level of psi ability he's displayed in the
	past (appearing in front of Lochley in
	<a href="089.html">"No Compromises,"</a>
	putting Bo in the Starfury pilot's mind in
	<a href="092.html">"A View from the Gallery."</a>)

<p>
   <li>@@@888522924 Psi Corps' hold on the colonist telepaths, according to
	Lochley, is due to their status as Earth Alliance citizens.  Can they
	switch citizenships?  Does Mars fall under Corps jurisdiction, for
	example?  If not, there must be other races willing to grant
	citizenship to telepaths, either for free or for the right price.
	The Narn, for instance, would probably welcome them with open arms.
	Presumably Sheridan, in his position as President, could ask one of
	the Alliance member races to take the telepaths in as asylum-seekers.

<p>
   <li>@@@888507739 Now that G'Kar is Londo's bodyguard, who will represent
	the Narn on the Alliance advisory council?  Does G'Kar retain his
	position as ambassador?  If not, isn't appointment as Londo's
	bodyguard a rather substantial demotion?
	
	<p>
	For that matter, who will
	represent the Centauri while Londo is away and after he's crowned?
	Vir?

<p>
   <li>@@@890011912 Franklin has experience with at least one cross-species
	disease: the Drafa plague that wiped out the Markab
	(<a href="040.html">"Confessions and Lamentations"</a>)
	crossed over to the Pak'ma'ra.

<p>
   <li>@@@890012383 How have Lochley and Sheridan kept their past marriage
	a secret?  Are marriage records not public information?  It seems
	odd that, for example, ISN wouldn't have turned up anything in even
	a cursory investigation of Lochley's background (they would presumably
	have reported on her appointment, given B5's high profile.)  Maybe
	divorce under Earth Alliance law can result in all official records of
	the marriage being erased -- which would still leave unofficial ones,
	of course.

<p>
   <li>@@@890012169 As Lochley mentioned to Garibaldi, Sheridan has had three
	wives (Londo is still one up on him.)  Sheridan's wives mirror the
	Minbari caste system: Lochley was a warrior, Anna a worker, and
	Delenn a religious caste member.

</ul>

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

   <li>@@@888480810 Corwin reported Ms. Connoly's estimate for clearing the
	cargo backlog.  Connoly appeared in
	<a href="012.html">"By Any Means Necessary"</a>
	and is the head of the dockworkers' guild on the station.

   <li>@@@888480810 Lochley has a phoenix on her flight helmet.

   <li>@@@888480810 The Descartes joke Bester was telling Lochley is an old
	one, a play on "I think, therefore I am" -- I think not, therefore
	I'm not.  The joke was told by Neal Barrett, Jr. when he was toastmaster
	at the 1997 Hugo Awards Ceremony, at which JMS received a Hugo award for
	<a href="054.html">"Severed Dreams."</a>
	(It predates that ceremony, though.)

</ul>

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

   <li>@@@884632658 The astute will notice a slight change in the main
	title music starting with 507.  I was down sick when they had to do the
	main title mix, and couldn't get into it.  When we had to modify some
	voice stuff for 507, I went in and pulled out all the music stems and
	rebalanced stuff to bring out the themes more, which kind of got buried
	a little in places.  All the same individual pieces are there, but in
	different perspectives.

<p>
   <li>@@@888605187 <em>Was the song at the end a traditional tune?</em><br>
	No, I came up with that song for the episode, and designed it to sound
	like any of a zillion other such songs out there, so it'd sound
	familiar.

</ul>