lurkers-guide/guide/513

<!-- TITLE Each Night I Dream of Home -->

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

<blockquote><cite>
The Excalibur is sent on a top-secret mission and faces an attack by the
Drakh.
</cite>

</blockquote>

<pre>
Production number: 105
Original air date: September 1, 1999
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00061QJSK/thelurkersguidet">DVD release date</a>: December 7, 2004

Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Stephen Furst
</pre>

<p>
<hr size=3>

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

   <li>@@@936558483 12 members of the Senate were offworld when the Drakh
	attacked Earth.  They now act as Earth's official representatives.

   <li>@@@936558483 The plague isn't a virus, but rather a nanotechnological
	device.  It appears to be able to coordinate its actions across
	wide distances, and may even have a sort of hive-mind consciousness.

   <li>@@@936558483 The plague has already started killing people on
	Earth.  It is constantly reshaping itself, and sometimes happens to
	find a lethal, but not genocidal, configuration.  The five-year
	time limit is based on the rate of deaths so far; even if it never
	discovers a single 100% deadly configuration, after that long its
	experiments will have wiped everyone out.

</ul>

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

   <li>@@@936558483 Aside from the fact that both are nanotech-based,
	is there any connection between the technomage virus
	(<a href="510.html">"The Memory of War"</a>)
	and the Drakh plague?

</ul>

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

<p>
   <li>@@@936558483 The plague may have some goal other than killing off all
	life on Earth as quickly as possible.  Its level of sophistication --
	being able to differentiate between vital and non-vital organs in
	the human body and navigate the bloodstream as it sees fit -- suggests
	that it has already figured out quite a lot about human biology.
	Something as simple as introducing large amounts of chemical waste into
	its host cells would be sufficient to kill any Earthly organism.

	<p>
	One possibility is that it's acting as a research mechanism, designed
	with the intent of fully exploring the host ecosystem's biology and
	reporting its findings back to the Shadows.

<p>
   <li>@@@936558483 If the plague is intelligent, can it communicate with
	other lifeforms?  If so, it might be possible to convince it to stop
	its experiments, eliminating the threat without physically removing
	the plague itself.

</ul>

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

   <li>@@@936558483 Continuity glitch: Gideon and Lochley appeared to have
	no more than a friendly familiarity with one another in this episode,
	inconsistent with their earlier contact in
	<a href="507.html">"The Rules of the Game"</a>
	(which was produced after this episode but aired earlier.)

</ul>

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

   <li>@@@936558483 <em>Was Gideon's "Life goes on" line added after you
	knew this would be the last episode, or was it just a
	coincidence?</em><br>
	Another Babylonian synchronicity.

</ul>