lurkers-guide/guide/503

<!-- TITLE The Well of Forever -->

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

<blockquote><cite>
Galen convinces Gideon to take the Excalibur deep into hyperspace to find a
mythical place of power.
</cite>

</blockquote>

<pre>
Production number: 106
Original air date: June 23, 1999
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00061QJSK/thelurkersguidet">DVD release date</a>: December 7, 2004

Written by Fiona Avery
Directed by Janet Greek
</pre>

<p>
<hr size=3>

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

   <li>@@@930294581 The Well of Forever is a mausoleum deep in hyperspace,
	where various races have left shrines and monuments to their honored
	dead over the millenia.

   <li>@@@930294581 Technomage ships have extremely sensitive sensors that
	allow them to navigate much further from hyperspace beacons than
	Alliance races can.  As a result they're able to travel through
	hyperspace without encountering others.

   <li>@@@930294581 At least one race of creatures lives in hyperspace, huge
	jellyfishlike creatures called the Fen.  The technomages have
	encountered them before and consider tham harmless.

   <li>@@@930294581 Matheson is the first telepath since the abolition of the
	Psi Corps to achieve a high-ranking military position.  He's thus
	a well-known role model among younger telepaths.

   <li>@@@930294581 The Psi Corps has been abolished by the Senate and
	replaced with an organization called the Bureau of Telepath Integration,
	which, like the Corps, sends watchmen
	(all named "Mr. Jones") around to probe the minds of other telepaths
	and make sure the new telepath regulations aren't being violated.
	The new regulations are aimed at integrating telepaths into society.

   <li>@@@930294581 When he was younger, Galen and a technomage named Isabelle
	were in love.  She devoted her life to finding the Well of Forever,
	and when she died, he promised to bring her there.

</ul>

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

   <li>@@@930294581 What personal significance does the question "Why?" have
	to Galen?

   <li>@@@930554687 What was Gideon's question?

   <li>@@@930294581 What answer would Matheson have found had he ventured
	into hyperspace at the Well?

   <li>@@@930554445 What were Matheson's minor violations of the telepath
	rules?

   <li>@@@930294581 Who created the Well of Forever?  How long has it existed?

</ul>

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

   <li>@@@930294581 In the montage at the end of the episode, Gideon is holding
	a photograph titled "EAS Cerberus."  That, combined with his
	comment to Galen that he's already made a promise to honor the
	memories of 300 people, suggests that he was the only survivor
	when his ship was destroyed nine years earlier
	(<a href="501.html">"War Zone"</a>).

<p>
   <li>@@@930294581 The Psi Corps may have vanished in name, but its spirit
	appears to be alive and well if Mr. Jones is any indication; he
	was just as willing as any Psi Cop to abuse his authority.  It's
	even possible he <em>was</em> a Psi Cop when the Corps was still
	around.

	<p>
	The new rules regarding telepaths are presumably the result of
	the Telepath War, and it can be deduced that after the war, the
	Senate decided that keeping telepaths segregated in their own
	shadow society was partly to blame for the conflict.

	<p>
	The fact that there are watchmen like Mr. Jones suggests that
	telepaths are probably still required to register with the
	government.

<p>
   <li>@@@931244313 Who was Gideon playing chess with?  He made his move from
	the side of the board, rather than the front or back; perhaps he's
	playing solo.  If so, an obvious question is whether the board is
	a metaphor for something.

	<p>@@@931542158 
	The game may relate to his answer to Galen's final question ("Who do
	you serve and who do you trust?")  Gideon may not be sure whose side
	he's on.

</ul>

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

   <li>@@@931244235 Mr. Jones was played by Michael Beck, who played Abel
	Horn in
	<a href="028.html">"A Spider in the Web"</a>.

<p>
   <li>@@@930554445 Galen's elegy for Isabelle is a quote from Act 4, Scene 2
	of Shakespeare's "Cymbeline".

	<p>
	Galen also makes a reference to Elizabeth Barrett Browning's
	"Sonnets from the Portugese" (#43):

	<blockquote>
	How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. <br>
	I love thee to the depth and breadth and height <br>
	My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight <br>
	For the ends of Being and ideal Grace. <br>
	I love thee to the level of every day's <br>
	Most quiet need, by the sun and candle-light. <br>
	I love thee freely, as men strive for Right; <br>
	I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise. <br>
	I love thee with the passion put to use <br>
	In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith. <br>
	I love thee with a love I seemed to lose <br>
	With my lost saints- and, if God choose, <br>
	I shall but love thee better after death.
	</blockquote>

<p>
   <li>@@@930554445 As Galen describes the Well's answers to Dureena,
	the game "Pong" can briefly be seen on the monitor behind Eilerson
	at the very start of his scene.

<p>
   <li>@@@930295794 Possible continuity error: Gideon quotes Galen as
	saying that the crew of the Excalibur is like a family to him.
	While it's possible that Galen said that offscreen, also possible
	is that the comment appeared in an episode that was produced
	before this one but comes after it in chronological order.  The
	jury will be out on whether this is a glitch until after the
	first 5 produced episodes have aired.

<p>
   <li>@@@931244235 Galen's ship has a front landing wheel.

<p>
   <li>@@@931244650 "Fen" is often used as a plural form of "fan", as in
	"science fiction fan."  Galen's comment is a tongue-in-cheek poke
	at SF fandom: "They're barely sentient.  They're attracted to bright,
	shiny objects, but they lose interest quickly."

</ul>

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

   <li>@@@930554746 <em>Why two Galen-centered episodes in a row?</em><br>
	The original air order would have spread out the Galen episodes,
	so that he would appear every second or third episode...that changed
	with the short order, and they all got bunched together.

<p>
   <li>@@@933009474 "Can (will) you tell us about Fiona Avery's connection
	to B5 and Crusade? I just picked up the first PsiCorp novel and she was
	in the dedication. Got me to wondering..."

	<p>
	We brought Fiona aboard during the last part of S5 as a
	reference editor to keep the continuity straight, and for Crusade
	(about which more in a bit). There was a growing problem keeping the
	licensees and licensed material accurate; stuff slipped through the RPG
	books and elsewhere (this was before she got here).  She was brought on
	to stop the problem, and to annoy the licensees in the sense that it's
	often easier not to get things right, and she has to stay on top of
	them and make them crazy in order to ensure that the accuracy the fans
	(and I) expect is maintained.

	<p>
	She was also brought on with an eye toward Crusade because she
	has a degree in Archaeology and Crusade's an archaeological SF series. 
	Along the way, she began writing spec scripts for Crusade which ended
	up being good enough to buy, and we bought 4 of which 2 were produced,
	Well and Patterns. The last one she did, Value Judgments, was probably
	the best of the bunch; it's a Bester script that Walter considered one
	of his best roles, and would tie in directly with the Psi Corps books.

</ul>