Conversations with Dragons

"Our world is changing, Delenn. I'm not sure when it began. Perhaps the war, perhaps the death of Dukhat. Perhaps the darkness was always there and we refused to see. . . . There is a sense that we are lost, drifting. In the streets, in the temples, you can hear it in their voices. An anger beneath the surface, a dissatisfaction, a self-involvement above the needs of others. It is not the same world I was born in, Delenn." - Draal

This is a bit of an odd episode because most of what it does is set up for the things that will happen in part 2 and beyond, and move on pieces of plot that have been set up earlier in the series.

The main plot is that seismic disturbances on Epsilon 3 suggest it isn't as dead as everyone thought. There appears to be some sort of automated defence system deep within the planet that was triggered by the quake, which disables the ship of the science team sent down to investigate. Although Babylon 5 orbits it so far Epsilon 3's been little more than space furniture, so everyone's excited about the prospect of exploring an potentially inhabited world. Shortly after Sinclair sees an alien begging for help, which disappears before his eyes. Londo later sees the same figure, although he's drunk at the time.

Sinclair and Ivanova go down in a shuttle after fooling the defense system to target the fighter's they've brought along as a decoy. Once past the missiles they find a clearly artificial opening, which leads to a landing pad and an advanced installation with "machines as big as buildings". The alien appears again, this time to both of them, and warns that if they don't help a lot of people will die. They find him plugged into the machine at the centre, and extract him to take back to Babylon 5.

Back on the station Delenn is visited by Draal, an old friend and teacher, who teases her to answer what is the third principle of sentient life (the answer being "the capacity for self-sacrifice. The ability to override evolution and self-preservation for a cause, a friend, a loved one"). I love how this relationship is depicted, as one of mutual respect and warmth, in the same way as her friendship with Shaal Maya in The War Prayer. They tease each other, but in a very Minbari way. And now that I think about it, I don't remember that we ever see any of the other ambassadors having this kind of relationship with another of their people.

It turns out Draal has come to say goodbye. Minbar has changed too much, and he sees discontent everywhere (see above quotation). He tells Delenn he's going "to the sea", which at first sounds like a euphemism for some sort of Dignitas arrangement, until he tells her it's because he wants to find somewhere to be of service before the end. It's not made clear what this means exactly, except that Delenn will never see him again.

The discontent that Draal sees on Minbar is mirrored in the news of what's happening on Mars. The agitation mentioned in previous episodes has blown up into full rebellion against the Earth government. Mars has been cut off - no communication can get in or out amid reports of fighting in the streets and casualties in the hundreds. Garibaldi's trying to get through the blackout to find out the fate of ex-girlfriend Lise Hampton, with whom he parted on bad terms over going to Babylon 5. Even his high level clearances aren't enough to get through, so in desperation he turns to Talia Winters to use her connections in Psi Corps. Talia's less than pleased to see him, since he's apparently been stalking her. It's played for laughs, which is frankly creepy, although it may be an in joke as the actors were married at the time. Talia isn't able to get him access to Psi Corps' communications, but she does find out that Lise isn't listed among the known survivors.

There are also a couple of appearances from Ambassador Mollari in the episode, as usual doing double duty as both a comic and tragic figure. When Delenn takes Draal to meet him, he's busy trying to decode one of the many variations of the Hokey Cokey. Earlier in the episode he has a diplomatic meeting with Sinclair and Delenn to negotiate a trade agreement. He mentions how much easier these meetings are without Ambassador G'Kar present, and the topic of the hatred the Narn and Centauri hold for each other comes up. "they will do anything to destroy us until the universe itself decays and collapses," he tells Delenn. "If the Narns stood in one place, and hated, all at the same time that hatred could fly across light years and reduce Centauri Prime to ash." She points out that the Centauri don't have to respond in kind (a vain hope since they started it) and he blames physics: for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. While it doesn't impact the plot in this double episode, it's a reminder of the wider politics and that there are other, quieter conflicts still going on.

