And welcome to the second Babylon 5 rewatch, season 1, episode 1 – Midnight on the Firing Line. In a lot of ways, including the fact that I never saw the real pilot, this episode acts as a pilot episode in so many ways. Gone and forgotten characters from the pilot are either absent all together, or mentioned only in passing. We no longer see Takashima in the CnC. Our oddly old country doctor, Doctor Kyle, is nowhere to be seen, and we have replaced our new telepath from Psi-Corps with yet another new telepath from Psi-Corps.
These random changes aside, what makes this episode stand out from the start is that it begins violently. This is the kind of action sequence that is going to make the show a name, and serves to introduce to the first of a few of our long running conflicts in the series.
We pan first to Ragesh 3, a Centauri agricultural colony that appears to be in the midst of a shift change. Those Centauri are so far advanced, they do all of their farming – IN SPACE. Giant diamond shaped stations orbit this green world, presumably filled with vegetation and edibles galore and what in the world can that be!?! Wormholes open around the stations and ships pour out, colored light weapons firing. We catch one last Centauri reach to communicate his final words, “Tell them it’s the-” and we end in a fiery ball moments later, those words lost to us. For now.
Shift back to B5, and we meet our new CnC maestro, Susan Ivanova. Ivanova is on a mission, to carry news to Sinclair (presumably of the attack on the Centauri). Garibaldi offers some sage advice – look to the gardens, he likes to get away and think.
Speaking of Garibaldi, we’re in the casino, and if the pilot episode taught us anything, it’s that if you’re in the casino, Londo isn’t far away. We get a brief reminder of the inscruitable ways of the Centauri – how they claimed we were a lost colony until DNA tests proved they had no relation and were just exploiting us.
Cue the introduction of the first of our attaches (unless you count Ivanova as being second to Sinclair, which is an easy argument to make), Vir. Vir will be our bumbling Centauri with a heart of gold at one point, so don’t dismiss him just yet. Of course, he brings news of Ragesh 3 being destroyed.
And all of that before we reach the opening credits (note: Sinclair does the voiceover for this episode). Welcome to the dawn of the third age, and our last best hope for peace. Welcome to 2258.
We come back to Londo demanding to know what information the humans have. Sinclair, always the diplomat, makes promises of investigations and committees and all of the things that set him apart from the bureaucrats we know and love.
Babylon 5 is no different than most action shows, especially ones with a long story arc. There’s your A plot, the main story that you sink your teeth into, and then there’s your B plot, that secondary story that weaves its way forward in the background, usually until it reaches a crescendo and merges or explains your A plot. This episode will be no different.
Cue Ivanova, our new secondary, as news of a raider attack comes in. There isn’t much more information given on raiders, but then I guess with an autological name like that, it’s to be expected. We also catch a glimpse of our new Psi-Corps rep, Talia, and the immediately thicker than mud tension between her and Ivanova. Why? Consider that our C-plot!
As a side note, I found it funny that our new telepath is just a syllable switch away from being our old telepath – Lyta for Talya. Probably just me. It’s winter and I’ve had a lot of time to ponder these things while avoiding 5 degree days, leave me be!
There are things about the military heavy B5 universe that I just don’t quite understand. This next bit is one of them. Garibaldi, our chief of station security, flies out in a fighter to investigate the reports of raider attacks. Why Garibaldi? I’ve no idea. I would think station board security would be bound to the station, and flying off in fighters for a different group. But then, why outfit our peace station with so much tactical power? “Because the show wouldn’t have made sense without it.” Right. These are the flaws we accept because they help us understand the rest so well.
In our next scene, there’s a news feed on in the background. I mention this because the significance isn’t going to be apparent just yet, but in a few episodes you’ll remember who the heck I’m talking about. Sub-plot delta, there’s an election going on in Earth gov, Santiago vs Crane, and Santiago’s in the lad. Throughout the episode we will get random updates from this election, and throughout the season we’ll see the results of the election as they play out an affect the course of human history. (HAH)
We’ve still no official word on who attacked the Centauri colony. Sinclair is pretty adamant that it is the Minbari, and he tells Ivanova as much. “They’re too honorable,” he tells us, with the grave tones of man who should know.
As she’s leaving, Sinclair comments on the news feed, asking Ivanova who she will vote for. The next bit bothers me, not because it happens, but because it’s so inconsistent. When Ivanova answers, she switches to television Russian grammar – sentences that make perfect sense, but with a non-English grammar structure. She doesn’t do this often, which is what makes the few occurrences all the more obvious. In this case, it was a corrolary between the number of chins a person has and how trustworthy they are.
