brennen
/
lurkers-guide


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


								<blockquote><cite>

								Sheridan and Ivanova try to deal with an association of cargo pilots.  An

								alien probe makes first contact with the station.  G'Kar's position among the

								Narn is threatened by the arrival of a Centauri-appointed liaison.

								</cite>


								<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Macht,+Stephen">Stephen Macht</a> as Na'Far.

								<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Teague,+Marshall">Marshall Teague</a> as Ta'Lon.

								<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Betancourt,+Anne">Anne Betancourt</a> as Dr. Gonzalez.

								</blockquote>


								<pre><a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/047">7.85</a>


								Production number: 303

								Original air week: November 20, 1995

								<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00009OOFK/thelurkersguidet">DVD release date</a>: August 12, 2003


								Written by J. Michael Straczynski

								Directed by David Eagle

								</pre>


								<p>

								<hr size=3>


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

								<ul>


								   <li> The Centauri diplomatic mission on Minbar has been closed for

									several years.


								</ul>


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

								<ul>


								   <li> Who sent the probe?


								   <li> Will Franklin's continuing use of stims have greater repercussions,

									especially now that he's willing to lie about it?


								   <li> What will become of Na'Far?  And of Ta'Lon, for that matter -- will

									he remain on the station, and will he look after Sheridan?


								</ul>


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

								<ul>


								   <li> Vir is leaving Londo just when Londo seems to need him most; Londo

									is becoming darker and darker, as his conversation with Na'Far

									demonstrates.  Now he'll have nobody to slow his descent (though

									it's not clear how much he listened to Vir in the first place.)


								   <li> The favor Delenn owed Londo was most likely the one he earned by

									transporting her and Draal to Epsilon 3 in

									<a href="019.html">"A Voice in the Wilderness, part 2."</a>


								   <li> Franklin's stim use is nothing new; it was touched on as recently as

									<a href="040.html">"Confessions and Lamentations."</a>

									He may feel he has no choice and no problem, but he seems to be

									ignoring the example of Dr. Rosen in

									<a href="021.html">"The Quality of Mercy,"</a>

									who lost her medical license over her stim use.


								</ul>


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

								<ul>


								   <li> A <a href="/lurk/ftp/Pictures/Effects/ship1.gif">picture</a> of the probe is

									available.


								   <li> Vir's departure has, in part, a real-world cause: actor Stephen Furst

									is starring in a sitcom on the Fox network.  He will still appear on

									<cite>Babylon 5</cite> from time to time.


								   <li> Sheridan's reference to the probe as a "berserker" is probably a

									nod to Fred Saberhagen's "Berserker" novels, which feature huge

									automated war machines that seek out and destroy sentients.


								   <li> A small gaffe: At the end of the episode, when the probe is headed away

									from the station, Sheridan asks the tech if there are any security bots

									in the area.  The tech replies that there is just one, at 5000km.

									The next shot is of the bot in question, except that there are clearly

									2 bots in the shot, and they look identical.


								   <li> A related goof: Sheridan orders a securebot sent to look at the probe,

									but the display on the screen reads "Maintbot 12."


								</ul>


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

								<ul>


								   <li> "A Day in the Strife," a fair number of threads, a day in the

									life episode with everything that can go wrong going wrong, some

									elements of humor but mainly a straight-ahead kind of episode...


								<p>

								   <li> <em>Is Marshall Teague playing the same character he did in

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

									Yes, it's the same character, and his name is Ta'Lon.


								<p>

								   <li> "A narn resistance is going to be pretty hard to organize."


									<p>

									*Exactly* the issue we'll explore in "A Day in the Strife."  (Well,

									one of many issues.)


								<p>

								   <li> <em>How many Narn dead are there?</em><br>

									Actually, yes, there are millions of dead; I think that either Vir

									or Na'Far gets it right in "Strife," and the other misstates the figure

									in the same episode.