And that's it for this episode. Lots of loose ends, to be tied up in the next.

"Into the Sands of Blood comes Walker Smith of Earth, the bravest of his race. And now comes the Sho-Rin. Master of the Mutai. Bravest of the brave." - The Muta-Do.

This episode, in terms of the writing, is just plain weird. It has two very different plot strands, neither of which interact in any way or move along the main story. Despite being thematically linked (both are about not letting go) they're a chalk and cheese pairing (or as Eddie Izzard puts it, they go together like a toboggan and broccoli). It's like two B plots got together and failed to have a baby.

Plot 1 is about Ivanova. Her rabbi turns up on her doorstep, bearing the family samovar and wondering why she missed her father's funeral. She blames work: she was too busy to travel to Earth and too busy to sit shiva. Rabbi Koslov responds by going to see Commander Sinclair, to ask for time off on her behalf. Remember how Ivanova didn't ask permission to use the gold communications channel to speak to her dying father? She didn't mention his death to Sinclair, either. It becomes clear, through Sinclair's conversations with Koslov and Ivanova, that if she had he'd have packed her off home for the funeral - and that's the last thing Ivanova wants.

Plot 2, nominally the A plot, is about Garibaldi's friend Walker Smith, a boxer from Earth, arriving on the station to fight in the Mutai, an alien fighting arena. Robbed of his chance to compete on Earth by a conspiracy to frame him for doping, he wants to use a win here to boost his profile back home. The problem is, humans don't fight in the Mutai.

It's fair to say I don't like this plotline at all, and the reason is that it's all too easy. Smith turns up full of pride and swagger, expecting to just be let in. He turns up at the Mutai training gym, calls the first alien he sees ET, and when rebuffed grabs the alien's shoulder demanding to see the Muta-Do. "ET", predictably, turns out to be the Muta-Do himself and knocks him on his ass. Later, Smith is approached by the oddly-named Caliban who tells him there's another way into the Mutai, one that must be done in the proper way, that requires respect and courage.

It really doesn't. Smith gets tickets to that evening's Mutai. When the reigning champion wins his bout and the Muta-Do asks if there are any challengers, Smith steps up. Literally the only thing he has to do is position himself as "the bravest of his race" to have his challenge accepted. The problem is, he doesn't work for his shot - it's handed to him by Caliban. It would have been more narratively satisfying to see Smith work it out for himself: turn up at the Mutai and realise he can challenge, challenge and be rejected because he gets the form wrong, work out what he needs to do and challenge again at the risk of humiliation.

The Mutai itself is also disappointing. Garibaldi describes it as a meatgrinder, "no rounds, rules, or gloves", and the name itself means Trial by Blood. In reality it turns out to be little more than bareknuckle fighting in a ropeless neon boxing ring. Smith and his opponent thump each other until they fall over and the Muta-Do declares it a draw. There's never any real sense Smith can lose anything but his pride. The most danger he faces is from a spectator with a weapon, upset a human's in the ring, who's taken out by Garibaldi.

While there aren't any try-fail cycles in the Walker Smith plotline, there are several in Ivanova's. Koslov tries and fails to convince her to sit shiva, tries again at dinner which fails spectacularly when she finds out he's spoken to Sinclair, who speaks to Ivanova himself and also fails to talk her round. Koslov tries one more time before he leaves. She rebuffs every attempt until finally, as Koslov's leaving, she changes her mind.

There isn't an articulated moment of change in either plotline, although change has clearly happened. This is another failing in the Mutai story. I think we're supposed to accept Smith's changed because he accepts a draw rather than a win at any cost, and because at the end he respects and has earned the respect of the aliens in the Mutai. But he doesn't earn it so it feels flat. The switch in Ivanova's attitude is handled better and shown in how she interacts with Koslov. When he first arrives she greets him formally as Rabbi Koslov, and he asks what happened to the informal nickname, Uncle Yossel, she called him as a child. As he prepares to leave, she remembers her father's final wish for her to forgive him, calls out "Uncle Yossel" in a slightly panicky little girl voice. and asks him to stay and sit shiva with her.