Cue the A-plot – Londo gets video from the attack, confirming his suspicion. It was the age-old enemy of the Centauri, the Narn. Londo storms out of his quarters intent on having words, screaming G’kar’s name.
Garibaldi uncovers the wreckage of a ship. The ship isn’t small, and the damage is extensive. It was hit by something with really big guns, which doesn’t fit the profile of the normal raider attack, which leaves us all with suspense.
Outside the casino, so we’re pretty sure Lando will be involved. And sure enough, there he is walking up to G’kar, who offers him some fresh spoo. Londo is incensed and a fight breaks out – but need I remind you, we had spoo in our grasp and let it go? Spoo!
In the follow-up scene between Londo and Sinclair, Londo apologizes for the fight. And then what follows is one of those moments that are touched on in following seasons, becoming part of the Babylon 5 mythos. For many of us, this was one of the first shows that successfully made a promise in episode one that it would keep five seasons later.
While talking, Londo explains to Sinclair that the Centauri often have premonitions about how they will die, and he has had his. Before he even met him on the station, he always known that he would die in another 20 years time, with his hands wrapped around G’kar’s throat, and G’kar’s hands wrapped around his own. Londo then breaks down and relates the story of his nephew, Karn, who he had stationed at the now devastated colony because it was safe and far removed from everything.
Because everything of interest must happen there in these early episodes, cut to Garibaldi eating a table’s worth of food. Rationale? He eats when he sees death, which as an odd thing, but we go with it. Ivanova arrives, and their conversation really boils down to: transport routes are supposed to be secret, so there must be a leak somewhere that tipped off the raiders.
Sinclair, meanwhile, goes to Kosh’s quarters to see if the Vorlon will attend the emergency session about the Centauri. We are given an enigmatic peak at what a Vorlon might look like, or rather, a column of bobbing light, and then an empty encounter suit is filled with the presence of the Vorlon ambassador. Kosh will attend the session, but not before commenting,
“They are a dying people. We should let them pass.”
“Who? The Narn or the Centauri?”
“Yes.”
Enigmatic? A little, but that’s our favorite Vorlon for you!
We see Garibaldi push his way onto Ivanova computer station in the CnC. Why doesn’t Garibaldi have his own? Why does he needs hers? If he’s the head of security, shouldn’t he have access to the data he needs? Either way, he has an idea.
And then there’s Londo, who’s getting drunk, but for all we know never sobered, explaining to Vir that Centauri Prime has decided to do nothing. He doesn’t plan on telling the Emergency Council just yet, though – if he can get the Council to back some action, maybe he can guilt his own government into doing something. This is a theme we see repeated with Earth gov in a few moments, draw your own conclusions on that.
Garibaldi and Talia run into each other on an elevator, where we learn more about Ivanova and Talia’s (odd) desire to talk to the woman. The scene is only notable because it contains a repeated reference to Garibaldi’s “second favorite thing in the whole universe,” which is repeated throughout the episode in a sad attempt at humor. Humor is not the strong suit of this show, especially not in these early episodes.
We next find Sinclair, peaceful in the gardens before the Council session, and then G’kar arrives to put a frown on our faces. Sinclair accuses G’kar’s people of wanting to cleanse the Universe of the Centauri, to which our favorite lizard replies,
“It is true, I look forward to the day we have cleansed the Universe of the Centauri, and we have carved their bones into little flutes for our children to play. It’s a dream I’ve had.”
Ah! Classic G’kar, you’ve got to love him. And then in a bit of foreshadowing for the merging of our plot lines in this episode, G’kar argues that Sinclair should support him in Council.
“We supported you in your war with the Minbari.”
“Nonsense. Narn will sell to anyone with money.”
Cue tension for our B-plot, because Garibaldi has figured out the pattern to the ships getting attacked, tracking it down to some stolen shipping data. And the next ship that will get hit is full of refugees. Bear with my sarcasm, but what about the orphans?
Like Londo earlier, Sinclair talks to his government about helping the Centauri, and is informed that “Earth can’t be the galaxy’s police.” This line is was more relevant at the time, when US support for the UN had a lot of critics accusing us of trying to be world’s police, and helps set the political frame of mind on the role that B5 counterpoints to our real world political dramas. Or, if you don’t follow that mode of thought, gives us a chance to have Sinclair replace Garibaldi on the flight to stop the raiders, leaving Ivanova to take his place in the Council. Ivanova, who did not receive specific orders to remain uninvolved in the Narn/Centauri talks, and can vote for the sanctions.
