brennen
/
lurkers-guide


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


								<blockquote><cite>

								A fugitive with sensitive information about the Earth government flees

								to Babylon 5.

								</cite>


								<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Steedman,+Tony">Tony Steedman</a> as Dr. Everett Jacobs.

								<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Casey,+Bernie">Bernie Casey</a> as Derek Cranston.

								<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Moll,+Richard">Richard Moll</a> as Max.

								<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+De+Jesus,+Wanda">Wanda De Jesus</a> as Sarah.

								</blockquote>


								<pre>

								Sub-genre: Intrigue

								<a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/035">8.20</a>


								Production number: 213

								Original air date: March 1, 1995

								<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000087EYB/thelurkersguidet">DVD release date</a>: April 29, 2003


								Written by J. Michael Straczynski

								Directed by Menachem Binetski

								</pre>


								<h3><a name="WF">Watch For</a></h3>

								<ul>


								   <li> <a href="#AN:outfit">A man in a familiar outfit.</a>


								</ul>


								<p>

								<hr size=3>


								<h2><a name="BP">Backplot</a></h2>

								<ul>


								   <li> After the victory over the Dilgar, the Earth Alliance experienced a

									period of rapid expansion bolstered by a general sense of optimism,

									a sense that the future was bright.  Somewhere along the way, that

									was lost -- Dr. Franklin says the future was like waiting for that special

									toy for Christmas, and when you get it you find that the reality doesn't

									measure up to your expectations.


								   <li> Dr. Franklin studied medicine at Harvard.  One of his teachers, Dr.

									Everett Jacobs, went on to become then-Vice President Clark's personal

									physician.  Dr Franklin says, "A lot of us looked up to him as a role model.

									He's the best there is."


								   <li> Dr. Jacobs examined Clark before and after the "accident" on Earth

									Force One that killed President Santiago -- and found no evidence of

									the viral infection Clark used as an excuse to leave the ship

									shortly before it was destroyed.


								</ul>


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

								<ul>


								   <li> How and when will Dr. Jacobs' data be used?


								   <li> What did Kosh and his ship say to each other after Sheridan and the

									others left the docking bay?


								   <li> What did Kosh teach Sheridan?


								   <li> How did Sheridan convince Kosh to allow his ship to be used to save

									Dr. Jacobs?


								   <li> What did the ship "sing" to Dr. Jacobs?


								</ul>


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

								<ul>


								<p>

								   <li> Why was the fact that Kosh's ship is alive such a surprising thing

									to have confirmed, when a simple "scan for life forms" was able to

									detect it?  In all their surface probes while the ship sat in the

									docking bay, it seems odd that nobody

									thought to scan for life, especially since it was already known or at

									least suspected that Vorlons use organic technology (cf.

									<a href="004.html">"Infection."</a>)


								<p>

								   <li> Sheridan mentions to Kosh that there's a council meeting to discuss

									the Narn refugee problem.  That might be related to the smuggling

									operation started in

									<a href="034.html">"Acts of Sacrifice"</a>

									-- has it been revealed already?  (Not necessarily, of course; there

									are probably thousands, if not millions, of refugees who have nothing

									to do with that operation.)


								<p>

								<a href="/lurk/gif/035/writing.jpg"><img

								align=right width=128 height=96 src="/lurk/gif/035/writing.gif"></a>

								   <li> Kosh speaks to his ship, and it displays some text in an unknown

									script, presumably the Vorlon written language.  That implies that

									Kosh and his ship are not in telepathic contact, or at least not

									when he's not on board -- somewhat remarkable, considering that Kosh

									and the ship have both demonstrated telepathy or something like it

									(Kosh in

									<a href="033.html">"All Alone in the Night"</a>

									and the ship in this episode, both with Dr. Jacobs and, more

									importantly, the maintenance workers referred to by Ivanova.)<br clear>


								<p>

								   <li> <a name="AN:outfit">There may be a Ranger</a> (cf.

									<a href="031.html">"The Coming of Shadows"</a>)

									in this episode, though it's very subtle.  As Sheridan and Garibaldi

									reach the bottom of the stairs, just before Sheridan sees the red

									ribbon, a man walks by the two of them, wearing the same outfit as

									the Ranger from the aforementioned episode.  Which might be

									coincidence, except that Garibaldi notices the man, even turns and

									watches him climb the stairs, before looking back at Sheridan, who

									is meanwhile occupied with the ribbon.


								<p>

								   <li> A couple viewers have commented that Sheridan looks a bit <em>too</em>

								        smug as he gives the data crystal to his co-conspirator at the end,

								        almost as if that isn't the real crystal.  Is it?  Does he trust

								        her?  Is he up to something other than what the General thinks he is?

								        (Recall that we never heard his answer in

								        <a href="033.html">"All Alone in the Night."</a>)

								        Also, he doesn't give her Dr. Jacobs' code to unlock the data, though

								        of course he could simply be giving her an unencrypted copy.


								<p>

								   <li> On a related note, did Sheridan keep a copy of the crystal for himself?


