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305 lines
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305 lines
17 KiB
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[1][ISMAP]-[2][Home]
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### GUIDE ### [3][Background] [4][Synopsis] [5][Credits] [6][Episode
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List] [7][Previous] [8][Next]
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_Contents:_ [9]Overview - [10]Backplot - [11]Questions - [12]Analysis
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- [13]Notes - [14]JMS
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_________________________________________________________________
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Overview
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Garibaldi takes on a new job. The resistance's counter-propaganda
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broadcasts begin. Sheridan proposes a plan to protect the
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Non-Aligned Worlds from raiders. [15]Tim Choate as Zathras.
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[16]Denise Gentile as Lise Hampton. [17]Mark Schneider as Wade.
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[18]Charles Walker as Ben.
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[19]P5 Rating: [20]8.04
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Production number: 412
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Original air week: May 5, 1997
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Written by J. Michael Straczynski
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Directed by David Eagle
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_________________________________________________________________
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Plot Points
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* Wade and his group still consider Garibaldi expendable.
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* Lise Hampton, Garibaldi's ex-lover ([21]"A Voice in the
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Wilderness") divorced her first husband and eventually married one
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of the richest men on Mars, William Edgars. Among other things,
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Edgars is the owner of the largest medical research center on the
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planet.
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* Some medical researchers believe that one of the genes responsible
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for telepathy in humans has the potential to mutate into some form
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of communicable disease, lethal to other telepaths. There may be a
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cure, but there are those on Earth who'd rather the basis of the
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cure be destroyed to rid Earth of telepaths.
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* Sheridan has proposed to assign the Rangers to patrol the borders
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between the various parts of alien-controlled space, protecting
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civilian transports from the Drakh ([22]"Lines of Communication")
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and others.
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* The Centauri have had contact with the Drakh in the past, but long
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enough ago that nowadays they're considered little more than
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legends.
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* Zathras had nine brothers, all named Zathras but with slightly
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different intonations.
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Unanswered Questions
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* What exactly was the substance Lise was picking up?
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* Were Wade and Lise and their contact telling the truth about the
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telepath virus, or was the substance something else entirely?
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* Who were the gunmen? Were they with Psi Corps, or were they rogue
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telepaths? What did they mean by the phrase, "To the future?" (See
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[23]Analysis)
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* Why didn't Garibaldi fire at the telepath?
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* Did Wade know about Garibaldi's past association with Lise? Was
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she part of the test, to see how emotional stress would affect his
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performance?
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* Does William Edgars' job offer conflict with whatever plans Wade
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and his cohorts have for Garibaldi, or is his employment just
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another part of the plan?
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* Why didn't Edgars show Garibaldi his face?
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* What was in the message Lise left for Garibaldi?
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* Why did she send it using her maiden name?
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* Did G'Kar and Londo take Sheridan up on his offer?
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Analysis
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* If Garibaldi takes the job, will he be working close to William
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Edgars? That would imply he'll also have frequent contact with
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Lise, which likely wouldn't be easy for either of them.
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* His consideration of the job offer is at odds with the glimpse of
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his programming, if that's what it was, in [24]"The Illusion of
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Truth." In that flashback, Garibaldi recalled being drilled over
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and over with the idea that he worked for nobody but his captors.
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Of course, if Edgars is involved with his captors, that might not
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be inconsistent.
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It's also possible his captors _want_ to get him close to Edgars,
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and that by taking the job he'd in fact be following their
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implanted orders.
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* Edgars claimed to have checked up on Garibaldi. Checked up on him
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how? Garibaldi himself has said on more than one occasion that his
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past is checkered at best, and his history isn't too closely
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guarded a secret (for example, the Senator knew about him in
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([25]"The Gathering.") Maybe Edgars was taking Garibaldi's
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performance as security chief on Babylon 5 into account, or maybe
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his "checking up" involved talking to whoever captured Garibaldi
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([26]"Whatever Happened to Mr. Garibaldi?")
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* The Daffy Duck cartoon Garibaldi was watching (1953's [27]"Duck
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Amuck!") can be viewed as a metaphor for his situation; depending
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on what was done to him after his capture ([28]"Whatever Happened
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to Mr. Garibaldi?") he may well no longer be in control of his own
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fate, and is certainly being influenced by forces he can't detect.
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* If the researchers are correct and the human telepathy genes can
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indeed mutate into a lethal virus, what are the parameters? Likely
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it's something that's telepathically transmitted. For example, it
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might cause a telepath to broadcast noise on whatever medium
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telepaths use to read thoughts. Telepathic interference can cause
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physical effects (Ben Zayn doubling over in [29]"Eyes," or Lyta's
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bloodied eyes in [30]"Walkabout") so it's not inconceivable that
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telepathic broadcasts of the right type could kill someone attuned
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to them.