Overall this episode is a disappointment, both in the plot and the writing. It doesn't offer anything to move the main story forward, or offer much insight into character. We hear about Garibaldi's drinking from Smith, but already know about it from earlier in the series. While it throws a little more insight into Ivanova's background, that she's a Russian Jew and estranged from her father isn't new information. At the end of the episode, very little has changed. It could be removed entirely and not leave a hole, and in that respect it's a failure.

The only thing it does offer is that Walker Smith, the only friend Garibaldi appears to have apart from Sinclair, feels the need to tell him to watch his back not once but twice. Not heeding the warning is something Garibaldi will come to regret later.

In the wonderful Good Omens, there's a scene that muses on how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. The answer being one, because angels don't dance except for that one time Aziraphale learned the gavotte only to be disappointed when it went out of fashion.

Which then got me thinking about how writing is exactly like an angel learning to gavotte.

While it appears a throwaway reference in the book, the scene in the series has around thirty seconds of Aziraphale dancing. Not only did they have to find someone who knew how to gavotte to teach Michael Sheen and the dancers how to gavotte, they had to source appropriate music and costumes for the scene. They had to rehearse to make it look effortless. All for thirty seconds of film.

None of that research or practice is visible on the screen, and if writing is done well none of it's visible on the page either.

It's also not a throwaway reference at all. It refers to an argument in logical thinking first recorded as early as the seventeenth century, and probably even older, which is still in modern usage. In addition, the narrator (God in the TV adaptation) tells us that "Aziraphale had learned to gavotte in a discreet gentlemen’s club in Portland Place in the late 1880’s". That discreet club was probably The Hundred Guineas Club, an exclusive gay club, given the other gentlemen's club in Portland Place at the time was a gambling club and probably not the sort of place an angel would learn to dance. It also ties nicely in with other references in the text to people assuming Aziraphale's gay.

Which is to say, good writing has layers.

And finally, fashions come and go. If you spend all your time writing to market (or learning to gavotte) you're likely to be disappointed when the trends change. Write what you love, and enjoy yourself as much as Aziraphale clearly does in this (slightly edited) video of him dancing the gavotte.

"We are alike, you and I. We are both, as you say the odd man out. I have been in your place. I can feel how you are pinned. And it would give me some small pleasure to know that things can work out, even for us." - Londo Mollari

This episode brings us back round to Earth politics, and we get Garibaldi's backstory, both neatly tied up in a bow. It's fairly straightforward with an episode's worth of A plot and no B plot, and most of what it achieves is setting up groundwork for the season finale.

The fraught nature of things back on Earth is mentioned in the opening shots of a news channel reporting on President Santiago's upcoming visit to the station, which many people think is to build support for trade and immigration agreements with the alien races. He's bringing with him an escort of Cobra fighters that will be permanently based on Babylon 5, and while inspecting the bay they'll be housed in Garibaldi and Ivanova narrowly miss being caught in an explosion that kills a man and injures another.

The chief of presidential security, Major Lianna Kemmer, takes over the investigation. Unfortunately she has a personal issue with Garibaldi, and after she sidelines him and takes over the investigation Garibaldi loses his temper at a petty thief he catches for the third time that month. Sinclair takes him aside and demands an explanation. "I need a drink," Garibaldi replies, and orders water, making it pretty obvious the way his explanation is going to head. Given their long history, it hard to believe Sinclair doesn't already know himself.

Seventeen years previously, Garibaldi had been the only clean cop in the Europa ice-mining operation. The stress of trying to uphold the law when no one else cared made him hit the bottle pretty hard. His only other comfort was the time spent with the family of his friend Frank Kemmer - the Major's father - and they kept him "sane and sober". Then Garibaldi's work started to pay off, and in retaliation his enemies rigged a shuttle pad to explode as Frank ended his run. Garibaldi was framed for negligence, blackballed, and hit the bottle again.