								<p>

								   <li> Sheridan confronts Kosh twice.  The first time a bit tentatively, the second time

									directly.  Amazingly, he engages Kosh's interest and actually begins what may

									develop into a dialog (or at least a monologue) with Kosh.


								<p>

									Also of note, the first time Sheridan confronts Kosh he says that Kosh "called to

									him."  This is a reference to the dream sequence in <a href="033.html">"All Alone in the Night"</a>.

									Kosh replies, "I sought understanding.  I listened to the song.  Your

									thoughts became the song."  Sheridan asks, "Has this ever happened before?"

									and Kosh says, "Once."  <em>When was that?</em>  One possibility is

									Talia Winters (cf.

									<a href="009.html">"Deathwalker"</a>)

									-- Kosh told her to "listen to the music, not the song."


								<p>

								   <li>	Kosh's second conversation with Sheridan, of course, bears close analysis,

									especially given its relation to Sheridan's dream in

									<a href="033.html">"All Alone in the Night."</a>


									<ol>


									   <li><b>Sheridan: "You wanted to see me?"</b>

									   <li><b>Kosh: "<em>You</em> wanted to see <em>me.</em>"</b>

									   <li><b>"Well, I guess everybody does.  See what you really are,

										inside that encounter suit."</b>

									   <li><b>"They are not ready.  They would not understand."</b><br>

										<em>Analysis:</em> It's not obvious exactly who he means by

										"they."  At least <em>one</em> person was ready to

										see Kosh, namely Delenn (cf.

										<a href="022.html">"Chrysalis."</a>)

										Of course, it begs the question once again:

										what <em>is</em> Kosh, that one might not "understand" when

										one saw him?  (And why does he care whether people understand?)

									   <li><b>"Am I ready?"</b>

									   <li><b>"No.  You do not even understand yourself."</b><br>

										<em>Analysis:</em> Is Kosh speaking in a general sense here --

										"You aren't self-actualized" -- or is there something specific

										about Sheridan that Kosh knows and Sheridan doesn't?

									   <li><b>"Could you help me to understand you?"</b>

									   <li><b>"Can you help me to understand <em>you?</em>"</b>

									   <li><b>"Well, I can try.  Is that what you want?  An exchange of

										information?  I tell you something about me, you tell me

										something about you?"</b>

									   <li><b>"No.  You do not understand.  Go."  Kosh turns away.</b>

									   <li><b>"Dammit, what do you want?  What do you want from me?  You

										know, ever since I got here I've had the feeling that... that

										you've been watching me.  The records show you hardly ever

										went to council meetings until I showed up.  When I was

										captured... it was you who reached out and touched my mind.

										Now you call me here... why?  Just to throw me out?  Are we

										just toys to you?  Huh?  What do you want?"</b>

									   <li><b>Kosh spins around to face Sheridan again.  "Never ask that

										question."</b><br>

										<em>Analysis:</em> Almost undoubtedly a reference to Morden's

										question in

										<a href="013.html">"Signs and Portents"</a>

										-- but it raises another question of its own, namely, why does

										that question mean anything special to Kosh?  How does Kosh

										know what Morden asked of the various ambassadors?  Perhaps

										it's what the Shadows always ask, since Kosh seems to know

										about them.  Perhaps the Vorlons were, themselves, asked that

										question a thousand years ago.

									   <li><b>"At least I got a response out of you.  So what'll it be,

										Ambassador?"</b>

									   <li><b>"I will teach you."</b>

									   <li><b>"About yourself?"</b>

									   <li><b>"About <em>you.</em>  Until you are ready."</b>

									   <li><b>"For what?"</b>

									   <li><b>"To fight legends."</b><br>

										<em>Analysis:</em> Two interpretations are immediately

										apparent: "to fight the Shadows" (who are legendary to the

										Narn and probably others) or "to dispel myths."  The first

										seems <em>too</em> obvious, given Kosh's tendency to be

										cryptic.  The second interpretation suggests that the Vorlons

										aren't revealing themselves because they feel they'll be

										associated with something from mythology.  Once Sheridan

										learns to combat those preconceptions, he will be ready.

								                (See <a href="#NO.cend">Notes.</a>)  Alternately, it could

										refer to Sheridan himself; he's a legend of sorts to the

										Minbari, possibly an obstacle to the joining of humans and

										Minbari as envisioned by Delenn (cf.

										<a href="033.html">"All Alone in the Night."</a>)


									</ol>


								<p>

								   <li> Do we now have a clue to the telepathic abilities of the Vorlons?

									This reference to "the song" and Sheridan's thoughts "becoming" the

									song during his dream sequence hint rather strongly that telepathy

									is the Vorlon's primary means of communication.  If so, then this

									confirms that Sheridan's dream wasn't altogether a dream, and that

									he may have some latent/budding psi skills himself.


								<p>

									Further note:  The constant jabber that occurs when Kosh speaks.  It sounds like

									there are...many "voices" in it.  If telepathy is common to

									Vorlons, then they may have some equivalent to a "hive mind", or at least constant

									and unbounded access to each other.  If so, then why does Kosh periodically return

									to the Vorlon homeworld?  Further, does the same physical "Kosh" return?  Still

									further, if each Vorlon is to a greater or lesser extent <em>all</em> Vorlons, does it

									matter which physical Vorlon is present?  Taken to the extreme, the tag "Kosh" is

									simply a convenient referent supplied by the Vorlon hive-mind to the folks at B5.

