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479 lines
18 KiB
479 lines
18 KiB
<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>
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<blockquote><cite>
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Talia is involved in carrying out the sentence of a convicted murderer.
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Dr. Franklin investigates a possible medical scam in Downbelow. Londo takes
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Lennier for a look at the less savory sections of the station.
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</cite>
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<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Lockhart,+June">June Lockhart</a> as Dr. Laura Rosen.
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<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+McNeil,+Kate">Kate McNeil</a> as Janice Rosen.
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<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Rolston,+Mark">Mark Rolston</a> as Karl Mueller.
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<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+London,+Damian">Damian London</a> as the Centauri Senator.
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<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Norton,+Jim">Jim Norton</a> as Ombuds Wellington.
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</blockquote>
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(Originally titled "The Resurrectionist")
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<pre>
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Sub-genre: Suspense/drama
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<a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/021">7.29</a>
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Production number: 117
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Original air date: August 17, 1994
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00006HAZ4/thelurkersguidet">DVD release date</a>: November 5, 2002
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Written by J. Michael Straczynski
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Directed by Lorraine Senna Ferrara
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</pre>
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<p>
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<hr size=3>
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<p>
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<h2><a name="BP">Backplot</a></h2>
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<ul>
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<li>
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"Spacing" someone (tossing them out an airlock to die) is a punishment
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applicable only in cases of mutiny and treason.
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<li>
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Evidence gained from a telepathic scan is inadmissible in court, as it
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violates the principles of due process.
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<li>
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Very few members of Psi-Corps are trained to handle criminal cases, not
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for lack of demand, but because it's very a stressful field, with lots
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of burnouts.
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<li>
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The station's indigent are denied medical treatment in Medlab if they
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can't afford it (cf.
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<a href="010.html">"Believers"</a>.)
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<li>
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The station's prison is overcrowded already; there's no room for someone
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to serve a life sentence.
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<li>
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Earth possesses the technology to brain-wipe people (cf.
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<a href="015.html">"Grail"</a>)
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and implant new memories;
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it's used as a punishment or rehabilitation measure in certain criminal
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cases. A Psi-Corps member oversees the wipe, performing scans before and
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after to make sure it's complete.
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</ul>
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<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
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<ul>
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<li> What will Dr. Franklin do with the machine? Will it ever be seen again?
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<li> Will Franklin and Janice Rosen continue to see each other in subsequent
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episodes?
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</ul>
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<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
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<ul>
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<li>
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This is the second instance in the series of a mechanism for stealing life
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from one being and giving it to another (cf.
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<a href="009.html">"Deathwalker"</a>.)
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Perhaps the two are related somehow.
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<li>
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Judging by her reactions during the scan, it seems Talia was not trained to
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deal with hardened criminals. Why, then, was she also stuck with the job of
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scanning a murderer on the Mars colony, a place that, as a major human
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settlement, presumably has a Psi-Corps presence? (cf.
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<a href="018.html">"A Voice in the Wilderness, Part 1,"</a>
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though admittedly the presence referred to there was not public knowledge.)
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<li>
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The Centauri's claim that Earth was a lost colony (cf.
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<a href="001.html">"Midnight on the Firing Line"</a>)
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must have been a short-lived ruse, given the revelations about Centauri
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physiology in this episode.
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</ul>
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<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>
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<ul>
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<li>
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June Lockhart and Bill Mumy were in another science-fiction show together:
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"Lost in Space."
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</ul>
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<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>
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<ul>
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<li>
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Of all the scripts I've written, the only one that I'm less than
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absolutely 100% thrilled with is "The Quality of Mercy," because I wrote it
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while absolutely sick with the flu, and have NO memory even of writing it. As
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it is, though, I'm about 90% happy with it, particularly the B-story with
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Londo and Lennier, which came out great.
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<p>
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<li>
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In my original thoughts about the episode, there was more of a con
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man ressurectionist angle to the show, which later got dropped.
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<p>
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<li>
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Psi Corps telepaths are ****NOT**** allowed to scan defendants in any
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official way connected to a criminal act. It violates the right to due
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process. Even if requested, it's simply not allowed. You do NOT want to even
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open the door a *crack* in letting a government-regulated agency begin making
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determinations about who is and isn't guilty of a crime. That way lies
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dictatorship, Thought Police and Big Brother.