Kemmer decides to interrogate Nolan, the survivor of the accident, even though doing so will kill him. When his response is "bomb" and Garibaldi's name she's more than happy to assume Garibaldi is guilty of sabotage. She has his quarters searched and her second in command Cutter finds Centauri ducats and schematics of the Cobra bay, clear proof of Garibaldi's guilt. She's not prepared to look any deeper, especially with traces of explosives found in the bay. Sinclair accuses her of a personal vendetta, and Garibaldi goes on the run.

Sinclair tries to buy time to find Garibaldi first by cancelling Kemmer's station-wide alert, knowing it will take time for her to contact Earth to have him overruled. Ivanova assists by ordering maintenance on the communications channels that will tie them up for several hours. Kemmer gets round it by using the comms channel on her ship, but it's enough to give Garibaldi a headstart.

He goes to see Ambassador Mollari, a sensible place to start given the Centauri ducats but Londo knows nothing about the plot. He suggests the Narn are responsible, having extorted ducats from the Cetauri in exchange for the scientific data they took during the occupation of Ragesh 3 in the first episode. Londo loans Garibaldi some money to get him by, stating he feels some measure of sympathy - but if Garibaldi's caught, he'll deny speaking to him. The next stop is Ambassador G'Kar, who denies his people are involved and invites Garibaldi to defect. Both of these encounters serve mainly to add characterisation to the parties involved. Londo is, as always, a hopeless romantic in rooting for the underdog, G'Kar is sneakily political and pragmatic, and Garibaldi himself states he'd rather die than take up G'Kar's offer.

Garibaldi's next stop is to try the station's criminal underworld, where he's refused service and then attacked. Sinclair tracks him down and saves him from a beating, once again proving to be a hands-on sort of commander, and tries to persuade him to come in. Garibaldi refuses and escapes while Sinclair's distracted. He insists on finding out who framed him, but instead finds a bar where he ends up at the bottom of a bottle.

Sinclair takes a call from General Netter ordering him to give Kemmer his full co-operation. He obeys, but accuses her again of having a personal vendetta. At this point they find out Garibaldi's been spending Londo's Centauri ducats, which only serves to make him look more guilty. Shortly after this he's brought in, drunk. Kemmer takes him to her command centre, while Cutter checks the bays again ahead of the president's arrival.

By this point in the season it's clear that Sinclair will try to get what he needs within the limitations set by his rank and the diplomatic demands of his position. In this case he gets Welch, Garibaldi's second, to search the quarters of Nolan. He finds detonators and pamphlets linked to right-wing group Home Guard who were behind the events of The War Prayer. Nolan's bomb had detonated early by accident.

It's a pretty straight run to the finish from there. They realise Home Guard are behind the plot, and that Cutter planted the evidence in Garibaldi's quarters while searching them. He also rigged the doors of the fighter bays to explode on opening, which is aborted with the time-honoured one second to spare. The president's life is saved and when he gives his address he invites the alien governments to work with Earth. The episode ends with Garibaldi and Kemmer reconciling. They promise to keep in touch, but like so many incidental characters we never hear from her again and it's likely she doesn't make it past the end of the season.

This isn't the last time we'll see personal vendettas running the plot - or even the last time this season. It's also not the first or last time Sinclair uses his interpretation of the rules and regulations to protect the station and its people. He's going to do it again in the very next episode, in fact.

"Understanding is a three-edged sword." - Ambassador Kosh.

This episode manages to be a standalone monster of the week episode, while simultaneously digging deep into themes that play into the wider arc. There's also a completely baffling encounter, that only makes sense if you look at this episode in terms of the overarching plot and the show's need to be flexible about external factors.

We open with Ambassador Kosh contracting telepath Talia Winters for a job, and Ambassador G'Kar's aide Na'Toth trying to kill a visitor to the station with her bare hands.

