Episode 1.21: The Quality of Mercy
Three stories this week, only one of which really works. In trying to answer a physiological question (are the Centauri tentacles sexual organs?) I read some old interviews with JMS (the answer is yes!) and found something that fascinates me: of the three stories, he likes the two that I don’t. Time for some Story Analysis!
The stories are divided pretty clearly on theme: one is about characters, one is about ideas, and one is about jokes. The one I like is the character one: Dr. Franklin finds a woman in the slums practicing what he initially thinks is a quack holistic medicine, but turns out to be an actual alien device that transfers life force from one person to another. She’s killing herself slowly by healing other people, but she’s a) dying anyway, and b) a former doctor trying to figure out how this machine works as a way of getting back into the medical community’s good graces. Franklin wants to shut her down, but as he learns more about her motives and her sacrifices he realizes she’s doing a good thing for good reasons, and he comes to support her. When this story intersects with one of the others, she ends up reversing the flow of the machine to save her daughter’s life by transferring her own terminal illness into the body of a serial killer, killing him in excruciating pain; Franklin says she did the right thing, but she says no: “I did the necessary thing, which isn’t always the right thing.” Saving her daughter and killing the bad guy also means that she loses the alien device, thus losing her life’s work; we get the impression that she knew this would happen, but chose to do it anyway to save her daughter. It’s a surprisingly moving story overall, about dedication and self-sacrifice and morality and nobility. This is the third time we’ve seen Dr. Franklin’s murky relationship with the law (he’ll break it at the drop of a hat if he can help somebody, but he’ll use every inch of it if he can stop someone else from hurting somebody), and I like that layered response. Franklin is still one of my favorites on the show. And of course Dr. Rosen, played by the mom from LOST IN SPACE, is one of the best guest stars they’ve ever had. This is only marginally a science fiction story—the alien device could be any unproven medical treatment, and most of it would still work—but it’s a poignant, compelling story about characters who feel deeply and make life-changing decisions. I loved it.
Contrast this to the story JMS thought was the good one: some grating nonsense where Londo tries to teach Lennier (played by the son from LOST IN SPACE) about the finer things in life, which for Londo means drinking and strip clubs and cheating at cards. This story starts with some Centauri senator chewing out Londo for something, so you think that Londo is dealing with Lennier because he wants something or because he’s working a con, but no: the episode forgets about this angle almost immediately, and the rest is just an excuse to make some jokes, none of which are funny. To the storyline’s credit, we do learn some interesting things about Minbari physiology (they become chaotically violent when they drink alcohol) and Centauri physiology (their males have six penises, at least one of which is five feet long and looks exactly like the tentacle prop they used in GRAIL, and is somehow capable—maybe through suction?—of picking up cards). While these details are interesting, in the end this entire storyline amounts to a 20-minute setup for what I suppose counts as a dick joke; it’s a horrific tonal mismatch for the other two plots, it’s numbingly boring, and in case I haven’t mentioned it already, it’s not funny—which is a pretty bad thing for a “funny” B-plot to not be. Obviously JMS thinks its hilarious, and despite my strongly-worded critiques I am totally down with the idea that my opinions are different from other people’s, and that their opinions matter as much as mine. It’s good to have different things in a show that will help it appeal to different people. It’s also clear that JMS thinks that Centauri in general, and Londo in particular, are way more hilarious than I do, and it’s his show so I assume we’re going to see a lot more wacky Londo pratfalls over the next four seasons, and there’s not really anything I can do about that. I will say, though, that I think there’s a very good reason no fan, in the 25 long years they’ve spent trying to convince the rest of the world to watch their favorite show, has ever described Babylon 5 as “funny.”
So there’s the character story and the humor story; in between them is the idea story, which wants to be about the legal ramifications of telepathy and the quirks of a spaceborne prison system, but is really just a flavorless serial killer plot that feels like a retread of something we saw in an earlier episode. Talia, while stationed on Mars, had to scan the mind of a serial killer, and it terrified her, and she’s still scarred by it; this episode refers to that directly, and repeats it visually, but doesn’t add anything new to the characters or the concepts. Talia is still traumatized by serial killers, this one is dead, the end. The compelling idea that the killer’s mind will be wiped and reprogrammed never actually happens, which sucks because that’s actually a great concept that I want them to explore, so I hope it comes back again in a future episode that has time to deal with it fully. (Prediction: one of the people in the main cast, probably Garibaldi or Talia herself, is already a programmed personality. In fact, I’ll take my prediction one step further: it’s Talia, and she’s a sleeper agent for the Psi-Corps. Don’t tell me if I’m right.)
