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The Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5
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[1][ISMAP]-[2][Home]
### GUIDE ### [3][Background] [4][Synopsis] [5][Credits] [6][Episode
List] [7][Previous] [8][Next]
_Contents:_ [9]Overview - [10]Backplot - [11]Questions - [12]Analysis
- [13]Notes - [14]JMS
_________________________________________________________________
Overview
Londo uses G'Kar and Vir to gain power in the Centauri Royal Court.
Sheridan is consumed by his analysis of the Shadows' strategies.
[15]Louis Turenne as Brother Theo. [16]William Forward as Lord
Refa.
[17]P5 Rating: [18]8.71
Production number: 320
Original air week: September 8, 1996 (UK)
October 14, 1996 (US)
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by David Eagle
Watch For
* A Centauri guard leaving his post.
_________________________________________________________________
Backplot
* The Minbari have been constructing a fleet of warships based on
the White Star design. They are manned by Rangers.
* Sheridan has stayed away from Delenn up until now because "she has
enough problems of her own."
* There is a thriving underground on Earth opposing President Clark.
* Na'Toth is believed to have been on Narn at the time of the
Centauri attack ([19]"The Long, Twilight Struggle.")
Unanswered Questions
* What does the countdown to Z refer to? (See [20]Analysis)
* Why didn't Delenn inform Sheridan of the fleet of White Star-class
ships before now?
* How long have the Minbari been building the ships?
* How big is the White Star fleet?
* What will Sheridan use the data crystal given to him by the
Reverend for?
* Will Virini use the data crystal that Londo gave him? Will it
result in Refa's family being discredited?
* Will G'Kar respect Londo more now that he has freed the Narns, or
does he see Londo's ploy as purely self-serving?
* How did Londo get G'Kar to listen to him long enough to describe
the plot, and how did he convince G'Kar it wasn't a trick?
* Virini mentions that Londo's house is gathering a lot of funds.
Where is Londo getting the money?
* Did Refa's telepath find out about any of the activities Vir has
been involved in, such as his work to help the Narn?
* What is the real reason for the Shadows' attack pattern?
* Is Na'Toth in fact still alive?
Analysis
* It seems likely that the "Z Minus..." times refer to Z'ha'dum, but
they might also refer to a more specific "Zero Hour." The question
remains, what happens at Z? A Shadow offensive? An offensive
against Z'ha'dum? Someone's arrival on or from Z'ha'dum?
* G'Kar, in cooperating with Londo and killing Refa, has become an
unwitting help to Londo in serving the Shadows. His desire for
revenge against Refa and his need to save a small number of his
people seems to have served the Shadows' greater purposes, at
least to the extent that Londo's good fortune is part of their
plans.
* G'Kar may have been in on Londo's plan even before he left Babylon
5, possibly even before Vir spoke to him. The story about Na'Toth
was solely intended to lure Refa to Narn; there was no need for
Londo to deceive G'Kar about his intentions, since G'Kar would
almost certainly have been willing to risk a trip to Narn for the
sake of two thousand prisoners.
* If the already-poisoned Refa could be considered "one who is
already dead," Londo may have just passed by one of his
prophesized chances for redemption.
* Neroon's statement in "Grey 17 is Missing" that non-Warrior
Minbari had constructed _ships_ may have been foreshadowing of the
fleet revelation.
* Why did Delenn find Sheridan's attempt to think like the Shadows
so abhorrent? Are there things about them she knows but hasn't
revealed yet that would cause that reaction?
* Delenn said that the first wave of White Star-class ships was now
ready. How many waves are planned?
* Now that Londo thinks he has avenged Adira's death
([21]"Interludes and Examinations") will he be less eager to
continue dealing with the Shadows? And will he ever discover that
it was Morden, not Refa, who arranged to have her killed?
* A few readers have commented that since a replica of the Centauri
throne room is being built on Narn, perhaps that's where
Sheridan's flashforward ([22]"War Without End, Part Two") takes
place. That's unlikely, though, since Londo forces Sheridan to
look out the window and see the devastated landscape of Centauri
Prime.
