lurkers-guide/guide/095

<!-- TITLE Secrets of the Soul -->

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

<blockquote><cite>
Franklin discovers one race's centuries-old secret.  Byron and Lyta reach
an understanding.
</cite>

<a href="http://us.imdb.com/Name?Downes,+Robin+Atkin">Robin Atkin Downes</a> as Byron.
Fiona Dwyer as Kirrin.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/Name?Robbins,+Jana">Jana Robbins</a> as Ambassador Tal.
</blockquote>

<pre><a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/095">7.62</a>

Production number: 508
Original air date: March 4, 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 Tony Dow
</pre>

<p>
<hr size=3>

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

   <li>@@@889084941 The Hyach are a gerontocracy, with the oldest members of
	society ruling the younger.

   <li>@@@889084941 The Hyach were one of two related races on their world.
	The other race, the Hyach-doh, was systematically slaughtered by the
	Hyach hundreds of years ago.  Unfortunately, the Hyach are now slowly
	dying out because they had evolved to require interbreeding with the
	Hyach-doh.

   <li>@@@889085052 Some of the League worlds, such as the Drazi, have had
	interstellar travel for hundreds of years.

   <li>@@@889084941 Byron has discovered the Vorlons' role in the creation of
	telepaths, and intends to use it to justify demanding reparations from
	the Alliance in the form of a homeworld for his people.

</ul>

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

   <li>@@@889119663 What does Byron intend to do to force the Alliance to
	give his people a world?

</ul>

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

   <li>@@@889084941 The Centauri also shared their world with another
	intelligent race, the Xon
	(<a href="005.html">"The Parliament of Dreams."</a>)
	Were the Xon a related species as well?  How common is that arrangement?
	Will the Centauri have problems similar to the Hyach's because of the
	extermination of the Xon?

<p>
   <li>@@@889119412 Byron said he didn't know who had taken
	revenge for the attack.  That's odd, considering that he has previously
	said, in
	<a href="091.html">"The Paragon of Animals,"</a>
	that his people don't hide their thoughts from one another.
	Perhaps Lyta was the murderer; she's the one person who has been
	consistently shielding herself from him, and she certainly didn't seem
	to share his nonviolent philosophy.

<p>
   <li>@@@889119412 How widespread among the refugee telepaths was the
	desire to retaliate violently? Byron said not all of his people were in
	favor of the idea.  Are the majority of the refugees dedicated to
	nonviolence?  If not, would his presence have prevented the attacks?
	His strong sense of self-importance lead him to believe he could have
	stopped the murder, but that's not necessarily true -- it might have
	happened over his objections had he been there.

<p>
   <li>@@@890011541 Given the Psi Corps' intense interest in telekinetics
	(<a href="006.html">"Mind War"</a>)
	they're not likely to take kindly to the news that Byron is harboring
	at least one teek.  And it appeared that Byron had given Peter some
	kind of telekinetic training (Peter said he'd been practicing just like
	Byron told him to) which suggests more than a passing familiarity with
	telekinesis on Byron's part.

<p>
   <li>@@@890011541 Lyta followed Byron into the arrivals area in much the
	same way she used to follow Kosh (especially the second Kosh, e.g. in
	<a href="067.html">"The Hour of the Wolf,"</a>)
	hanging back slightly but staying close.  Has she simply replaced one
	master with another?

<p>
   <li>@@@889118512 The Vorlons wore encounter suits even on their own world,
	if Lyta's memory is to be taken literally.  That may not be too
	surprising, though, if they didn't allow the people in the tubes to
	see their true forms; Kosh admitted in
	<a href="045.html">"Matters of Honor"</a>
	that being seen by lots of people was a strain on him.  Donning
	encounter suits might have been an effort-saving move by the Vorlons
	reflected in Lyta's tube.

<p>
   <li>@@@889084941 The races in the tubes next to Lyta appeared to be
	Hyach (or possibly Markab,) Centauri, and Llort.  Why did the Vorlons
	have babies of those races, if they had already planted telepath genes
	among those races long ago?  Were they performing other experiments or
	making other modifications?