Sinclair, we’ve established, is a veteran pilot of the Earth Minbari war, so his place in the attack squad is a little less odd, but only a little. It never made sense in Star Trek that the captain of the ship would go into hostile situations all the time, and it makes even less sense when talking about a floating space station on the edges of space, but here we are, Sinclair is in flight and heading out to save some refugees (and orphans, I bet).
Like the last episode (pilot version 1, since this episode was a lot like pilot version 2), we run through a rapid set of flip flops as we shift from one plot line to the next until everything is settled.
In the Council meeting, G’kar claims the attack on the colony was to take back a planet that was Narn a century ago. This was a case of “Justice, not hatred. We have no desire to start a war.”
Cut to Sinclair, arriving at the refugee ship just in time and driving off the raiders with some…well, there’s flying, and shooting, but in what seems like sad at this stage (namely because later in the series, it gets more practical), its a case of any time our heroes take a shot, they hit – AND BLOW UP – the raiders. It’s like a game of Galaga, level 1.
G’kar, meanwhile, pulls out his ace – a live video feed from Ragesh 3, where none other than Karn Molari, nephew of our beloved Centauri embassador, claims the colony was being ignored by Centauri Prime, so they went to their neighbors, the friendly and helpful Narn, for assistance. Londo calls foul, G’kar points out he knows Londo’s government told him to cancel the Council session, and a lot of storming off ensues.
Sinclair is off now to find the ship acting as CnC for all of these pesky little raider ships. There has to be a command center, because just like a Tie-Fighter, a small raider ship can only go so far.
Londo, in a somewhat James Bond move, is next seen rummaging through his apatments, taking things apart to build a gun. I think the idea here is neat, it’s just a shame that the core of the gun already looked like a gun – we just added a handle and a stock, so I’m not sure how that central component escaped detection up to this point. Londo, mind you, has decided that dreams (prophecy) can be ignored if he can just go and kill G’kar now and save himself 20 years of grief. Telepaths, though, are pesky, and when Londo runs into Talia on his way to find G’kar, his game is pretty much up – she accidentally sees his plans and sends Garibaldi to stop the mad man. Garibaldi, of course, catched Londo before it’s too late.
Remember how Narns will sell to anyone with money? Well, it seems they also like to leave behind someone to ensure that the new weapons are working and not being resold, because next we see Sinclair with the Narn he captures on the raider command carrier. And wait, there’s more! Because this Narn (for reasons I’m not wise enough to fathom) was also monitoring communications, we now also have proof that the unedited report from Ragest 3 was that it was attacked by the Narns, and the attack was unprovoked! Bad Narns, bad Narns!
News feeds remind us at this point that Santiago is in the lead for the election, but we’re quickly distracted by finally getting to see why Ivanova avoids Talia so much. The two women meet at the bar, where Ivanova explains its not you, its me…and all of Psi-Corps I hate. Why? Ivanova’s mother was a telepath, and there’s a strict policy against non-Psi-Corps telepaths – drug them or else. Her mother took the drugs, weekly, but in the end she was miserable and died, and Ivanova blames Psi-Corps for that.
And finally, the punch-line of the episode – what was Garibaldi’s second favorite thing in the whole Universe? And who finally relented to learning? None other than our lovely ambassador Delenn! Who, very confused, watches Duck Dodgers with Garibaldi, trying to understand how to eat popcorn. Get it? Everyone thought he was just looking for some kind of weird sexual angle, and it was just some old Earth cartoons. You all should be ashamed of yourselves.
And the closing scene, as we shut down for the episode, is the news feed update that Santiago has won the election. Now we can look forward to a future where we work hard preserving Earth cultures in the face of non-Terran influences. Because being isolationists has always worked out so well for us as species before.
And that’s the recap this week. I think I’m going to need to streamline these a little, if for no other reason than after writing all of that, and you reading it, what’s the point of actually watching?
For those still not sure about the show, I would remind you to never judge a show by its first few episodes. Rarely does a series start off well in the first few episodes. Too much time is being spent establishing relationships, characters, and setting for us to have anything in the way of meaningful stories. I have to admit that I’m not the biggest fan of Sinclair as our Commander, but he grows on you after a while – and then next season, he’s gone anyway, so if he’s bothering you, just hang in there. This wasn’t a high calibre episode, but a lot of groundwork was sewn in these 42 minutes that will be revisited in the five seasons ahead.
Thanks for joining me!
Related articles
- The Babylon 5 Rewatch: s1e0, The Gathering (datanode.net)
- And So It Begins – Episodes 1.1 to 1.4 (dobylon5.wordpress.com)