The visitor is a trader going by the name of Gyla Lobos, travelling with Minbari ID, clothes, and ship, although she's not Minbari. According to Na'Toth the visitor is Deathwalker, a Dilgar war criminal notorious for her experiments on prisoners - including Na'Toth's grandfather. The problem is, the Dilgar have been extinct for thirty years and Deathwalker herself should be much older.

G'Kar persuades Sinclair to release Na'Toth into house arrest in his custody, where she tells him she's sworn a blood oath to kill Deathwalker. She's not pleased when he tells her to put it aside for the good of their people - the Narn government is trying to make a deal with Deathwalker for a discovery that will give them an advantage over their enemies. Na'Toth agrees to postpone her claim and G'Kar promises to help her fulfill the blood oath once they have what they want. However Deathwalker's price is Na'Toth's execution and G'Kar refuses, despite his previous words to Na'Toth about the need to sacrifice for the greater good. It's a lovely piece of characterisation that even G'Kar, previously depicted as ruthless, has a line he won't cross.

The Narn aren't the only ones interested in Deathwalker's secrets. Sinclair receives a call from Senator Hidoshi back on Earth instructing him to send Deathwalker once she's recovered, and Ambassador Mollari stops Sinclair in the corridor to ask if the rumour of Deathwalker being in custody is true. The rumours spread even further once G'Kar warns the other ambassadors Deathwalker is on the station, to prevent her from leaving.

Deathwalker reveals to Sinclair that she is who Na'Toth claims. The reason she looks young is an anti-aging-and-disease serum she's developed, which she intends to share with the whole galaxy - immortality for all. She claims to have been sheltered by a Minbari faction called the Wind Swords, and comments they're right to fear Sinclair. This, of course, is a nod to the previous episode and the revelation that during the Earth-Minbari War he was captured and interrogated by the Minbari shortly before they surrendered, before being released with no memory of the encounter. It's also interesting that literally the only interaction Sinclair and Deathwalker have had at this point is Sinclair walking into Medlab, introducing himself, and asking Doctor Franklin to give them a moment. "You know the way of command" she tells him approvingly, but it's honestly difficult to imagine her phrasing her orders as questions. Her impression appears to be based on the fact Sinclair does exactly that, with the expectation of being obeyed, and Franklin does as he's told. There's very little of Franklin in this episode, but there's a lovely piece of characterisation here even though he doesn't say a word. When Sinclair arrives, Franklin is between Deathwalker and the door, clearly unhappy about being near her and just as clearly positioned to stop her leaving even though they both know he couldn't actually stop her.

As Sinclair prepares to ship Deathwalker off to Earth, the Ambassadors gang up on him and force a council meeting to decide what will be done with her - the League of Non-Aligned Worlds wants her to stand trial on Babylon 5. The problem is, they only get one vote between them. Sinclair votes with them (almost certainly not what Senator Hidoshi had in mind). The Vorlons, as always, abstain. The Centauri vote no and the Narn, after the trial being on Narn is refused, also vote no. Sinclair's plan hinged on the Minbari voting yes, but they don't. It's another nice characterisation note that it's Lennier who casts the vote as Delenn is away. He's obviously unhappy about doing it, but does as he's told and apologies to Sinclair after. He's also the one who admits the Wind Swords did harbour Deathwalker, and used her to create weapons to fight Earth with during the war, which the Minbari are now too ashamed to admit. It's almost certain Delenn would not have told Sinclair this, but Lennier doesn't appear to think twice and I'm not sure if this says more about him or his perception of Sinclair.

Vote defeated, they stick Deathwalker on a ship. This time a whole fleet of ships from the various League worlds arrives and threatens to attack the station. After a brief standoff, Sinclair tells the League ambassadors about the serum and proposes they send scientists to Earth to help with its development . When it's finished, they can have Deathwalker for trial - a more civilised version of what G'Kar promised Na'Toth. Deathwalker is scornful of the idea, saying the Earth Alliance won't let it stand. Her parting blow is to tell Sinclair that the key ingredient in her serum can't be made, it has to be harvested from other living beings. Watching the other races tear each other apart will be her legacy.