Notes
* The [23]song from which the title is derived, "No Hiding Place,"
refers to the Book of Revelation, in which man attempts to hide
from the wrath of God in mountains and rocks. [24]Revelation
6:15-17.
* The mass driver attack affected the climate of Narn much as it's
theorized a nuclear winter or asteroid/comet strike would affect
Earth: the particles thrown up by the asteroids used in the
bombardment have created a layer in Narn's atmosphere blocking out
the sunlight and altering the heating of the atmosphere, which has
disrupted the wind patterns on the planet.
* Refa's death scene may be a homage to "Cabaret," one of JMS'
favorite films. See [25]jms speaks.
jms speaks
* _Where does the title come from?_
It's from an old gospel song/spiritual.
* _Did Harlan Ellison suggest it?_
No, as a rule, Harlan doesn't suggest titles; "Rock" came from the
quote from the Bible, which was later made into a gospel song,
used in the show. So it's a real song, though I did write 2 for
"Walkabout."
* Why's it called that? Because it's quite appropos. How do we fit
it? Not a big deal. Longest title up to now was one I did for
MURDER, SHE WROTE, a quote from Moby Dick, "To The Last Shall I
Grapple With Thee."
* The song in "Rock" is an old gospel song. I've always had a soft
spot for old gospel songs and spirituals because of their
wonderful use of language and imagery, and you can dance to 'em.
Not that I dance, but the theory is there, at least.
* My own take on "And The Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place," which
airs tomorrow in the UK...I like it. The Brother Theo stuff is a
tad stilted in a couple of places, but it's only a couple of
minutes, and the rest works real well. It's a very subversive
episode in its way, and a part of it still creeps me out.
* I like symmetry...both as a word, and as a concept. It plays into
the show a lot, showing the balance that the universe tends to
impose whether we like it or not. What goes around, comes around.
* _Some of the Narn buildings looked like Hiroshima after the atomic
bomb. Intentional?_
Yes, there was some element of that. It's not a moral judgment
thing, but a referential point. As for Narn architecture overall,
I told them I wanted sort of an alien culture as the Soviet Union
might've designed it.... everything tending toward the blocky, the
functional, less aesthetic than you would find on Minbar. This is
a culture that has crawled up from war, and functionality is more
important.
* _Was there a Narn standing in the queue of telepaths?_
Not in the queue, but providing security within the station...
remember, many of the Narns have joined B5 security.
* We're generally very careful about what aliens show up in what
scenes.
* _Was the fact that the countdown started at 14 days an intentional
reference to the season finale being two weeks later?_
Somewhat intentional; in the long run, the show will end up either
aired daily, or stripped weekly, so either way the 14 days until
climax works well, as it does now for the UK.
* The countdown aspect does add a lot to this, gives it a forward
momentum and a kind of subliminal ominousness. And as for the Refa
situation presented in counterpoint...I love how that came out.
It's almost subversive in a way...just gives me the quiet chills.
* Re: the rabbi singing the gospel song...a couple of points. First,
if you're visiting someone's church, it's only considered polite
behavior to go along with what's there. I have a number of
Catholic friends who would sometimes go to temple with Jewish
friends...and when it came time to sing, would do so. Why should
it not work the other way around?
Second, as I seem to recall, the line about "no hiding place" is
taken from the Old Testament, which forms a substantial portion of
Judaic teachings (but not the whole of it, a mistake many make).
Yes, there's some later stuff worked in, but the heart of it is
from a common ground.
* Waitaminnit...I retract part two of my reply...I think I just
stooged the origins of that song.
(whaddyawant from me, I just spent 12 hours putting my hard drive
back together....)
* _About the juxtaposition of Refa's fate with the song_
It's comical...and it ain't comical...it's designed to elicit
conflicting emotions, between what you *are* feeling, what you
*should* be feeling, and so on. I like uneasy laughter....
* That was one of those scenes which, when you do it, you know it's
gonna stay around for a while....