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<p>
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<li>
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The scan is preparatory to the prisoner being mind-blanked. It is,
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as the Ombuds pointed out, the death of personality, the death of
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one's mind. Hence the black band on the Psi symbol.
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<p>
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<li>
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<cite>How has your presence on the net affected the series?</cite><br>
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... I was
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initially going to gloss over some of the legal aspects of the Psi Corps
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in "The Quality of Mercy," but when so many people expressed interest in
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how that worked, and when I saw some measure of confusion about it, I
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took the time to indicate how the legal aspects work when it came time to
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complete that script, thus answering the questions.
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<p>
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<li>
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The one major reason I decided to begin this interaction, despite
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CONSIDERABLE discourgement and disbelief from my peers, is that I
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think it may be of some use, and because I think that one should be
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willing to stand publicly with what you create, and because though
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many criticisms are issues of taste or subjective preference,
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sometimes (fairly often, actually), I learn something from the
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discussion, or I'm corrected in something, and that realignment is
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eventually reflected in the show. I'm giving some serious thought to
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either revamping n'grath or killing him off given the reaction (paired
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with my own). I won't be dictated to, but in some cases, as with
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n'grath, I may be uncertain, but willing to try and see if the
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experiment works. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't, and the
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general perception here seems close to my own. In addition, I was
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initially going to gloss over some of the legal aspects of the Psi
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Corps in "The Quality of Mercy," but when so many people expressed
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interest in how that worked, and when I saw some measure of confusion
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about it, I took the time to indicate how the legal aspects work when
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it came time to complete that script, thus answering the questions.
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<p>
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<li>
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<cite>About June Lockhart</cite><br>
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No, no scenes with Bill Mumy, though some consideration was given to the
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notion.
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<p>
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<li>@@@840398824
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Bill kept bugging me to put him in a scene with June, but
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I just felt it'd get in the way.
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<p>
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<li>@@@840398824
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It would've worked, but the scene would've forever been about
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the mini-LIS reunion. If it isn't important to the story, it shouldn't
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be there.
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<p>
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<li>
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We do tend to try and stay open to gender stuff; usuall there's a
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reason why someone is male or female, so it's cast that way. But as
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an example...in "Quality of Mercy," the role as originally written
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was for a father/daughter combination. In the process of casting, we
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thought, why not mother/daughter? So that's how it ended up. In
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"Points of Departure," we have one of your requests already taken
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care of...a part of a war cruiser commander who could've been male or
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female...cast female.
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<p>
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<li>
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<em>Q: What are Londo's appendages called?</em><br>
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Tentisticularites?
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<p>
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<li>
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<em>Are Londo's appendages in addition to or instead of human-type
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"appendages"?</em><br>
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That would be instead of, not in addition to.
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<p>
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<li>@@@846702607
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As for the tentacles...well, there's no rules about showing
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tentacles on TV. I think they didn't even want to deal with it. There
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are some moments when they pretend they didn't see it, and I pretend I
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didn't write it.
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<p>
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<li>
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Centauri males have six.
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<p>
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<li>
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Centauri females, btw, have six narrow...ummm...slots on their backs,
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three on either side of the spine, right around the base of the spine.
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<p>
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The awful thing is that the two women in props -- who were having FAR
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too much fun with this -- kept bringing me the tentacle to verify the
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shape, size, consistency, do we see veins or not....
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<p>
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I tell you here and now: our staff meetings are something else.
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<p>
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<li>@@@846702607
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Actually, Centauri have six. They extend out from the sides of
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the body, and "fold" in over the solar plexus when not in, er, use.
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(We actually saw one extended for other purposes in the first season,
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"The Quality of Mercy.") Female Centauri have six...er...slotted areas
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on either side of the spine, just above the hips, three on either side.
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<p>
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To go any further would probably bring in the FBI.
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<p>
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<li>@@@846702607 <em>Does that mean Centauri women have multiple births on
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a regular basis?</em><br>
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No multiple births, in that sense, not any different than humans.
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<p>
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<li>
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"What kind of birth control do the Centauri use?"
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<p>
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Conversation.
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<p>
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<li>@@@883993388 <em>Which of the six do they use for urination?</em><br>
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That assumes the urinate out of the same organs they use for sex; ain't
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necessarily the case.
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<p>
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<li>
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We used a bullwhip sound effect for the
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"retraction" in QoM; when we were in sound editing,
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I asked for the hardest whip-crack they had...and
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got it put in REAL loud. Every time I hear it, I'm
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on the floor....