								<p>

								   <li> Just went back and checked the script; Ta'Lon refers to millions in

									his  meeting with Sheridan.  (Knew I wasn't nuts....)


								<p>

								   <li> <em>Londo's comment, "It's nothing personal, Vir," was the same one

									the bomber echoed in "Convictions."</em><br>

									Yeah, "it's nothing personal" does echo the other theme; those

									who inflict great harm tend to shrug it off that way.


								<p>

								   <li> You will see Vir many times again in the course of the third season.


								<p>

								   <li> <em>Why didn't they ask Delenn or Kosh for help with the

									questions?</em><br>

									Because Delenn doesn't know that information offhand, any more than you

									or I would have casual access to detailed scientific information from

									our own world just off the top of our heads; she'd still have to go to

									her own homeworld for the info, as our characters did.  And it's not

									that we didn't have it, it was just collating it all.  And given how

									Kosh answers questions, would you really want to use his responses in

									this thing?


								<p>

								   <li> My sense is that Delenn is not a godlike font of information; I don't

									think anyone, alien or human, at the station would just happen to know

									all the information required.  How much would Delenn know about

									molecular biology, for instance?  (And if you asked Kosh a question

									about the subject, he'd probably come back with "The heart does not

									sing with its parts."  Not exactly useful.)


									<p>

									Anyone there would have to go back to their own world for experts in

									the various fields...so you're back where you started.  Earth *has*

									the info, it's just getting it, and getting it fast.  If you add the

									overlay of going through another government, you're going to run out

									of time that much faster.


									<p>

									Logically, a probe like this would be sent off looking for information

									on the very cusp of technology that could pose a threat.  That's why

									it *didn't* go off when the probe presumed them to be a less developed

									civilization; it was looking for civilizations that *are* sufficiently

									advanced to pose a possible threat; Sheridan says exactly that as he

									walks across C&C.


									<p>

									Interesting aside on this, btw, in the "where do you get your ideas?"

									department.  The US House Science Sub-Committee held a series of

									hearings into the question of extraterrestrial contact during the

									1970s, to determine what we should do in the event of contact.  The

									most likely scenario, the scientists agreed, was a probe coming into

									our solar system.  So what do we do in response to a message asking if

									anybody's home?


									<p>

									Believe it or not, it was the consensus of the Subcommittee that we

									should not respond...in case it was a berserker, just as shown in the

									episode.  That is our government's official policy on the subject.


								<p>

								   <li> I just went through my stuff trying to find it...there was a formal

									report published by the Government Printing Agency in around 1978 or

									so.  I think it was entitled something like "Prospects for Contact by

									Extra- Terrestrial Intelligence," and went into the whole CETI issue

									at great length.  (Back then, it was CETI, for Contact With

									Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence, changed shortly after the House

									hearing on the subject to SETI, Search For Extra-Terrestrial

									Intelligence.)  Any GPA office should have the report on file.


								<p>

								   <li> <em>Would the explosion have taken out a planet?</em><br>

									No, it probably couldn't take out a planet, though it'd sure disrupt all

									communications in and out for a long time, maybe throw up a dust

									curtain to bring down the temperature quite a bit.  Certainly it'd

									debilitate the planet long enough for additional probes to be sent in.

									If one can do the job, one does the job; if more are required, more

									are sent.


								<p>

								   <li> <em>What kind of alien was sick in medlab?</em><br>

									I'll have to go back and check, but from memory I'm pretty sure he's a

									Llort.


								<p>

								   <li> <em>What happened to Na'Fon?</em><br>

									When he failed to convince the other Narns to accept him as

									their new leader -- which was the whole point to his being sent to B5

									in the first place -- he had no choice but to go home.


								<p>

								   <li>@@@864890926 <em>Why don't we ever see worker-caste Minbari?</em><br>

									Worker caste tend to fade into the background; we've seen them here and

									there; pilots and traders (visible in "Strife") are worker caste, and

									others.  They don't have as much a stylized manner of bone-carving as

									the other castes.


								</ul>