* When I thought of that one, I just sat there and grinned. It's so
perverse, but yet so appropriate, all at the same time. Just to
further add a bit of creepiness to it, in the sound mix I had the
editors verb up the music toward the fade out, so it had a
slightly distorted edge to it. The details are everything in a
scene like that.
* Vir has to be *very* careful...he's on the razor's edge these
days. The higher up you go, the more you know, the higher the
stakes and the greater the risk of choosing badly.
Re: "funny yet chilling," those are the scenes I love most...the
ones where you're utterly conflicted, it's grotesque or
frightening on the one hand, and comic or absurd on the other. It
leaves you uncertain which way to jump emotionally, and I love
that feeling...caught betwixt and between.
* _Originally in response to [26]"Severed Dreams." "Cabaret" is one
of JMS' favorite movies._
In a sense, it's going from one emotion or thematic element to a
very different, but equally strong one, either as bookends or
through intercutting. Going from the high of the victory, to the
sudden shot of the dead troops, is thematic counterpoint.
Here's another...in "Cabaret" you've got a scene where the
performers in the Cabaret are doing the sort of German dance where
you slap your knees and thighs and chest...and they take it a bit
further, slapping one another, it's all for comic effect...but
during this, you're intercutting the owner of the cabaret being
beaten to within an inch of his life by some Brownshirts outside.
You go from comic to brutal and back, with the result that the
happy little dance suddenly takes on ugly characteristics, and the
beating takes on the sense that the participants are having a sick
kind of fun, that it's all just another kind of dance, a ritual.
That's what you have to look at as a writer...how this scene
works, and how it interacts with the scenes in front, behind and
"beside" it (for things happening simultaneously). Sometimes, with
the proper counterpoint, you can add whole new levels of meaning
to a scene, or make the scene much stronger than it would've been
on its own.
* _That was an elaborate scheme if the goal was simply to have Refa
killed._
Londo points out that he could easily have killed Refa
elsewhere...as he says, the point was to do it on Narn so that he
could dishonor his house back home.
* _Was William Forward the one who said, "Why me?" as mentioned in
one of your Usenet messages?_
Yes, it was with the actor who plays Refa that I had that
conversation. He was initially bummed out, figured I was doing
what I was doing in "Rock" because I wasn't happy with his
performance or something. So I pulled him aside and explained the
situation, and indicated that we'd likely use him again as an
alien character, under prosthetics. If he hadn't done such a good
job, this wouldn't have happened, because no one would've cared
about the character.
* _You said a major character would die in season 3. Refa wasn't
major._
Well, given that Refa has been around for two years, and Keffer
was only in a few in one season, I'd hardly put them in the same
league. Part of all this is how you define "major." Usually, I've
refrained from using that term...I would say someone you've seen
since the first year, for instance, or an important character.
Certainly I was primarily referring to Kosh in my original note
about all this...but a lot of folks took that and extended it past
that point, which I just let go rather than correct, because the
show should do any correcting.
* I think the message of mine you're referring to are the ones I
wrote with Kosh in mind, not Refa. But since I obviously couldn't
say that at the time, some of it sloshed over into how folks
viewed later episodes.
* _Will 500 Narns die in retaliation?_
Except, of course, that going on at length about the death of Refa
would require revealing what he was doing there...and I doubt very
much that the Royal Court would like even the suspicion that one
of its own was making deals with the Narns to become public
knowledge...so it's extremely unlikely that there would be any
retribution. This is one the Centauri would prefer to sweep under
the rug, I think.
* _Why didn't Refa's allies help him?_
Bear in mind that all of Refa's people were *back on Centauri
Prime*. He didn't bring them with him; to send word to Centauri
Prime to bring them all the way out here, then on to Narn, would
double the time required to get there, and by then the "rescue"
would've been over. That was part of Londo's scheme...he wouldn't
have much time, he had to get in and get out. Refa only brought a
few with him, and they were needed to watch Londo and guard Vir.
