“Moments of Transition”
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Tony Dow
Season 4, Episode 14
Production episode 414
Original air date: May 19, 1997
It was the dawn of the third age… Garibaldi is awakened out of a sound sleep by Edgars, who is completely unapologetic, as he himself is on call at all times, and he expects the same of his employees. Edgars wants Garibaldi to get something through B5 without dealing with customs. Edgars also assures Garibaldi that it contains nothing dangerous or illegal, he just wants to keep it on the down-low to avoid issues with his competitors.
Sheridan can’t sleep, and he contacts CnC to see if there’s any news from Minbar, but alas, there isn’t.
Meanwhile, Delenn and Lennier are on Minbar in one of the ancient cities, which is on fire. They’re caring for the many wounded members of the Religious Caste. The Warrior Caste has announced that, if the Religious Caste doesn’t surrender by the following day, they will destroy the city and everyone in it.
Neroon meets with Shakiri, the leader of the Warrior Caste. Shakiri derides the Religious Caste for their naïveté and for getting them into pointless wars like the one with Earth, where nothing was actually gained. He also waxes philosophical about how life and death are just two sides of the same coin and that death is merely the release from obligation, and not something to be derided. Which is good, since he’s threatening to basically wipe out the Religious Caste…
At B5 customs, Allan notices Garibaldi talking to someone with a package, but is then distracted by the arrival of Bester. Bester insists he’s there on personal business that has nothing to do with the senior staff, and isn’t this supposed to be a free port, like the Voice of the Resistance broadcasts keep insisting?
By the time Allan gets Bester sorted out, Garibaldi is still there, but the package is gone. Allan chases Garibaldi down, but the latter denies ever handling a package, and also neither confirms nor denies the rumors Allan has heard about Garibaldi working for Edgars.
Alexander is struggling to find work. She has a good line on a corporate job, but when they find out she’s on the outs with Psi Corps, they say they can’t hire her—it’s a liability issue. Bester then approaches her—she’s why he’s here. He knows she’s been having trouble finding employment—some of her prospective clients have contacted Psi Corps for a reference, which they can’t provide, of course—and he has an offer for her. She can be brought back on as a deep-cover agent, not beholden to the day-to-day yuckiness of the Corps and able to still get corporate work. The only catches are as follows: she has to wear the logo and the black gloves and she has to be willing to donate her body to the Corps after her death. The Vorlons obviously made her a more powerful psi than she was, and until that happened, everyone assumed one’s psi index to be a constant. A rating changing is unheard of, and they want to study Alexander’s mind after she dies.
Alexander tells Bester to go screw himself.
Adding insult to injury, she can’t afford the quarters she has (the Vorlons were paying for them, but the Vorlons have buggered off and are no longer paying their bills), and Allan very reluctantly tells her that she has to move to a smaller space. He then offers her some work: to scan Garibaldi. When Alexander asks if Garibaldi will agree to the scan, and Allan says no, Alexander very loudly refuses. She’s desperate for work, but not enough to betray a friend like that. Allan apologizes, he’s just frustrated by Garibaldi’s behavior.
That, however, gives Alexander an idea: to approach Garibaldi. She can help him with his PI work. Garibaldi was nearby when Alexander and Bester had their talk, so he knows what the alternative is. On the one hand, Garibaldi doesn’t like telepaths and can’t pay that much; on the other hand, it’d piss Bester right the hell off. So he agrees.
Then Bester shows up, and there’s a brief altercation. Bester tries to scan Garibaldi, which Alexander picks up on. Livid, Garibaldi chases Bester down and tries to beat him up, but security stops him.
On Minbar, Delenn tells Lennier that they will surrender, and it may occur at a place and time of the Warrior Caste’s choosing. Neroon informs Shakiri of this, and that he has chosen the Temple of Varenni. It was a place where disputes were settled in the time before Valen, plus it has equipment that can broadcast the surrender to the entirety of the Minbari Federation. Shakiri approves. He also tells Neroon that Delenn will likely return to B5 after this is all over, and they should find a way for her transport there to suffer an accident. They can’t afford to let her live.
After giving Lennier a scroll with instructions in case something happens to her, Delenn officially surrenders—but then she makes it clear that she’s ending the open warfare, not the conflict between the Warrior and Religious Castes. In this temple, in the time before Valen and the formation of the Grey Council, disputes were settled with the Starfire Wheel, a beam of light that grows in intensity and will eventually burn you alive if you stay in too long. In the olden days, the leaders of the castes would each enter the Starfire Wheel, and whoever left last would be the winner.