There are certainly a lot of heady concepts thrown around, but the show doesn’t do anything with them: you want to talk about the problems of long-term imprisonment on a station with limited space and resources? Then talk about it. You’re allowed to, you know. One of the best Star Trek episodes of all time is just a 44-minute debate about the personhood of AI. You don’t need to muddy the waters with a chase scene and an “enter the mind of a killer” cliche that’s so tired you literally already did it on this show, in this season, with this same character. If you want to do an episode about ideas (and the interview I read suggested that this was, indeed, the intention), you really are allowed to just talk about the ideas, and show their limits and ramifications. We’re SF fans: we don’t need a thriller plot to keep us interested.
The saving grace of the serial killer stuff is that it eventually ties in—and ties in perfectly—with the doctor stuff and the alien life force machine. I sighed out loud and slumped down in my chair when the serial killer escaped and ran away, resigning myself to a boring chase and big Commander Sinclair fistfight to bring it home, but then they made it work. The ending with Dr. Rosen was perfect, and I want to stress that—the doctor stuff, and her decision to kill the bad guy, and her deep sense of guilt when she does, is one of the best stories of the entire season. It’s just too bad we had to wade through so much wasted potential to get there.
The stories are divided pretty clearly on theme: one is about characters, one is about ideas, and one is about jokes. The one I like is the character one: Dr. Franklin finds a woman in the slums practicing what he initially thinks is a quack holistic medicine, but turns out to be an actual alien device that transfers life force from one person to another. She’s killing herself slowly by healing other people, but she’s a) dying anyway, and b) a former doctor trying to figure out how this machine works as a way of getting back into the medical community’s good graces. Franklin wants to shut her down, but as he learns more about her motives and her sacrifices he realizes she’s doing a good thing for good reasons, and he comes to support her. When this story intersects with one of the others, she ends up reversing the flow of the machine to save her daughter’s life by transferring her own terminal illness into the body of a serial killer, killing him in excruciating pain; Franklin says she did the right thing, but she says no: “I did the necessary thing, which isn’t always the right thing.” Saving her daughter and killing the bad guy also means that she loses the alien device, thus losing her life’s work; we get the impression that she knew this would happen, but chose to do it anyway to save her daughter. It’s a surprisingly moving story overall, about dedication and self-sacrifice and morality and nobility. This is the third time we’ve seen Dr. Franklin’s murky relationship with the law (he’ll break it at the drop of a hat if he can help somebody, but he’ll use every inch of it if he can stop someone else from hurting somebody), and I like that layered response. Franklin is still one of my favorites on the show. And of course Dr. Rosen, played by the mom from LOST IN SPACE, is one of the best guest stars they’ve ever had. This is only marginally a science fiction story—the alien device could be any unproven medical treatment, and most of it would still work—but it’s a poignant, compelling story about characters who feel deeply and make life-changing decisions. I loved it.
Contrast this to the story JMS thought was the good one: some grating nonsense where Londo tries to teach Lennier (played by the son from LOST IN SPACE) about the finer things in life, which for Londo means drinking and strip clubs and cheating at cards. This story starts with some Centauri senator chewing out Londo for something, so you think that Londo is dealing with Lennier because he wants something or because he’s working a con, but no: the episode forgets about this angle almost immediately, and the rest is just an excuse to make some jokes, none of which are funny. To the storyline’s credit, we do learn some interesting things about Minbari physiology (they become chaotically violent when they drink alcohol) and Centauri physiology (their males have six penises, at least one of which is five feet long and looks exactly like the tentacle prop they used in GRAIL, and is somehow capable—maybe through suction?—of picking up cards). While these details are interesting, in the end this entire storyline amounts to a 20-minute setup for what I suppose counts as a dick joke; it’s a horrific tonal mismatch for the other two plots, it’s numbingly boring, and in case I haven’t mentioned it already, it’s not funny—which is a pretty bad thing for a “funny” B-plot to not be. Obviously JMS thinks its hilarious, and despite my strongly-worded critiques I am totally down with the idea that my opinions are different from other people’s, and that their opinions matter as much as mine. It’s good to have different things in a show that will help it appeal to different people. It’s also clear that JMS thinks that Centauri in general, and Londo in particular, are way more hilarious than I do, and it’s his show so I assume we’re going to see a lot more wacky Londo pratfalls over the next four seasons, and there’s not really anything I can do about that. I will say, though, that I think there’s a very good reason no fan, in the 25 long years they’ve spent trying to convince the rest of the world to watch their favorite show, has ever described Babylon 5 as “funny.”