Then her ship leaves and the Vorlons blow it up.

Ambassador Kosh tells the rest they aren't ready for immortality, and glides away. While all this is going on Talia's having a very odd encounter, and really the only thing that connects the two storylines is that Kosh is in both.

It's established earlier in the season that Talia's job as a commercial telepath is to scan both parties during negotiations to ensure everyone's on the same page. Which is exactly what she does here, except that Kosh's associate Abbut has a completely blank mind, and the pair of them talk rubbish. Talia's confused and upset, since the constant scans are tiring and end in her having unpleasant flashbacks. The nonsense talk is amusing and adds some levity, but the whole thing would probably be a lot more interesting if it wasn't for all the Deathwalker business going on. However, since the whole point is to put a gun in a drawer that's never used (more on that later), burying it in a plot that's more interesting was probably the best thing they could have done with it.

At the end of the negotiations, Abbut removes his hat to reveal a cybernetic brain and removes a data crystal which he hands to Kosh. When asked, Kosh tells Talia it contains "Reflection, surprise, terror. For the future." Talia takes her concerns to Sinclair and Garibaldi, and the latter tells her Abbut is a Vicker (VCR, an excellent pun that only works if you believe people will still know what that is in the 23rd century), part organic and part machine, used by aliens to record things. They can only guess why Kosh wanted to record Talia, but their guess is that it's because Vorlons don't trust telepaths. What might be the real reason becomes apparent later.

Despite not actually moving on the main arc, the episode manages to touch on the themes of immortality, whole races going extinct, the need to sacrifice for the greater good, and Sinclair's backstory with the Minbari. Because of this, unlike other less successful monster of the week episodes, it's difficult to see how this one could be removed and not leave a gaping hole.

"My orders are quite specific. You are to know pain. You are to know fear. And then you are to die at the required hour." - Tu'Pari

This episode deals with some heavy themes - death and religion - but it does it with a light touch, which is a refreshing change after the lack of subtlety in Infection. It also introduces Commander Sinclair's on-again-off-again girlfriend Catherine Sakai, and new aides Na'Toth and Lennier for G'Kar and Delenn.

This episode is a great example of how the show was set up so no one was irreplaceable. G'Kar's aide Ko'Dath has died between episodes in an unfortunately-timed airlock accident, and he's immediately suspicious that Na'Toth arrives not long after he receives a message saying there's an assassin after him. In reality, Ko'Dath actress Mary Woronov had to drop out because she couldn't tolerate the Narn make-up, and her departure is worked into the story in a way that works with the plot. Likewise Blaire Baron, who played Sinclair's girlfriend Carolyn in the pilot, didn't want to return for the main series. During a conversation between Sinclair and Sakai it's revealed that Carolyn left not long after the events of the pilot, and that the off-again-on-again relationship with Sakai predates her - they don't pick up where they left off if either of them is seeing someone else.

The specifics of the contract are that G'Kar should live in fear of the assassin, then be tortured, before being killed 48 hours after watching the message. He does know both fear and pain before being rescued by Na'Toth. G'Kar is proud, and one thing that's slipped in here is his refusal to give the assassin the satisfaction of hearing him scream, a facet of his character that will be important in season four.

While G'Kar's waiting for an assassin, the station is hosting a week-long festival for all the different species to show off their religions. The Centauri contribution is an over-indulgent feast, in which a drunken Ambassador Mollari crawls on the table and kisses the bottom of the goddess of love. It's a tradition dating back to a conflict with the Xon, who once shared their homeworld, and is a celebration of survival. The Xon were presumably a sapient race, as Mollari describes them as a "dominant species" and tells a poor taste joke ("Do you know what the last Xon said just before he died? Aaarrrgghh!"), which positions the Centauri as aggressors even before their subjugation of the Narn. It may even be the reason they're conquerors by nature.