Delenn steps into the Starfire Wheel. Shakiri refuses at first, not wanting to die like that. Neroon reminds him of what he said about how life and death are equivalent and how death is just a release from obligation, and Shakiri is shamed into entering. While in the wheel, Shakiri offers to share power with Delenn if she agrees to walk out with him side by side, but she refuses. Eventually, Shakiri gives up and leaves the wheel.
And then the other shoe drops: this was Neroon and Delenn’s plan all along. But Delenn has changed the plan because, as Neroon tells Lennier, they agreed that Delenn would depart the wheel after Shakiri proved himself a coward. However, she doesn’t leave the wheel, and Lennier realizes that she’s sacrificing herself to show her devotion. Neroon, perhaps knowing that he’s a guest star and she’s an opening-credits regular, dives in to rescue her and allow himself to be killed by the Starfire Wheel after pledging his devotion to the Religious Caste and urging the people to listen to Delenn.
On B5, Garibaldi gets another late night/early morning call from Edgars, who informs Garibaldi in no uncertain terms that he’s not to employ Alexander. Edgars wants no telepaths working for him, even indirectly. Garibaldi is forced to cut her loose, and she’s forced to accept Bester’s offer. Bester records a bit of exposition personal log expressing delight that things are proceeding apace with Garibaldi, as he’s more and more alienated from his former comrades, and as an added bonus, Alexander is back in the fold.
Delenn, covered in burns, enters the Grey Council chambers on the Valen’tha. She summons the Nine, re-forming the Grey Council. But now, instead of a balance of three from each of the three castes, there are only two each from the Warrior and Religious Caste, and five from the Worker Caste. The people who do the actual work will have more of a say in the Minbari government. Delenn leaves the middle spot open in honor of Neroon and for “one who is to come.”
Garibaldi leaves the station for Mars to meet up with Edgars. He tells the customs guard that he has no plans to return.
Ivanova comes to Sheridan’s quarters with a head of steam: on Clark’s orders, a civilian transport carrying refugees from Proxima 3 was targeted and destroyed by the EAS Pollux. That’s the last straw for Sheridan. They have to take the fight to Clark, they can’t wait any longer. They’re going to take back Proxima, then Mars, then Earth itself.
Get the hell out of our galaxy! Sheridan is mad as hell, and he’s not gonna take it anymore…
Ivanova is God. Ivanova’s also mad as hell, and she’s not gonna take it anymore, either. To her credit, she waits to put the murder of civilians on Voice of the Resistance until she’s calmed down.
The household god of frustration. Garibaldi is mad as hell at Bester specifically, and his attempt to not take it anymore is frustrated by security. He ends the episode leaving for Mars, with no intention of coming back.
If you value your lives, be somewhere else. Neroon’s sudden-but-inevitable betrayal at the end of last week turns out to be a ruse, as he and Delenn work together to make peace on Minbar, mostly by exposing Shakiri as a piece of garbage.
The Corps is mother, the Corps is father. Alexander is mad as hell, and is forced to take it, as she can’t afford her current quarters, and has no job prospects thanks to being on the outs with Psi Corps. Her only option is to be back on the ins with the Corps…
Looking ahead. We finally find out that Bester is at least partly responsible for what happened to Garibaldi between “Z’ha’dum” and “Whatever Happened to Mr. Garibaldi?” This will pay off the next time we see Bester in “The Face of the Enemy.”
Also Edgars’ antipathy toward telepaths is more complicated than he lets on, as we’ll also see in “The Face of the Enemy.”
Welcome aboard. Bart McCarthy plays Shakiri. He’ll be back as a Drazi general in “Movements of Fire and Shadow.” Christy Noonan plays Alexander’s potential employer.
We’ve got recurring regulars Walter Koenig, back from “Epiphanies” as Bester, who’ll next be seen three episodes hence in “The Face of the Enemy”; Efram Zimbalist Jr., still unseen and in voice only, and not credited, as Edgars, back from “Conflicts of Interest,” next to be actually seen and credited in “The Exercise of Vital Powers”; and John Vickery, back from “Rumors, Bargains, and Lies” in his final appearance as Neroon. Vickery will next be seen in Crusade’s “Appearances and Other Deceits” in his other role as Mr. Welles.