									(Of course, it may well be the <em>ship</em> that needs to return

									home, not Kosh at all.)


								<p>

								   <li> In this episode we see that the ship is an independent entity, in essence a

									living creature.  It shows up as a non-human life form, even though we are shown

									that Kosh himself was not on board.  Further, Doctor Jacobs says that the ship

									"sang to him" while he was unconcious and aboard.  This hints strongly that the

									ship shares "the song," which means that it's part of the Vorlon community mind.


								<p>

									If the ship is part of the Vorlon super-entity, and if the ship is itself organic

									technology, then this implies that the Vorlons can create any kind of physical

									creature they want, with that creature sharing the community mind.  That means

									that the ship is nearly as much or as much a Vorlon as Kosh.


								<p>

								   <li> A number of readers have speculated that the ship is actually Kosh,

									and the encounter suit just a remote probe or a servant.  That seems

									unlikely, though, given the events of

									<a href="000.html">"The Gathering,"</a>

									in which the Vorlons were ready to start shooting over an attack on

									what was in the encounter suit.  But it's worthy of mention.


								<p>

								   <li> A Biblical reference that might be relevant, or might just be a

									coincidence:  During Sheridan's secret meeting,

									Sarah tells him "Whatever you do, I suggest that you do it quickly."

									This is the same thing Jesus Christ said to Judas Iscariot

									immediately before Judas went out to betray Jesus to the Sanhedrin.

									If this isn't a simple coincidence, the implication is that Sheridan

									will eventually betray someone.  The victim isn't clear, though.

									His cadre on B5 are obvious

									candidates, as is the cabal he and Hague are members of. But for that

									matter, it might be the Psi-Corps (though his betrayal could be

									<em>for</em>

									the Psi-Corps, cf.

									<a href="033.html">"All Alone in the Night"</a>

									and Bester's comment at the end of

									<a href="030.html">"A Race Through Dark Places."</a>)


									<p>

									A more whimsical connection is that the actress speaking the line

									is named Wanda de Jesus.


								</ul>


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

								<ul>

								   <li> <a name="NO.cend">A relevant reference</a> might be "Childhood's

								        End" by Arthur C. Clarke (though the shape of the Vorlon encounter

								        suit suggests the opposite association from the one in the book.)


								   <li> When Franklin and Garibaldi stop to eat, it appears they're actually

								        munching on Kellogg's NutriGrain Breakfast Bars (though the scene

								        doesn't provide a close enough look at the bars to tell for sure,

								        so it probably doesn't count as product placement.)


								   <li> During Sheridan's meeting with Sarah, they are in what looks like an

									equipment room.  She sets up two devices, presumably to defeat any

									bugs or scans. The problem is that she leaves them there when she

									leaves.  During their next meeting they are not in evidence at all,

									and again she isn't shown retrieving them before she leaves.  Of

									course, Sheridan could have taken them.  (See

									<a href="#JS:light">jms speaks.</a>)


								   <li> In addition to its ants (cf.

									<a href="006.html">"Mind War"</a>)

									B5 has roaches.


								   <li> Sheridan has what he considers very good shielding on his office.  He

									talks to Ivanova quite openly there immediately after Agent Cranston

									leaves.


								   <li> Kosh's comments to Sheridan bear some resemblance to the Dalai

									Lama's observation (cf.

									<a href="023.html">"Points of Departure,"</a>)

									namely, "It will be even better when you begin to understand what

									you do not understand."


								   <li>@@@834857862 Minor continuity glitch: when the station's scanners are

									configured to look for Dr. Jacobs, the display reads "Dr Evert Jacoby,"

									not "Dr. Everett Jacobs."


								</ul>


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

								<ul>


								   <li> There was no intended reference to Anne McCaffrey's story; Kosh tends

									to speak naturally through a series of musical/tonal/atonal chords,

									and I figured his ship would communicate in the same way, which to

									another would sound a little like singing.


								   <li>@@@846703757 <em>Will Richard Moll return?</em><br>

									At this point, Richard's part was a one-shot, but if we

									come up with  the right role, I'd love to see him again.


								   <li> <a name="JS:light"><em>What did Sarah leave behind at the

									meeting?</em></a><br>

									It's a flashlight, and he's also holding one.  You caught

									a very small glitch.  Originally, he came out, flashed twice with

									his flashlight, giving the code; then she did the same, and

									THEN stepped out of the shadows, putting her flashlight down on

									the ledge beside her.  It took too long, though, interminably,

									so when we edited it, we cut out that sequence...and

									hoped nobody'd notice the flashlight sitting there.


								   <li> From "Infection," the visiting Doctor points out that, regarding

									organic technology, "some even say the Vorlons have got it."  All

									this stuff gets set up somewhere.


								</ul>


								<p>

								<hr>

								Compiled by Dave Zimmerman

								and Steven Grimm.

								<hr>