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* Which begs the question, was this some kind of genetic timebomb
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intentionally implanted by the Vorlons when they modified humans
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to give them telepathic ability ([31]"Z'ha'dum?") Since the
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Vorlons, according to Morden, created human telepaths to use as
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weapons against the Shadows, perhaps the Vorlons also put a time
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limit on human telepathy so it wouldn't remain once the upcoming
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conflict with the Shadows was resolved.
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That would put a different spin on the disappearance of Narn
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telepaths ([32]"Ship of Tears.") The Book of G'Quan was probably
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correct about the Shadows killing most of the Narn telepaths. But
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maybe the reason the gene never resurfaced in the Narn population
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wasn't that it wasn't strong enough, as G'Kar supposed, but that
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it was only designed to last a few generations, and once the
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previous Shadow War was over, its time simply ran out. Of course,
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that assumes the Vorlons implanted telepathy into the Narn.
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* The threat isn't limited to Psi Corps; Ivanova's latent telepathy
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makes her vulnerable to any sort of disease that's transmitted
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between telepaths.
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* The fact that Wade was cooperating with Lise in her effort to get
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the vial into her husband's hands implies that he's at least
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somewhat sympathetic to telepaths, and perhaps to the Psi Corps.
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If he were one of the people who wanted to see all telepaths dead,
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presumably he'd've arranged for the vial to quietly vanish on its
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way to Lise. That ties into the apparent contradiction mentioned
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above between Garibaldi's programming ([33]"The Illusion of
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Truth") and his consideration of Edgars' job offer.
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* The telepathic assassins' closing phrase bears some similarity to
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a description of another telepath: Talia Winters in [34]"A Race
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Through Dark Places."
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_Lurker:_ You tipped the balance. I felt it when we were joined.
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You're more than you think you are.
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_Talia:_ Then what am I?
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_Lurker:_ The future.
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* The last time Garibaldi resigned, even briefly ([35]"In the Shadow
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of Z'ha'dum") he offered up his gun, his station ID, and his link.
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So did the security staff who resigned rather than join Nightwatch
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in [36]"Point of No Return." Why did Garibaldi keep them this
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time? Was he perhaps intending to return at some point?
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* Sheridan said of Garibaldi, "I don't like the company he's been
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keeping." How does Sheridan know what kind of company Garibaldi
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has been keeping? Is he having Garibaldi watched? And is he
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referring specifically to Wade's people? If so, what does Sheridan
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know about them?
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* Was there a reason Sheridan kept the lights in his office low when
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he met others there, or was it just a directorial touch?
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* Franklin commented to Ivanova that Mars was cold. But in
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[37]"Racing Mars," the tunnels where Franklin and Marcus were
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staying were noted as uncomfortably warm. Significant, or was
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Franklin simply referring to the surface, which is indeed cold?
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Notes
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* Continuity glitch: Lise appears to have discovered a
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lightning-fast means of travel. At the end of the episode,
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Franklin and Ivanova walk past her while she's waiting to leave
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the station. Then Garibaldi is berated by Sheridan. He returns to
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his quarters and takes a shower. As soon as he's done, he gets a
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message from Edgars claiming that Lise has arrived home safely,
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even though it's been established ([38]"Messages from Earth") that
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travel between B5 and Earth's solar system takes days.
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* In [39]"Babylon Squared," Zathras complained, "Zathras warned, but
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nobody listens to poor Zathras." In this episode, that's doubly
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true: even _Zathras_ doesn't listen to Zathras.
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* G'Kar's artificial eye is now brown, rather than red like his
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natural one or blue like its initial color ([40]"Atonement.")
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* The onscreen logo displayed while Garibaldi spoke to William
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Edgars read "EI" (presumably short for "Edgars Industries" or some
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such.) Underneath, it read, "Mars - Phobos - Deimos." Phobos and
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Deimos are the two moons of Mars. Presumably this implies that
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there are people living or working on those moons, which in fact
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are little more than large asteroids and would thus be attractive
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for microgravity pharmaceutical research.
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* William Edgars' voice was played by Efrem Zimbalist Jr.
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* The telepaths' PPG blasts penetrated the floor of the air duct. In
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[41]"Grey 17 Is Missing," Garibaldi commented that PPGs are used
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rather than traditional guns because they don't penetrate hulls.
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Of course, an outer hull is likely quite a lot thicker than an air
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duct wall, and likely made of material with a higher melting
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temperature, so this most likely isn't a contradiction.