And in the category of “stunt casting that has aged badly,” Scott Adams, creator of the Dilbert comic strip, appears as the imaginatively named Mr. Adams, who wants to hire Garibaldi to find his dog and his cat, who are trying to take over the world, a not-even-a-little-bit-veiled reference to the strip characters of Dogbert and Catbert. It was only a little bit amusing in 1997, and is mostly just awful now, given what a toilet turd Adams has become in recent times.
Trivial matters. We never will find out who “the one who is to come” is that Delenn refers to. Speculation is that it’s her and Sheridan’s son David, or Sheridan himself, or someone else entirely. It’s possible Delenn was just speaking generally, but nobody ever speaks generally on a show written by J. Michael Straczynski, so that’s likely a plot point that just never had the chance to be explored.
Allan helped Alexander decorate her quarters over pizza in “Epiphanies.” They have clearly become friends. Also, Allan refers to Garibaldi as “Michael” rather than “Chief,” signalling that he no longer believes Garibaldi is coming back to work.
The final scene between Sheridan and Ivanova sets up the next episode—and, truly, the rest of the season, as the fight between B5 and the Clark Administration will dominate the balance of season four.
The echoes of all of our conversations.
“I mean, being a freedom fighter, a force for good—it’s a wonderful thing. You get to make your own hours, looks good on a resumé. But the pay sucks.”
—Bester speaking a bitter truth to Alexander
The name of the place is Babylon 5. “Is it wrong to value life?” One of my biggest complaints with B5, both when it first aired and on this rewatch, is the inability of the show to let us see the characters of Presidents Santiago and Clark. We were told to feel things about Santiago’s assassination in “Chrysalis,” and we’ve been told to have animus toward Clark ever since then, but we have no sense of either one of them as a person.
I mention this only because J. Michael Straczynski understood this with the non-human characters. In just one episode, he was able to make us understand and care about Emperor Turhan. The Centauri monarch’s death in B5’s medlab had meaning quantum leaps ahead of that of a president we’d never even heard speak a line of dialogue dying in a CGI explosion.
And this time around, he does it again with Shakiri. The head of the Warrior Caste is someone we didn’t even have a name for until the end of last week’s episode, but in just a couple of scenes—his grand philosophical conversation with Neroon on the subject of life and death and his acceptance of Delenn’s surrender—he shows himself to be a bloviating jackass with no sense of history and tradition and no consideration for lives lost. Then he proves himself a hypocrite when he refuses to enter the Starfire Wheel, and then tries to super-villain his way out of it by offering to share power with Delenn—the same person he expressed his intention to secretly assassinate earlier in the episode. Delenn, of course, doesn’t accept it, because she, unlike Shakiri, has convictions. So does Neroon, which is why he’s willing to sacrifice himself and save her, though that action smacks of “we can’t let the opening-credits regular die, we gotta kill the guest star.”
Also, it’s not a great look on Delenn that she’s willing to sacrifice herself without even letting her fiancé know what she’s planning. Delenn knows exactly how this feels, having been on the other end of it in “Z’ha’dum,” so you’d think she’d at least drop Sheridan a line and say goodbye, y’know?
The B5 portion of the plot works very nicely. It’s never bad to have Walter Koenig evil-ing it up as Bester, and what’s fun about this is that Bester comes out 100% victorious here. It’s hard for a bad guy to be effective if he always fails, so this is a good way to keep Bester in the worthy-foe category, and also provide pathos for both Garibaldi and Alexander.
One of my favorite lines in a movie is from The Princess Bride, when Inigo Montoya says to Westley, “I work for Vizzini to pay the bills. There’s not a lot of money in revenge.” I’m always impressed when a work of dramatic fiction remembers that people need to feed, clothe, and house themselves. Alexander isn’t part of B5’s working staff like Sheridan, Ivanova, Franklin, and Allan (who get paid by docking and repair fees), and she’s not part of an organization like Cole (it’s not stated explicitly, but the Rangers must have the means to support its members). She’s a telepath who needs to be hired to work, and her main client meandered out beyond the rim several episodes ago. And her one hope is dashed by Edgars’ unwillingness to have a telepath on the payroll in any way (for reasons that will become clear in a few episodes). Patricia Tallman plays it beautifully, too, her sad expression as she looks at herself in the mirror putting the black gloves on is just heartbreaking.
The contract exchange between Bester and Alexander is the only low point, as the whole “I want your body” bit is just puerile nonsense, and Bester explaining why a telepath saying, “Are you out of your mind?” is funny is just awkward and awful. A pity, as the rest of the scenes between the two are gold.
