brennen
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lurkers-guide


								<!-- TITLE Strange Relations -->


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


								<blockquote><cite>

								Bester arrives to try to retrieve the refugee telepaths.  Garibaldi confronts

								Lochley.  Delenn chooses a bodyguard for Londo.

								</cite>


								<a href="http://us.imdb.com/Name?Downes,+Robin+Atkin">Robin Atkin Downes</a> as

								Byron.

								<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Koenig,+Walter">Walter Koenig</a> as Bester.

								</blockquote>


								<pre><a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/094">7.84</a>


								Production number: 507

								Original air date: February 25, 1998

								<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00019071C/thelurkersguidet">DVD release date</a>: April 13, 2004


								Written by J. Michael Straczynski

								Directed by John C. Flinn III

								</pre>


								<p>

								<hr size=3>


								<h2><a name="BP">Plot Points</a></h2>

								<ul>


								   <li>@@@888480810 Lochley and Sheridan were married for a brief time many

									years ago.  The relationship ended quickly because both of them wanted

									to be in control all the time.  But it's thanks to their time together

									that Sheridan knows he can trust her even though she was on the other

									side in the civil war.


								   <li>@@@888480810 Lochley was stationed on an outpost on which a rogue

									telepath murdered two crewmen.  Bester and his people arrived and

									tracked down the rogue, saving the lives of additional people under

									Lochley's command.


								   <li>@@@888480810 Many of Byron's people have been the subjects of Psi Corps

									medical experiments, and don't trust doctors.


								   <li>@@@888481016 Lyta appears to have genuinely joined Byron's cause.  The

									two of them appear to be developing either a close friendship or

									romantic attraction.


								   <li>@@@888480810 G'Kar is now working as Londo's bodyguard.  He accepted

									the assignment largely to see the looks on the faces of the Centauri

									royal court when a Narn is present at important state functions and

									the like.


								   <li>@@@888480810 Londo is the second Mollari to become Emperor.  Londo

									says his ancestor's life ended badly.


								   <li>@@@888480810 The Centauri Regent's health is failing; Londo will soon

									spend much of his time shuttling back and forth between B5 and Centauri

									Prime.


								   <li>@@@888480810 Franklin has been given a new assignment, to thoroughly

									catalog any diseases of various races which might be able to cross

									species.  His new duties will take him away from Babylon 5 to visit

									the homeworlds of Alliance member races.


								</ul>


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

								<ul>


								   <li>@@@888480810 Who tried to assassinate Londo?


								   <li>@@@888480810 Do the Regent's health problems have anything to do

									with the Keeper on his neck

									(<a href="073.html">"Epiphanies?"</a>)


								   <li>@@@888480810 Is there actually a quarantine regulation as Lochley

									claimed?  If not, how did she get her lie past Bester?  If so, did

									Franklin invent it on her behalf, implying that he has the authority to

									issue medical regulations on his own?


								</ul>


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

								<ul>


								   <li>@@@888480810 Lyta's power has limits, though even she doesn't know

									exactly what they are.  <em>Could</em> she have held off all of

									Bester's men?  Is she telekinetic, or was she simply activating

									nerve endings as Bester speculated?


								<p>

								   <li>@@@889635224 What's the significance of Lyta removing her Psi Corps

									badge as she joined Byron's song?  Is she officially resigning her

									fake Corps membership

									(<a href="080.html">"Moments of Transition?"</a>)

									If so, does that mean that the entire contract with Bester is canceled,

									or just that she's giving up the benefits of supposed Corps membership?

									Will she be considered a rogue when Bester returns in sixty days?  Or

									did she just remove it to be polite and avoid offending the others?


								<p>

								   <li>@@@890010985 Lyta has all the makings of a cult member:

									she feels abandoned by the world, she appears to have a need to follow

									someone (be it Kosh or Sheridan or Byron,) and she's used to complying

									with others' demands without question (as Byron pointed out in

									<a href="091.html">"The Paragon of Animals."</a>)

									Byron's group appears very much like a cult: a small group of

									people who feel they're different than everyone else (in this

									case, of course, they <em>are</em>) and a charismatic leader who's

									willing to sacrifice himself for his cause and to give personal

									attention to each of his people.  He's even holding out the hope

									of a promised land in the form of B5 (and eventually a homeworld.)


								<p>

								   <li>@@@888480810 Byron's people have a sixty-day reprieve, at least until

									Bester either decides Lochley was lying or that he's waited long

									enough.  If Byron's people aren't allowed to leave the station

									before then, what will they do when the sixty days are up?  That

									deadline may be what sparks the hostage situation shown in

									<a href="088.html">"The Deconstruction of Falling Stars,"</a>

									if indeed Byron's people (or some non-pacifist faction of his

									group) were the ones holding Garibaldi hostage.