The Minbari perform a rebirth ceremony, in which Sinclair participates to Delenn's obvious delight. Sakai ribs him afterwards that it also doubles as a marriage ceremony, and this throwaway comment takes on a greater significance in hindsight, perhaps being a declaration of intent on Delenn's part. The introduction of Lennier also gives an insight into wider Minbari culture and the larger plot. He won't look at Delenn at first, because her position as a member of the ruling council forbids it. She gently persuades him to look up, then pulls rank and forbids him to speak of her true identity as the Minbari are hiding it from the others. When asked if he understands he replies "No, but understanding is not required, only obedience."

The religions of the other races, including the Narn, are mostly absent apart from a Drazi pilgrim trying to bring a ceremonial blade aboard the station. Since Narn religion features quite heavily in an upcoming episode this is likely a deliberate choice in the writing. Their lack of participation isn't remarked on, so it can be assumed by the viewer that they participate or not - and its certainly easy to imagine they'd refuse to "put on a show" for any audience that included the Centauri.

At the end of the episode, Sinclair introduces the ambassadors to a long line of people from various Earth faiths. It's meant to show of how all religions are equally important, but it feels like a crammed in way of dealing with how you include Earth in the festival without upsetting any viewers. The festival is meant to showcase the dominant religion, and dominant and important are not the same thing. I'm not sure there was a more graceful way out of it, however, and the long line of people to meet suggests faith is still important in the twenty-third century - important in a show that puts it in the centre of the main story.

"What do you want, you moon-faced assassin of joy?" - Londo Mollari

In episode one the Narn and Centauri were at each other's throats, and in this one Commander Sinclair is tasked with getting them to agree about something - namely to come to a treaty over the Euphrates sector. Not only is he hampered by Ambassadors Mollari and G'Kar's mutual dislike of each other, but also the fact that Mollari is distracted by a love affair with beautiful dancer Adira Tyree.

The episode reveals a lot about Mollari, and about Centauri culture being one obsessed with status. Adira takes joy in Mollari's title, using it even in bed, but when he suggests taking her somewhere public for breakfast she worries at the damage this would do to his reputation. Mollari, for his part, doesn't care about their difference in status. There's something of the mid-life crisis in the way he moons over a younger woman to the detriment of his duties, but it's also our first hint of Londo as a hopeless romantic.

While Londo's shirking his duties, his aide Vir gets to play ambassador. There are some amusing scenes of Vir playing with a handheld videogame console while the negotiators wait for Ambassador Mollari, and of G'Kar and his newly-arrived aide Ko'Dath playing with it together, while Sinclair despairs over the whole thing. Vir himself is so bumbling and good-natured that he seems ill-suited for a career in politics, but his appointment makes sense in a society where influence is everything - Mollari himself has pulled strings to get relatives favourable positions, an important plot point in Midnight on the Firing Line.

What Londo doesn't realise is that Adira's a slave - contracted out by her own government into the service of an alien called Trakis. He wants to use her to gain access to House Mollari's "purple files", the sensitive information held on the other houses that allows them to maintain position and status. Adira reluctantly copies the files, but when the time comes to give them to Trakis she runs instead. Trakis uses devious tricks to find her, bugging Mollari while he and Sincair look for her, then Sinclair uses devious tricks of his own to find out where she is by persuading telepath Talia Winters to take the information from Trakis's surface thoughts. This isn't the first time he's used dirty tricks to solve a problem and it won't be the last, and it makes him much more interesting than his later replacement commander Sheridan who's much more straightforward.

As well as characterisation for Ambassador Mollari, the episode relays character information in the B plot of Garibaldi chasing around the station trying to find out who's using the restricted gold communications channel without authorisation. It turns out it's Ivanova using it to speak to her dying father, a relationship that will feature in a later episode, and it says a lot about her that she hasn't asked Sinclair for permission. Garibaldi figures it out in time to see their final conversation, and later tells her the problem was a computer glitch in such a way as to make sure she knows he found her out and is letting her off - this time. Londo himself gets a bittersweet ending: Adira is freed, but chooses to return home to Centauri space for a time rather than stay with him. While at first glance it doesn't appear this episode does much to tie in to the wider plot, this relationship lays the groundwork for something monumental in season three.