Next week: “No Surrender, No Retreat”
@krad: Garibaldi doesn’t leave the station until next week’s episode.
Shakiri is not just a bloviating jackass, he’s so far up his own ego he can’t see how obviously uncomfortable Neroon is with his plans. Of course, the audience needs to see that discomfort, so that Neroon’s actions at the end don’t come entirely out of left field for those who didn’t see the previous episode.
Another problem with Neroon’s sacrifice is that you’d expect Lennier to jump in and either pull Delenn out or do what Neroon did.
I always thought Delean was just being mysterious as a power move or to leave an opening for another monumental change in the society if one was needed. I mean I don’t think she had received any prophetic visions had she – but yes JS may have had something planned..
I’m still not sure I agree with you that leaving Clark as a cipher was a mistake. He isn’t really a character who needs real motivations or personality. He’s just a name to attach to the actions that we do see, including at the end of this episode.
I also don’t think that Shakiri is a particularly compelling counter-argument. (I’ll grant you Turhan, though.) The exchange between Shakiri and Neroon is (imo) really clumsy. Shakiri’s speech sounds like a high school debater who recently discovered objectivism. It makes it hard for me to take seriously the notion that he is a leader that anyone would follow, let alone Neroon.
If the choice is between an empty abstract and a weak caricature, I think I prefer the empty abstract. At least then I can read into it whatever I need to fill the gap.
“Shakiri’s speech sounds like a high school debater who recently discovered objectivism.”
That really cracked me up. Thanks. It’s just a bonus that it also happens to be true.
“It makes it hard for me to take seriously the notion that he is a leader that anyone would follow, let alone Neroon.”
We’ve seen in recent years that millions of people are willing to follow extremely stupid leaders, so it’s sadly plausible. Sometimes all people want is a leader who gives them permission to unleash their worst impulses.
Really have to wonder how the Vorlon banking system worked, or if they used money at all. No corporal bodies, but bank accounts?
Maybe they used gold pressed latinum…
They surely had access to enough valuable resources in their vast territory to trade for currency or whatever else they needed. Also, they were manipulating thousands of less advanced civilizations for millennia, so maybe they get them to pay each other.
Delenn didn’t say “one who is to come,” she said “The One who is to come” (as the closed captions render it), which I presume is a known figure from prophecy.
Aside from the contrivance of Neroon sacrificing himself rather than just stepping out of the circle with Delenn, and his out-of-the-blue death-spotlight conversion to the religious caste, this was a very strong episode. The stuff with Bester, Lyta, Zack, and Garibaldi was very effective. As for the Minbari stuff, it’s true that the episode did a fairly good job establishing Shakiri, but he was a bit of a caricature, and it would’ve been nice if he’d been established and developed over more episodes.
Also, the name “Starfire Wheel” plays a bit comically. “If both survive the Starfire Wheel, combat will continue with the Beast Boy Wheel.”
Zathras did declare Sheridan to be “the One who is to come” back at the end of “War Without End.” Sinclair was “the One who was,” Delenn “the One who is,” and Sheridan in the final role. Doesn’t mean he was right, but he did say it.
“No one ever listen to poor Zathras.”
Now I want to see “Fighting Pikes on the Nightwing”
KRAD, I guess it’s a good thing the command staff have been networking.
This episode reinforces two small things for me. First, Zack should have used a similar line with Garibaldi last episode as he does with Lyta (“I thought it better coming from me”). Second, Sheridan and the others really didn’t treat Lyta well. They could have easily put her on retainer or paid her for the assistance she gave during the war and after. Although it does give her more reasons to act as she does in Season 5.
A solid episode. I’ve always liked Neroon’s turn towards the end of the episode. Considering that he was a devoted follower of Branmer, who converted from religious to warrior caste during the Earth-Minbari War, it seems fitting that his arc would end with the opposite conversion.
I do agree, however, that it is a little quick, making it feel a bit contrived. One has to wonder if it would have been a more “supported” choice, had the Minbari Civil War played out over a longer stretch of episodes, as intended. JMS notes in the script books that this is the portion of the fourth season that was most condensed to make room for the resolution of the Earth Civil War and the consequential events. This version works fine, but one can see how it was shortened to bare essentials.