	<p>
	It's also possible her memory was less literal than that; maybe it
	was more a more representational image conveyed to her by the Vorlons,
	Lyta's presence representing the Vorlons'
	tampering with humans and the babies similarly representing that
	their races had been altered.  If so, the Vorlons have altered quite a
	lot of races.

<p>
   <li>@@@890011541 If the Vorlons visited the Hyach homeworld, perhaps they
	took Hyach-doh specimens.  If so, the salvation of the Hyach race
	may hinge on venturing into Vorlon space and finding the lab Lyta
	remembers.

<p>
   <li>@@@889479720 Where can Byron's people go?  There are at least two
	deserted homeworlds available.  In
	<a href="040.html">"Confessions and Lamentations"</a>
	the Markab race died out; Sheridan might consider it within the
	rights of the Interstellar Alliance to grant that world to Byron's
	people.  It presumably still has modern infrastructure in place;
	Sheridan blew up its jumpgate in
	<a href="045.html">"Matters of Honor,"</a>
	soon enough after the plague that there wouldn't have been time for
	looters to clean the planet out very thoroughly, so it'd be a good
	deal from Byron's point of view.  Populating the
	planet with telepaths might dissuade any additional raids.

	<p>
	Another possibility is the Vorlon homeworld.  In some ways Byron's
	people are the perfect ones to inhabit it; if Byron is to demand
	reparation for the Vorlons' manipulation of his people, offering up
	their homeworld does have a certain symmetry.  In addition, it'd be
	the best possible place for his people to explore exactly what was
	done to them and how.  That's assuming, of course, that anyone knows
	where it is, and that it hasn't been booby-trapped like Z'ha'dum was
	(<a href="073.html">"Epiphanies."</a>)

	<p>@@@889635437 
	One snag might prevent Sheridan from acting to grant Byron's people
	any world at all: Lochley's promise to Bester to not allow the
	telepaths to leave Babylon 5 for sixty days
	(<a href="094.html">"Strange Relations."</a>)
	If he tried to allow them to leave the station, he could justifiably
	be accused of interfering with Earth's internal laws, the very reason
	he wasn't able to prevent Bester from coming aboard to begin with.

</ul>

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

   <li>@@@889084941 Pak'ma'ra can't eat fish.

   <li>@@@889084941 When Byron is released from the
	brig, he talks to Zack for a few minutes, his hands bound.  Then
	he walks out of the room with the restraints still tied around his
	wrists.  The same thing happened after he talked to Lochley in
	<a href="094.html">"Strange Relations."</a>
	Is that symbolic, or simply a sign that restraints are removed in
	some outer area rather than in the brig?

</ul>

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

<p>
   <li>@@@889196493 <em>Any special procedures for the scene between Lyta
	and Byron?</em><br>
	I talked to both actors involved, made sure they were okay with it, and
	then scripted it out in very detailed form, and shot with a closed set,
	just necessary crew, nobody else.  

	<p>
	(Funny item: in the script, I'm right in the middle of describing the
	sex scene, and in the narrative description, I write, without even
	thinking about it, "I wonder which is more embarrassing, reading this or
	writing it?"  It goes out that way.)

<p>
   <li>@@@889474297 <em>Wasn't that considered a personal thing by Byron
	and Lyta?  The other telepaths seemed to be sharing the
	experience.</em><br>
	I had the group there to further reinforce their tightness, and
	that it's a different way of living...as for Pat, no, no body double
	was used.

<p>
   <li>@@@889474297 <em>Who was broadcasting Lyta's memories to the other
	teeps?  Lyta or Byron?</em><br>
	It was everything being stimulated, and coming to the surface,
	mainly from her, but echoing off him.

<p>
   <li>@@@889116249 Yes, Neil's episode is up next...and as for the Xon, the
	difference is that the Centauri main-line clashed with the Xon when
	both were primitive and fighting for food, resources, that sort of
	thing, similar to our Neanderthal - Cro Magnon struggle, whereas the
	Hyach did it when they were more advanced, and it wasn't a struggle,
	more of a program of extermination.

<p>
   <li>@@@889474297 BTW, the pak'ma'ra used a translator
	before in "Legacies."

</ul>