As for the Centauri back home...you proceed from the assumption
that all Centauri act as one. I'm basing this somewhat on the
early Roman civilization and government, where one side would sell
out the other, arrange for deaths and murders, turn people over to
their hated enemies as long as it advanced their position, or if
they were allied with persons of power on a particular side. Why
did the Roman guards escorting Tiberius (a much less worthy
emperor) kill the heir to the throne in "I, Claudius" (a much
better leader, and well liked among the military)? Because they
were told to do so.
SF in TV has the tendency to portray aliens as monolithic...they
put the good of their species as a whole above everything else.
Some do that; some do not. Just as with humans.
* Refa had a flashlight, not a gun.
* Refa was his last name/family name.
* _Minister Virini looked disappointed by the outcome._
Not sure it was so much a look of disappointment as..."Okay, I
know something here isn't on the level...but he's got it very well
surrounded...and is it worth sticking out my neck to get into
this?"
* _Why wasn't Na'Toth replaced?_
I briefly considered giving G'Kar a second, after the revolving
door Na'Toths, but as I looked at it...as you say, the others all
DO have one like that, and I figured it might be good to have
someone *without* that...especially after the fall of Narn, when
the staff would be canceled. And there's something I like about
G'Kar being alone in all this. Anyway, it varies the mix a bit.
* _Why did G'Kar help Londo?_
Well, you combine the release of 2,000 prisoners, many of whom
were likely resistance fighters, and the payback to one who
orchestrated the bombing of Narn, and that adds up to a pretty
good incentive to get Refa even WITHOUT Londo's presence in the
deal.
* I wouldn't say they hate one another any less now than before; and
yes, he would've sent word to G'Kar and arranged a private
meeting, just the two of them.
* These two characters, Londo and G'Kar, are linked at the hips.
That is their beauty and their tragedy. And you will see some new
colors to this in the first part of season 4. This story is as
much about them as anyone else.
* I think that if Londo sent word via the Babcom unit that he wanted
a one-to-one with G'Kar, and that thousands of Narn lives were on
the line, he would come. G'Kar has nothing to fear from Londo as
long as he's on B5...and if anything, I think he'd be amused if
Londo did try anything.
* _Wayne Alexander was listed as playing G'Dan. Which one was he?_
He was the Narn who first met G'Kar on their homeworld; the only
one with any lines.
Wayne has a considerably larger role in year 4 as an alien named
Lorien.
* _Why doesn't Vir leave Londo now?_
I don't know if Vir really has anywhere else to go....
* _John and Delenn kissing in front of a big group of warships
seemed a little odd._
I guess it's really a matter of perspective. It depends on what
the fleet is *there* for, as well.
* _Why didn't Delenn mention the fleet before?_
Well, as she indicates, she didn't *have* them before.
* I don't think she was so much withholding the information, as they
just weren't ready yet, and the need for them wasn't there yet.
Originally compiled by Jason Snell.
[32][Next]
[33]Last update: June 1, 1997
References
1. file://localhost/cgi-bin/imagemap/titlebar
2. LYNXIMGMAP:file://localhost/lurk/maps/maps.html#titlebar
3. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/background/064.shtml
4. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/synops/064.html
5. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/credits/064.html
6. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/episodes.php
7. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/063.html
8. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/065.html
9. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/064.html#OV
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13. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/064.html#NO
14. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/064.html#JS
15. http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Turenne,+Louis
16. http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Forward,+William
17. file://localhost/lurk/p5/intro.html
18. file://localhost/lurk/p5/064
19. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/042.html
20. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/064.html#AN.z
21. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/059.html
22. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/061.html
23. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/064.html#JS.song
24. http://www.gospelcom.net/cgi-bin/bible?language=English&version=NIV&passage=Revelation+6:15-17&search=&showxref=&showfn=
25. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/064.html#JS.cabaret
26. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/054.html
27. file://localhost/lurk/lurker.html
28. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/064.html#TOP
29. file://localhost/cgi-bin/uncgi/lgmail
30. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/episodes.php
31. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/063.html
32. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/065.html
33. file://localhost/lurk/lastmod.html