JMS also points out that condensing the Minbari Civil War also meant cutting out a lot of the material that would have culminated in the revelation at the end of the episode. While it does seem a little abrupt, I think there’s enough groundwork for Clark to step up his questionable activities. And boy, will aspects of the next episode feel awfully timely, given current events…
I think the rush to move things into position with Sheridan also leaves very little room for examining his treatment of Lyta, which is unfortunate. Yes, she’s being forced to move, but to smaller quarters, so she is still being afforded some degree of support. But it’s also clearly not enough. If Sheridan wants her around as a resource, which it appears he does, then he ought to be more willing to support her. But he has a lot of issues when it comes to telepaths, something that doesn’t get explored enough. Lyta’s choices down the line, particularly in Season 5, are a direct response to how she’s treated like an underling by our heroes.
I don’t think Neroon actually converted at the end, I think he was explicitly endorsing and supporting Delenn to the entirety of Minbar that was watching in the hopes of maintaining the peace.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
More than that, I think Neroon had to make it clear that he was sacrificing himself as a representative of the religious caste, because that was the only way it would be counted as a victory for the religious caste instead of the warrior caste.
Strictly speaking, a caste system is based on birth, so “converting” from one caste to another shouldn’t be possible. However, there are some caste systems that allow some degree of social mobility, and it stands to reason that “caste” is merely the English translation of a Minbari system that’s similar but not necessarily identical.
When Neroon first enters Shakiri’s office/quarters, is Shakiri
(1) working on a battle plan, or is he
(2) playing with a layout for a seaside resort?
I had to pause it. It looks like a pair of pretty little blue glass beach souvenir palm trees are features in his tabletop tactical tableau (about 7:45).
A minute later he stands up. The map he was drumming his fingers on has magically rolled up. But the soothing palm trees remain. (I’m not usually a shot continuity geek, but this time, the blue thingies just jumped out at me)
Fortunately the rest of the scene is tabletop model free so we can watch, undistracted, the procession of thoughts crossing Neroon’s face. We notice them, even if Shakiri doesn’t.
Shakiri’s last-minute introduction feels like a byproduct of the Minbari arc being shortened in order to wrap the show this season. It doesn’t help that Shakiri is a hypocritical villain in every aspect. No prior Minbari character estalblished in the show would ever offer Delenn to share the power in order to get out of a sacrificial ritual.
And now that I look at it, Shakiri is pretty much a MAGA personality, right down to his opposition to the prior war against Earth and his complete lack of honor and conviction. Seriously, he’s a thug offering to share power in order to save his hide. JMS inadvertently predicted the rise of morally bankrupt leaders.
And if the intent was to paint Neroon in a better light, Shakiri’s inclusion certainly wasn’t necessary. All the show needed was a Warrior Caste member that was more of a racist, warmongering hawk being the face of the civil war. Neroon was already on a path to redemption and spiritual rediscovery as it is.
Thankfully, Neroon’s sacrifice is a highlight in the show’s arc. I fully buy his deathbed conversion to the Religious Caste. Kudos to Vickery for an iconic performance. This arc, if anything, has showed us the vulnerable side of Neroon. He’ll be missed. His unmistakable voice too.
Delenn’s decision to reform the Council as Worker first is a welcome change, ending the Religious vs. Warrior power struggle and putting them under checks and balances. And people who build and get their hands dirty should always be the frontrunner choices in leadership.
Now, while I agree Delenn not warning Sheridan she’s embracing ritual suicide seems shortsighted, it’s not exactly out of character when it comes to her. Delenn has a long history of keeping things close to the vest, which can be attributed to her Minbari heritage as well as being an ambassador with an agenda of her own.
And it’s a good thing she didn’t call him. Had Sheridan known she was going to burn herself, he would have taken the first White Star available to Minbar and crash the ceremony, not only derailing her plans by creating new Human/Minbari tensions, but also derailing the entire campaign to take back Earth and the adjoining systems from Clark’s rule. Ivanova would have to take charge, but this is a story that needs Sheridan’s presence. He knows the commanders of the other Earthforce destroyers personally, and has the hardest time going against his own people in battle. And Sheridan stump speeches on the eve of battle are one-of-a-kind. Ivanova has a different temper and sense of humor.
The Garibaldi/Bester scene is the one I always point to whenever I want to bring up Garibaldi’s distaste for telepaths. A nice example of how someone would react if they had their minds scanned without consent. Bester certainly had a good day.
And the show thankfully allowed some time to develop Lyta’s story that will have repercussions next season, even if they didn’t know it would get renewed at the time. She’s the perfect character whose everyone else has no problem asking for help when they need her talents, but have no problem forgetting she exists otherwise. It’s a nice way to illuminate how 23rd century humanity is unable to handle the issue of telepaths in their midst and how a fascist organization like the Psi Corps exists at all.
