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lurkers-guide


								<!-- TITLE Secrets of the Soul -->


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


								<blockquote><cite>

								Franklin discovers one race's centuries-old secret.  Byron and Lyta reach

								an understanding.

								</cite>


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

								Fiona Dwyer as Kirrin.

								<a href="http://us.imdb.com/Name?Robbins,+Jana">Jana Robbins</a> as Ambassador Tal.

								</blockquote>


								<pre><a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/095">7.62</a>


								Production number: 508

								Original air date: March 4, 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 Tony Dow

								</pre>


								<p>

								<hr size=3>


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

								<ul>


								   <li>@@@889084941 The Hyach are a gerontocracy, with the oldest members of

									society ruling the younger.


								   <li>@@@889084941 The Hyach were one of two related races on their world.

									The other race, the Hyach-doh, was systematically slaughtered by the

									Hyach hundreds of years ago.  Unfortunately, the Hyach are now slowly

									dying out because they had evolved to require interbreeding with the

									Hyach-doh.


								   <li>@@@889085052 Some of the League worlds, such as the Drazi, have had

									interstellar travel for hundreds of years.


								   <li>@@@889084941 Byron has discovered the Vorlons' role in the creation of

									telepaths, and intends to use it to justify demanding reparations from

									the Alliance in the form of a homeworld for his people.


								</ul>


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

								<ul>


								   <li>@@@889119663 What does Byron intend to do to force the Alliance to

									give his people a world?


								</ul>


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

								<ul>


								   <li>@@@889084941 The Centauri also shared their world with another

									intelligent race, the Xon

									(<a href="005.html">"The Parliament of Dreams."</a>)

									Were the Xon a related species as well?  How common is that arrangement?

									Will the Centauri have problems similar to the Hyach's because of the

									extermination of the Xon?


								<p>

								   <li>@@@889119412 Byron said he didn't know who had taken

									revenge for the attack.  That's odd, considering that he has previously

									said, in

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

									that his people don't hide their thoughts from one another.

									Perhaps Lyta was the murderer; she's the one person who has been

									consistently shielding herself from him, and she certainly didn't seem

									to share his nonviolent philosophy.


								<p>

								   <li>@@@889119412 How widespread among the refugee telepaths was the

									desire to retaliate violently? Byron said not all of his people were in

									favor of the idea.  Are the majority of the refugees dedicated to

									nonviolence?  If not, would his presence have prevented the attacks?

									His strong sense of self-importance lead him to believe he could have

									stopped the murder, but that's not necessarily true -- it might have

									happened over his objections had he been there.


								<p>

								   <li>@@@890011541 Given the Psi Corps' intense interest in telekinetics

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

									they're not likely to take kindly to the news that Byron is harboring

									at least one teek.  And it appeared that Byron had given Peter some

									kind of telekinetic training (Peter said he'd been practicing just like

									Byron told him to) which suggests more than a passing familiarity with

									telekinesis on Byron's part.


								<p>

								   <li>@@@890011541 Lyta followed Byron into the arrivals area in much the

									same way she used to follow Kosh (especially the second Kosh, e.g. in

									<a href="067.html">"The Hour of the Wolf,"</a>)

									hanging back slightly but staying close.  Has she simply replaced one

									master with another?


								<p>

								   <li>@@@889118512 The Vorlons wore encounter suits even on their own world,

									if Lyta's memory is to be taken literally.  That may not be too

									surprising, though, if they didn't allow the people in the tubes to

									see their true forms; Kosh admitted in

									<a href="045.html">"Matters of Honor"</a>

									that being seen by lots of people was a strain on him.  Donning

									encounter suits might have been an effort-saving move by the Vorlons

									reflected in Lyta's tube.


								<p>

								   <li>@@@889084941 The races in the tubes next to Lyta appeared to be

									Hyach (or possibly Markab,) Centauri, and Llort.  Why did the Vorlons

									have babies of those races, if they had already planted telepath genes

									among those races long ago?  Were they performing other experiments or

									making other modifications?