So there’s the character story and the humor story; in between them is the idea story, which wants to be about the legal ramifications of telepathy and the quirks of a spaceborne prison system, but is really just a flavorless serial killer plot that feels like a retread of something we saw in an earlier episode. Talia, while stationed on Mars, had to scan the mind of a serial killer, and it terrified her, and she’s still scarred by it; this episode refers to that directly, and repeats it visually, but doesn’t add anything new to the characters or the concepts. Talia is still traumatized by serial killers, this one is dead, the end. The compelling idea that the killer’s mind will be wiped and reprogrammed never actually happens, which sucks because that’s actually a great concept that I want them to explore, so I hope it comes back again in a future episode that has time to deal with it fully. (Prediction: one of the people in the main cast, probably Garibaldi or Talia herself, is already a programmed personality. In fact, I’ll take my prediction one step further: it’s Talia, and she’s a sleeper agent for the Psi-Corps. Don’t tell me if I’m right.)
There are certainly a lot of heady concepts thrown around, but the show doesn’t do anything with them: you want to talk about the problems of long-term imprisonment on a station with limited space and resources? Then talk about it. You’re allowed to, you know. One of the best Star Trek episodes of all time is just a 44-minute debate about the personhood of AI. You don’t need to muddy the waters with a chase scene and an “enter the mind of a killer” cliche that’s so tired you literally already did it on this show, in this season, with this same character. If you want to do an episode about ideas (and the interview I read suggested that this was, indeed, the intention), you really are allowed to just talk about the ideas, and show their limits and ramifications. We’re SF fans: we don’t need a thriller plot to keep us interested.
The saving grace of the serial killer stuff is that it eventually ties in—and ties in perfectly—with the doctor stuff and the alien life force machine. I sighed out loud and slumped down in my chair when the serial killer escaped and ran away, resigning myself to a boring chase and big Commander Sinclair fistfight to bring it home, but then they made it work. The ending with Dr. Rosen was perfect, and I want to stress that—the doctor stuff, and her decision to kill the bad guy, and her deep sense of guilt when she does, is one of the best stories of the entire season. It’s just too bad we had to wade through so much wasted potential to get there.
"The compelling idea that the killer’s mind will be wiped and reprogrammed never actually happens, which sucks because that’s actually a great concept that I want them to explore, so I hope it comes back again in a future episode that has time to deal with it fully. "
ReplyDeleteIt does come back in a future episode that, for me, is the most memorable episode (and one of the best) of the series.
Awesome. I got really excited when they talked about it on the show, because it’s a super cool idea.
DeleteIt is covered in one of my all time favorite episodes of faith and the nature of redemotion....heh
DeleteOh man. I remember the episode you're talking about Alexi. That one was an emotional roller coaster. Lots of raw emotion from all the characters.
Delete“Passing Through Gethsemane” – a surprisingly touching episode guest-starring Brad Dourif.
DeleteWhile Londo's importance to the overall arc of the series does increase over time, thankfully that doesn't also correlate to more of Londo's hijinks and pratfalls. His character, in general, starts heading in a very different direction than comedy.
ReplyDeleteI CAN’T WAIT
DeleteLondo and I have similar character arcs
DeleteOkay I can see that.
DeleteYeah the mind wiping thing and its implications do come back in a great Season 3 episode. You'll enjoy it.
ReplyDeleteEveryone keeps raving about that one, here and on social media. I’m excited.
DeleteOne thing that is kind of cool and was Smart of JMS is that he built in what he called "trap doors" for every major character in the series. These exist to be used just in case an actor left a show. Some of the foreshadowing in the series was setting up these trap doors just in case and left things implied through out the whole series but never got followed up on.
ReplyDeleteI love reading these recaps because it reminds me of how I thought when I watched the series in first run. Some of your guesses as to what's being foreshadowed are in fact some of these trap doors. Some get pulled, some don't. What was nice was when an actor exited the show, it felt more natural. It was never perfect, but it worked better than most shows.
If you haven't found it, I would recommend checking out the Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5 after every episode. JMS used to answer questions on usenet and later AOL after every episode aired. He would also put out his person feelings on how an episode did. The Lurker's Guide was a site that was running during the initial run of the show and archived all the comments. It was a lot like listening to the Ron Moore podcasts after BSG.
You can find the archive here: http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/ . Be careful because there are spoilers everywhere but the structure of the site is as it was in the old days so checking out pages for episodes you have seen should still be safe.
-Mike
I’ve read a couple of the Lurker pages, but yeah, spoilers everywhere.
ReplyDeleteI wish Dr Rosen and Lennier had a scene together, even just walking past each other, but I guess JMS wouldn’t let them.
ReplyDeleteI did not catch that Billy Mumy was from Lost in Space, but I did not know at the time he was from three different versions of it's a good day.
ReplyDelete