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Old 01-27-2013, 01:01 PM   #24 (permalink)
Trollheart
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Season One: "Signs and portents" (Part three)
Yeah it's definitely me: writing too much on each episode, so much so that when I tried to upload the next TWO episodes in the one post, I had already overrun the max character allowance. Dammit! So this is part three, in two parts, as it were, cos I don't want to just put up the one episode and besides, there's one here that's really crucial to the storyline...

1.7 "The war prayer"

Prejudice and hatred rear their ugly heads as a wave of attacks on Earth and Mars spreads to Babylon 5, where a Minbari poet, and friend of Delenn, is attacked and branded with a symbol recognised as that of Home Guard, a violent, militant pro-Earth group who are growing in power. Sinclair sets about rooting out their henchmen on the station. Meanwhile, an old associate of Ivanova's arrives onboard, and when it turns out that it is in fact he who is orchestrating the attacks --- of which more follow the one on Delenn's friend --- he decides the best way to combat them is to pretend to be interested in joining them. A man of his authority and power, a respected and dedicated officer who fought on the Battle of the Line and is known to have no special love for aliens, should easily convince the hatemongers that he is a recruit worth targeting.

The subplot concerns Londo and Vir, and two young Centauri who have run away from their arranged marriages to other people, in order to be together. It's an old story, and Londo is unimpressed by the two young lovers' disregard for centuries of tradition. Vir, however, who is related to the male Centuari, thinks tradition is overrated and love should be given a chance. Through the intercession of the Minbari poet, Londo eventually agrees, after the two have been attacked by the Home Guard, to allow the two lovers to be taken into a period of fosterage, by his second cousin, which not only will greatly enhance their two families' standing in the Republic, but is an old but seldom-practiced custom, and will appeal to the traditionalist values of both the parents of the young Centauri.

Sinclair is almost pushed into a corner, meanwhile, when he goes to meet with Biggs, the leader of the Home Guard presence on B5, and is ordered to prove his allegiance by killing an alien. He demurs, and luckily the cavalry arrive in the shape of Garibaldi and his security force. Biggs and his men are arrested and deported from the station. Sinclair and his security chief however realise this is not something that will go away, and with anti-alien resentment being stirred up and driven by hate groups on Earth and elsewhere, things will only escalate and get a lot worse before they get better.

Important Plot Arc Points
Home Guard
Arc Level: Orange
Though essentially a neo-fascist organisation that uses distrust and dissatisfaction with the alien influx to Earth and its presence on Babylon 5, Home Guard will later be seen as "small potatoes", the springboard for a much larger, planetwide and well-funded and backed organisation that will take Earth into shadowy, dark places and bring a curtain of fear, suspicion and paranoia down over the home planet not seen since George Orwell's totalitarian society in "Nineteen eighty-four". The presence of Home Guard on Babylon 5 will also impact personally on Garibaldi. Literally.

The Centauri Republic
Arc Level: Orange
Here again we are allowed a peek into the workings of Centauri society, and we see they are a duty-bound, honourable people who cling to their traditions and their beliefs almost doggedly, desperate to retain something from their old glory days, and not fade away entirely. Someone once said "Our past defines us", and it is certainly true for the Centauri Republic. More about them will of course emerge as we progress. It's also interesting to see that Londo, though he puts up the front of a jaded, disinterested bureaucrat and seems to have no time for the "childish" notion of young love, is at heart an old romantic. Perhaps this is a carryover from his recent affair in "Born to the purple". If so, sad to say, events will soon conspire to disabuse him of this somewhat optimistic view of the world.

G'Kar
Arc Level: Red
Here we see too the bad side of G'Kar, whereas in the previous episode his beneficent side was on show, as he rescued Catherine Sakai and spoke philosophy about the universe. Here, he is a rabble-rouser, a stirrer-up of trouble, determined that the humans will not hurt his people and prepared to defend them by any means to hand. Even though, however, he takes this militant stance, it is perhaps in his character that he, as highest-ranking member of his people on the station, and charged therefore with their safety, takes this responsibilty very seriously. This love of his people and his leadership qualities will come more to the surface in later seasons, and we will see deeper into Ambassador G'Kar, peer past the mask of nationalism and pride, and hidden depths to this man will be revealed.

Best quotes:
The best lines in this episode, rather surprisingly, don't come from the main plot but from the backstory, although it is perhaps no surprise that they come from Londo Mollari. They also help to give us more of an insight into who he is as a person, and what his outlook on life is.

"Sometimes," says Londo, "these marriages call for sacrifice [he looks at the pictures of his own wives on his desk]. Great sacrifice. But we make this sacrifice because this is what it means to be Centauri!"

"Love, pah! Overrated!" Londo cries out. "[He points to the pictures of his wives.] These are my three wives - pestilence, famine, and death. Do you think I married them for their personalities? Their personalities could shatter worlds! Arranged marriages, every one. But they worked out; they inspired me. Knowing that they are waiting at home for me is what keeps me here, 75 light-years away!"

"'My shoes are too tight,'" says Londo, sadly. "Something my father said. He was old, very old at the time. I went into his room, and he was sitting alone in the dark, crying. So I asked him what was wrong, and he said, 'My shoes are too tight, but it doesn't matter, because I have forgotten how to dance.' I never understood what that meant until now. My shoes are too tight, and I have forgotten how to dance."

and following on from that...

When asked by the Centauri couple why he helped them, he responds happily "Because you are still children, and children should be allowed to dance."

Elsewhere, Garibaldi muses on why Home Guard are becoming so powerful back on Earth: ""The problem is, there are many who agree with them, and even more who just don't give a damn."

Sinclair, when trying to project himself as a candidate for recruitment to Home Guard, tells Malcolm Biggs of his feelings about the Battle of the Line: "The Minbari let us win. You know what that victory tasted like? Ashes."

Although he is using this as a means to an end, playing a part, it can't be denied that part of the commander does, or did, indeed feel that way, and even now he still retains a desire to know why the Minbari surrendered. It is this refusal to just accept it as one of life's never-to-be-solved mysteries that is crucial to the plot, and will lead him to his destiny. So there is some truth in what he says, and the question bothers him constantly, occupying every waking moment, as we'll see from the next episode, which is a crucial one, and one of the first real arc-centric ones.
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Last edited by Trollheart; 10-05-2013 at 05:12 AM.
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