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<p>
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<li>
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While the TP themes in "Quality" go back through the history of SF,
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including the Demolished Man, among others, the basic storyline (re:
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Talia) came out of the pilot. At the time, I was asked -- frequently
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-- "Why didn't Lyta scan Sinclair to determine if he had tried to kill
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Kosh?" My answer then -- which is in some of the archives -- was that
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it would violate the right to due process, that a defendant cannot be
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scanned to determine guilt or innocence (in fact, I recall a rather
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heated debate about that here a while back). I promised that this
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would be elaborated upon down the road, and mentally logged in to do a
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show with that premise...and I'd already decided about the death
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penalty, and the use of telepaths in it. So "Quality" came out of
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that, long before "Mephisto" was even written. At one point, knowing
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that there were some common story areas, I called Harlan to tell him
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the "Quality" story, so that if there were any problems, I could
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revise it, but he said he saw no problem.
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<p>
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<li>
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<cite>Isn't brainwiping as bad as killing?</cite><br>
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There are actually many issues to get into in all of
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this. Which is really the "person," the mind, the soul,
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or the body? If a person has an accident, getting amnesia,
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which wipes out his entire personality, is that person as
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good as dead? Is there no difference between amnesia and
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death? If not, why not just kill the amnesiac? But
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obviously there *is* a difference. So what is the person?
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What constitutes death?
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<p>
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We consider the actual death of the *brain* through the
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cessation of brain activity to be the test for death. But
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what if you simply rearrange those patterns?
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<p>
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There is also the question of *justice*. If the person
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is dead, then that person cannot do much to correct the ills
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he visited upon society. It is simply a waste of material.
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So why not take someone who, in any decent society, would be
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executed or forced to live in a 6x9 cage the rest of his life,
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and give the soul, and the body, a new chance by giving the
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person a new personality and letting him, as the Ombuds says,
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"serve the community harmed by his actions"?
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<p>
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Finally, if the person is dead, he's dead; let's say 5
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years down the road somebody finds evidence that proves the
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person was innocent. There is at least the *chance* to
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reconstruct some of the original memories and personality
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profile.
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<p>
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All of this, again, has to be considered in light of the
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fact that we are talking about a *space station* with limited
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space and resources. You cannot warehouse every person who
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kill somebody in a station that small; you would run out of
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space almost immediately. (If you also include basic felons
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and near-killings.) So what *do* you do with them? As was
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noted, Earth doesn't want them and won't pay to have them
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shipped back...what's left?
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<p>
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That's the dilemma I wanted to pose in the episode...what
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*can* you do?
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<p>
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<li>
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"...the 'personality' remaining in the body will
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be punished for a crime that 'personality' did not
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commit."
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<p>
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1) But again, which is the person...the old
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personality, the new one, or something else?
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<p>
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2) Part of the new personality would be the delight
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in serving others.
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<p>
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<li>
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You will see the healing machine from "Quality" once more. Part of
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the reason for that story was to set up something within the B5 universe
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that will come in handy a long time later (but I'm *not* going to have it
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lying around indefinitely; it would cause lots of long-term complications).
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<p>
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(Some TV shows foreshadow/set-up stuff an act or two ahead of time;
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we do setups a full *year* ahead....)
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<p>
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<li>
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There are limits to what the healing device can do, for starters;
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it can't repair physical damage to the body, mainly it works with
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disease and basic low-energy stuff; also, bear in mind that it was a
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device used for *capital punishment*...meaning that to save one person's
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life, another must sacrifice his or her own, if it's that far along,
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so it's not really something you can trot out everytime somebody gets
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nailed.
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<p>
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<li>
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They cannot carry out the original sentence because the body is
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now dead, which would tend to diminish its social acceptability.
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<p>
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Dr. Franklin did not know that Mueller had yet found Rosen, or even
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knew of it. There are no Babcom systems in DownBelow quarters. To
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send a security team, when they're out searching, without cause, is
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neither realistic nor sensible. He did the correct thing: to go and
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warn her, while at the same time making sure that security knew where
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he was going, and if they didn't hear anything, to send in a team.
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<p>
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<li>
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<em>Franklin should have had a search warrant.</em><br>
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Allow me to disagree with you.