									<p>

									Zack described Byron as a martyr.  If that's literally true -- if he

									is indeed fated to die for his cause (and he does appear to be willing

									to do so) -- then his death might also incite his followers to

									violence.  Of course, his death and the expiration of the sixty-day

									grace period aren't necessarily separate events; Bester's people

									are willing to injure him at the very least.


								<p>

								   <li>@@@888480810 What medical experiments did Byron's people undergo?  Lyta

									said many of them don't trust doctors as a result, but as telepaths

									who don't block out normals' thoughts, wouldn't they be able to

									sense Franklin's good intentions?


								<p>

								   <li>@@@889502663 What did Bester mean when he commented that Byron knew

									all about turning against someone?  What history do Bester and

									Byron share?  Perhaps Byron was once a Psi Cop, which would be

									consistent with the level of psi ability he's displayed in the

									past (appearing in front of Lochley in

									<a href="089.html">"No Compromises,"</a>

									putting Bo in the Starfury pilot's mind in

									<a href="092.html">"A View from the Gallery."</a>)


								<p>

								   <li>@@@888522924 Psi Corps' hold on the colonist telepaths, according to

									Lochley, is due to their status as Earth Alliance citizens.  Can they

									switch citizenships?  Does Mars fall under Corps jurisdiction, for

									example?  If not, there must be other races willing to grant

									citizenship to telepaths, either for free or for the right price.

									The Narn, for instance, would probably welcome them with open arms.

									Presumably Sheridan, in his position as President, could ask one of

									the Alliance member races to take the telepaths in as asylum-seekers.


								<p>

								   <li>@@@888507739 Now that G'Kar is Londo's bodyguard, who will represent

									the Narn on the Alliance advisory council?  Does G'Kar retain his

									position as ambassador?  If not, isn't appointment as Londo's

									bodyguard a rather substantial demotion?


									<p>

									For that matter, who will

									represent the Centauri while Londo is away and after he's crowned?

									Vir?


								<p>

								   <li>@@@890011912 Franklin has experience with at least one cross-species

									disease: the Drafa plague that wiped out the Markab

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

									crossed over to the Pak'ma'ra.


								<p>

								   <li>@@@890012383 How have Lochley and Sheridan kept their past marriage

									a secret?  Are marriage records not public information?  It seems

									odd that, for example, ISN wouldn't have turned up anything in even

									a cursory investigation of Lochley's background (they would presumably

									have reported on her appointment, given B5's high profile.)  Maybe

									divorce under Earth Alliance law can result in all official records of

									the marriage being erased -- which would still leave unofficial ones,

									of course.


								<p>

								   <li>@@@890012169 As Lochley mentioned to Garibaldi, Sheridan has had three

									wives (Londo is still one up on him.)  Sheridan's wives mirror the

									Minbari caste system: Lochley was a warrior, Anna a worker, and

									Delenn a religious caste member.


								</ul>


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

								<ul>


								   <li>@@@888480810 Corwin reported Ms. Connoly's estimate for clearing the

									cargo backlog.  Connoly appeared in

									<a href="012.html">"By Any Means Necessary"</a>

									and is the head of the dockworkers' guild on the station.


								   <li>@@@888480810 Lochley has a phoenix on her flight helmet.


								   <li>@@@888480810 The Descartes joke Bester was telling Lochley is an old

									one, a play on "I think, therefore I am" -- I think not, therefore

									I'm not.  The joke was told by Neal Barrett, Jr. when he was toastmaster

									at the 1997 Hugo Awards Ceremony, at which JMS received a Hugo award for

									<a href="054.html">"Severed Dreams."</a>

									(It predates that ceremony, though.)


								</ul>


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

								<ul>


								   <li>@@@884632658 The astute will notice a slight change in the main

									title music starting with 507.  I was down sick when they had to do the

									main title mix, and couldn't get into it.  When we had to modify some

									voice stuff for 507, I went in and pulled out all the music stems and

									rebalanced stuff to bring out the themes more, which kind of got buried

									a little in places.  All the same individual pieces are there, but in

									different perspectives.


								<p>

								   <li>@@@888605187 <em>Was the song at the end a traditional tune?</em><br>

									No, I came up with that song for the episode, and designed it to sound

									like any of a zillion other such songs out there, so it'd sound

									familiar.


								</ul>