"It was the dawn of the third age of mankind – ten years after the Earth-Minbari War. The Babylon Project was a dream given form. Its goal: to prevent another war by creating a place where humans and aliens could work out their differences peacefully. It's a port of call – home away from home – for diplomats, hustlers, entrepreneurs, and wanderers. Humans and aliens wrapped in two million five hundred thousand tons of spinning metal… all alone in the night. It can be a dangerous place, but it's our last best hope for peace. This is the story of the last of the Babylon stations. The year is 2258. The name of the place is Babylon 5." - Jeffrey Sinclair

We've wandered into a Babylon 5 rewatch at home, which we do every few years. It's the show we most consistently go back to, beating even the delightfully nutty Farscape. We've seen it so many times that this time I found myself watching it differently, paying more attention to the building blocks, foreshadowing, and how it's put together. The show was planned with a five year arc that had to adapt to cast changes, such as the loss of Michael O'Hare (Commander Sinclair) after season 1 and Talia Winters (Andrea Thompson) in season 2, and yet elements ot that arc are seeded in right from the beginning. The sheer amount of craft in writing the thing is astounding, and that got me thinking I should probably write these thoughts down somewhere. Needless to say there will be spoilers, but the show's 25 years old so I make no apologies.

Because this rewatch was a spontaneous thing due to having to resort to *gasp* DVDs for an evening, and needing something that fitted into less than an hour, I haven't actually rewatched the pilot yet. I'll go back to it, but for now here's the start of season one.


S1 E1 - Midnight on the Firing Line

This episode has a lot of heavy lifting to do. Airing for the first time nearly a full year after the pilot it has to re-establish setting, the various alien cultures, reintroduce established characters, and introduce new ones. It does that mostly by treating everything as business as usual. The station isn't new, it's been open a year or so at this point, so everyone's had time to settle in and get used to each other.

Everyone except Lieutenant Commander Ivanova, who became first officer at an unspecified point in the year after the pilot. The change of personnel isn't mentioned, but nodded to in a conversation between Ivanova and Security Chief Garibaldi that reveals she hasn't been around quite long enough to have learned the station commander turns off his link for ten minutes every day and heads off for some peace and quiet. It's a nice note of characterisation that later Garibaldi is able to tell someone looking for Ivanova where she can be found after her shift finishes. This is a man who notices how people behave.

Also new on the station is the resident commercial telepath Talia Winters. She's supposed to present herself to the first officer on arrival, but Ivanova's been avoiding her for weeks. When Talia finally catches up, Ivanova is curt and rude. At first glance this looks like your standard genre everyone-hates-telepaths bigotry, except that no one else reacts to her that way. At the end of the episode Ivanova reveals she doesn't have a problem with Talia but with what she represents - the Psi Corps that destroyed Ivanova's mother on discovering she was an unregistered telepath. It's an understandable reason to be hostile and I get the feeling this was laid out upfront, rather than dragging it out for the sake of tension, to cement early that Ivanova's no bigot.

The episode also puts the politics front and centre (in case you couldn't guess from the opening voiceover). The inciting incident is the Narn invasion of the Centauri colony Ragesh 3, and subsequent forcing of the colonists to publicly declare allegiance to the Narn government. The fact that it's Ambassador Mollari's own nephew who makes the statement is used to discredit his appeal for the other races to intervene. The Narn are clearly being set up as the villains here, but as Commander Sinclair tries to find a peaceful solution it's revealed the two races have a long and bloody history, with the Narn homeworld being subjugated by the Centauri Republic until relatively recently. It also introduces the Babylon 5 Advisory Council and the League of Non-Aligned Worlds, where all the inter-species politics are hashed out in a neutral space.

In the end the situation is diffused with sneaky machinations, some more successful than others. But although the immediate problem is solved it's clear that there's a lot of history between the species, and it's going to make itself known.