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<p>
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Dr. Franklin did not require a search warrant to enter Rosen's
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quarters. The door was basically open, and he is NOT an officer of
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the law. Only officers of the law are required to have search warrants.
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Neither was he there to arrest her.
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<p>
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Defense counsel was sitting with the defendant at the table. He had
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no lines, but he was there. The trial had been ongoing; this was the
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part where the verdict is rendered after a decision has been reached.
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<p>
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The pattern of the judge passing sentence is exactly the same as when
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circuit court judges used to work the frontier areas of the US. Where
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would you find a jury on B5? Most civilians are passing through, on
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stop-over for only a day or two...unable to follow a long hearing.
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The only other ones are station personnel, which represents a conflict
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of interest. Your only choice is a circuit court style judge whose
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loyalty is owed to no one.
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<p>
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The alien device was being used on humans without any kind of license,
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she is not a certified doctor, and it was used in the death of a
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human. Under those circumstances, it is within the judge s right to
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confiscate the device for the greater good. (You can have a
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unlicensed firearm in a state that requires licensing, and use it in a
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righteous self-defense shooting, but it will be confiscated afterward.
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No compensation is required because its use is/was unregulated,
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unlicensed, and she was/is not a working doctor.)
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<p>
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It *is* due process. Even according to 20th century terms. Only
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problem is in understanding what due process actually *is*, as
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opposed to what we think it *should* be.
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<p>
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<li>
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Yes, part of the reason for the QoM episode was to set up the notion
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of an implanted personality as achievable tech.
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<p>
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<li>
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David: "The Quality of Mercy" title is drawn from the same source as
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Compton's book, Shakespeare. It has a lot to do with that episode.
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<p>
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<li>
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Yes, absolutely; in "The Quality of Mercy," you'll get a look at
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how the justice system has come to grips with the uestion of how to
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handle violent crimes in an environment like a space station, which
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has limited room for cells, limited resources, and other complications.
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We do plan to get into this area a bit, without getting too LA LAW
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about it.
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<p>
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<li>
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A lot of our episodes are constructed to work as mirrors; you see
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what you put into it. "Believers" has been interpreted as pro-
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religion, anti- religion, and religion-neutral..."Quality" has been
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interpreted, as you note, as pro-capital punishment, and anti-capital
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punishment. We do, as you say, much prefer to leave the decision on
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what things mean to the viewer to hash out.
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<p>
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A good story should provoke discussion, debate, argument...and the
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occasional bar fight.
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<p>
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<li>
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There's the sense that A, B and sometimes C stories in TV should
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intersect. My attitude: sometimes yes, sometimes no. Depends on if
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you look at this as a real place or not, as opposed to a thematic
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exercise. What I go through in the course of a day has nothing to
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do with what happens to Larry DiTillio across town, except and unless
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it involves our mutual work. Sometimes, as in "Quality," the stories
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feel like they resonate, and can be used to illustrate one another,
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and so they're linked. In others, what I'm striving for is a sense
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of a "day in thed (the) life" of Babylon 5. The one kind of story is
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neither better nor worse than the other, they're simply different.
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One may like one more than the other, but to say they're "better"
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plots is just silly. There's NO padding in this show, no stories put
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in to fill out time; just stories that we want to tell, period.
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<p>
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<li>
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Minbari use base 11, not base 10, so twelve would be eleventy-first
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year, and so on.
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<p>
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<li>
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Minbari base eleven includes fingers and head, from which the
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principle of mathematics comes.
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<p>
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<li>
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You're also looking at this from a strictly English-speaking
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perspective; in German, for instance, 21 is "Ein und Zwanzig" (pardon
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any misspellings in there, it's been a while) which is exactly the
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same structure, albeit reversed, used for Minbari counting (and, in
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fact, is more or less what I based his "statement" on).
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<p>
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<li>
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Eleventy-seven = Eighteen base ten.
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<p>
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<li>
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One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven
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<p>
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Eleventy-one, eleventy-two, eleventy-three, eleventy-four, eleventy-
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five, eleventy-six, eleventy-seven, eleventy-eight, eleventy-nine,
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eleventy-ten, twelfy
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<p>
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Twelfty-one, twelfty-two, twelfy-three, twelfty-four, twelfty-five,
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twelfty-six, twelfty-seven, twelfty-eight, twelfty-nine, twelfty-ten.
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<p>
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And so on.
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<p>
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Who here still has a problem with this?
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</ul>
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