									<p>

									It's also possible her memory was less literal than that; maybe it

									was more a more representational image conveyed to her by the Vorlons,

									Lyta's presence representing the Vorlons'

									tampering with humans and the babies similarly representing that

									their races had been altered.  If so, the Vorlons have altered quite a

									lot of races.


								<p>

								   <li>@@@890011541 If the Vorlons visited the Hyach homeworld, perhaps they

									took Hyach-doh specimens.  If so, the salvation of the Hyach race

									may hinge on venturing into Vorlon space and finding the lab Lyta

									remembers.


								<p>

								   <li>@@@889479720 Where can Byron's people go?  There are at least two

									deserted homeworlds available.  In

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

									the Markab race died out; Sheridan might consider it within the

									rights of the Interstellar Alliance to grant that world to Byron's

									people.  It presumably still has modern infrastructure in place;

									Sheridan blew up its jumpgate in

									<a href="045.html">"Matters of Honor,"</a>

									soon enough after the plague that there wouldn't have been time for

									looters to clean the planet out very thoroughly, so it'd be a good

									deal from Byron's point of view.  Populating the

									planet with telepaths might dissuade any additional raids.


									<p>

									Another possibility is the Vorlon homeworld.  In some ways Byron's

									people are the perfect ones to inhabit it; if Byron is to demand

									reparation for the Vorlons' manipulation of his people, offering up

									their homeworld does have a certain symmetry.  In addition, it'd be

									the best possible place for his people to explore exactly what was

									done to them and how.  That's assuming, of course, that anyone knows

									where it is, and that it hasn't been booby-trapped like Z'ha'dum was

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


									<p>@@@889635437

									One snag might prevent Sheridan from acting to grant Byron's people

									any world at all: Lochley's promise to Bester to not allow the

									telepaths to leave Babylon 5 for sixty days

									(<a href="094.html">"Strange Relations."</a>)

									If he tried to allow them to leave the station, he could justifiably

									be accused of interfering with Earth's internal laws, the very reason

									he wasn't able to prevent Bester from coming aboard to begin with.


								</ul>


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

								<ul>


								   <li>@@@889084941 Pak'ma'ra can't eat fish.


								   <li>@@@889084941 When Byron is released from the

									brig, he talks to Zack for a few minutes, his hands bound.  Then

									he walks out of the room with the restraints still tied around his

									wrists.  The same thing happened after he talked to Lochley in

									<a href="094.html">"Strange Relations."</a>

									Is that symbolic, or simply a sign that restraints are removed in

									some outer area rather than in the brig?


								</ul>


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

								<ul>


								<p>

								   <li>@@@889196493 <em>Any special procedures for the scene between Lyta

									and Byron?</em><br>

									I talked to both actors involved, made sure they were okay with it, and

									then scripted it out in very detailed form, and shot with a closed set,

									just necessary crew, nobody else.


									<p>

									(Funny item: in the script, I'm right in the middle of describing the

									sex scene, and in the narrative description, I write, without even

									thinking about it, "I wonder which is more embarrassing, reading this or

									writing it?"  It goes out that way.)


								<p>

								   <li>@@@889474297 <em>Wasn't that considered a personal thing by Byron

									and Lyta?  The other telepaths seemed to be sharing the

									experience.</em><br>

									I had the group there to further reinforce their tightness, and

									that it's a different way of living...as for Pat, no, no body double

									was used.


								<p>

								   <li>@@@889474297 <em>Who was broadcasting Lyta's memories to the other

									teeps?  Lyta or Byron?</em><br>

									It was everything being stimulated, and coming to the surface,

									mainly from her, but echoing off him.


								<p>

								   <li>@@@889116249 Yes, Neil's episode is up next...and as for the Xon, the

									difference is that the Centauri main-line clashed with the Xon when

									both were primitive and fighting for food, resources, that sort of

									thing, similar to our Neanderthal - Cro Magnon struggle, whereas the

									Hyach did it when they were more advanced, and it wasn't a struggle,

									more of a program of extermination.


								<p>

								   <li>@@@889474297 BTW, the pak'ma'ra used a translator

									before in "Legacies."


								</ul>