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jms speaks
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* BTW, there's another example of a long single take coming up soon,
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on Epsilon 3, which is all I'll specify. I kinda wanted the scene
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to play itself out, without cutting, and to show just how
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amazingly capable some of our actors can be. We're talking here
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almost 4 minutes of footage, not one cut in the whole thing, very
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fast dialogue, and not a single muffed line, with the performances
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working wonderfully. You'll know it when you see it.
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* Our cast invariably comes in knowing full scenes, and can hit them
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without breaking or blowing a line. So we have a tendency at times
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to just let the master play out, keeping the intensity, which can
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sometimes be broken by too much cross-editing. (Note that the
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Zathras/Ivanova scene a few episodes back is *entirely* one shot,
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four minutes.)
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* Re: Daffy...I knew that cartoon, and had that definitely in mind
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when I wrote the script. Took some maneuvering to get WB to let us
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use that much of it.
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* Re: the cartoon...I'm a big WB cartoon fan, and knew that one very
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well, and there were two places where it would've fit with the
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story; the other one, which I almost used, was when you see two
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Daffy's arguing with each other.
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Re: the CGI...we've been fairly conventional with the CGI in
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recent seasons, we're trying to get a bit more adventurous.
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The Lise flashback material is all exactly as was filmed for
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"Babylon Squared." I think we used a few more pieces of the
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original footage, but it was all stet.
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_Why didn't we see what happened to Delenn, since she left in the
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previous episode?_
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Re: Delenn...these episodes happen close to one another in time,
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so you have to allow travel time for her to get to Minbar.
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* _Lise was the typical "woman in distress."_
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Re: Lise...well, everybody can't be a fighter; we've had guys and
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the occasional female character who isn't used to being shot at. I
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daresay I'm not terribly used to being shot at, and someone who's
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mainly a civilian would probably react about that same way. It's
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just a matter of showing that diversity realistically rather than
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saying, "Okay, let's have a helpless female now." Having every
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female (or male) hard-nosed and laughing off PPG bursts is as
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unrealistic as its opposite.
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* _Was there anything important in Lise's message?_
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No, nothing you need worry about.
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* _Why didn't Edgars show his face?_
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As we'll learn shortly, he doesn't want his face seen around.
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But we'll see him soon enough.
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(And the voice belongs to Efram Zimbalist Jr.)
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* _Did the PPG blasts melt through the air conditioning duct wall?_
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This is substantially correct. The PPG blast is extremely hot, and
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will melt through the plastic coating and the metal lining inside
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the tube. The entire energy of a PPG will not come through the
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tube (unless by some coincidence the exact same area is hit twice
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or three times), and I believe that this was propoerly portrayed
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in the sequence. Even if it isn't the entire energy blast, it will
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hurt like hell and de-mobilize an individual meat packet (person)
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for the bad guys to come get later.
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It did take a *very* long time to burn through the bulkhead door
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to allow them access to the hallway, and said door did mildly glow
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in the affected areas prior to melting through. The station hull
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is even more heat resistant.
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George Johnsen
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CoProducer, B5
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[47][Next]
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[48]Last update: August 8, 1997
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References
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1. file://localhost/cgi-bin/imagemap/titlebar
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2. LYNXIMGMAP:file://localhost/lurk/maps/maps.html#titlebar
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3. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/background/078.shtml
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4. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/synops/078.html
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5. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/credits/078.html
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6. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/episodes.php
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7. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/077.html
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8. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/079.html
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9. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/078.html#OV
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10. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/078.html#BP
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11. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/078.html#UQ
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12. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/078.html#AN
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13. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/078.html#NO
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14. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/078.html#JS
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15. http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Choate,+Tim
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16. http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Gentile,+Denise
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17. http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Schneider,+Mark
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18. http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Walker,+Charles
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19. file://localhost/lurk/p5/intro.html
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20. file://localhost/lurk/p5/078
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21. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/018.html
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22. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/077.html
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23. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/078.html#AN.future
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24. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/074.html
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25. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/000.html
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26. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/068.html
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27. http://us.imdb.com/M/title-exact?Duck%20Amuck%20%281953%29
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28. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/068.html
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29. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/016.html
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30. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/062.html
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31. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/066.html
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32. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/058.html
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33. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/074.html
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34. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/030.html
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35. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/038.html
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36. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/053.html
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37. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/076.html
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38. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/052.html
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39. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/020.html
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40. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/075.html
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41. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/063.html
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42. file://localhost/lurk/lurker.html
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43. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/078.html#TOP
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44. file://localhost/cgi-bin/uncgi/lgmail
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45. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/episodes.php
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46. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/077.html
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47. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/079.html
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48. file://localhost/lurk/lastmod.html
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