The rise of morally bankrupt leaders surely has to be the easiest prediction to make.
Indeed — it wasn’t prediction, it was learning from history. There have always been such leaders — heck, the whole reason today’s crop are so bad is that they’re trying to turn things back to the bad old days and are blatantly copying the playbooks of their predecessors.
And there was nothing the least bit inadvertent about it. The past eight decades of science fiction have been full of works intentionally and loudly warning us that fascists would rise again if we let our guard down. The problem is that too many people didn’t pay attention to what they were saying and are now surprised to discover it was there all along.
Alexander isn’t part of B5’s working staff like Sheridan, Ivanova, Franklin, and Allan (who get paid by docking and repair fees), and she’s not part of an organization like Cole (it’s not stated explicitly, but the Rangers must have the means to support its members).
So why isn’t she part of B5’s working staff? They must have hundreds of people on payroll, surely securing the services of a telepath enhanced by Vorlons is in the budget, particularly since her needs seem to be fairly modest. While we’re here, it’s kind of funny that Sheridan raised holy hell when EarthGov wanted him to move to smaller quarters, ultimately soft-embezzling money from the military budget to maintain his status and now here he is, via the station’s bureaucracy, playing roughly the same game with Lyta. Things sure do look different when you’re the guy who has to make the books balance!
This was my question as well. Why on earth isn’t Lyta working for Sheridan? Hasn’t she proved her worth? I can’t think of any reason why Sheridan wouldn’t want her on the payroll, especially knowing how powerful she actually is. It feels like a plot contrivance to make her desperate enough to fall back in with the PsI Corps.
I suppose it is a contrivance in a way, but it doesn’t come out of nowhere. Sheridan in particular has consistently overlooked and devalued Lyta’s contributions. When push comes to shove, he doesn’t really trust her.
It’s even more important to keep people you don’t trust on the payroll. After all, you don’t trust them to stay loyal for free…
Well, yes, this does turn out to be a mistake on Sheridan’s part.
Apart from the fact that it doesn’t make a lick of sense that Lyta isn’t on the B5 payroll, I enjoyed this one. I agree it would’ve been nice had Delenn rang up Sheridan to say goodbye before leaping into the star fire or whatever it was called. Maybe she recorded a message for him the same way he did for her, but whoever she gave it to didn’t end up having to send it (I hope it wasn’t Lennier—that would have been awkward). I’m glad the review mentions that “the one who is to come” never actually arrives. That’s one more dangling thread I can safely ignore in a show that has no shortage of them
I’m guessing the scroll Delenn handed Lennier included, among other instructions, something like “give the data crystal you will find at X location to John Sheridan”. Lenneir would have done it too, awkwardness aside. And yes, she should have been aware from personal experience how inadequate a pre-recorded message would be.
I have to say, it was always a strain to my willing suspension of disbelief that the final hallowed recourse of Minbari dispute resolution is a game of chicken played by the faction leaders.
It is a little weird, but in a way, it fits what we know about Minbari society. At the very least, we know from Draal from the first season that the capacity for self-sacrifice is a key aspect the culture. Well, at least it is for the religious caste, though we see how that is also honored by some of the warrior caste as well (notably Neroon, observing Marcus willing to sacrifice himself for Delenn). So the idea that major disputes would be resolved by seeing who was more willing to sacrifice themselves for their ideals sounds like that tenet of Minbari society dialed up to 11.
It is explicitly described as an archaic relic of the time when the Minbari still made war upon each other. It makes about as much sense as resolving disputes through single combat or duelling, something with a bit of an historical pedigree in human societies but which has fallen by the wayside in recent centuries.
I think that’s a good analogy: if Sheridan had challenged Clark to a duel to settle the conlfict between Earth and B5, it would have presented a similar strain. Even in cultures with a tradition of single combat, actually resolving a war that way is AFAIK the province of legend.
(And even that can be skeptical about it, all the way back to the Iliad, which presents Menelaus and Paris explicitly fighting a duel to settle a war that unquestionably began as a personal dispute between the two men. Menelaus clearly bests Paris, who’s spared only by Aphrodite’s intervention, and so the Trojans say “fair cop” and give Helen back. Except of course they don’t, and the Iliad goes on for twenty more books and ends with the war still in progress.)
Aliens are alien, so there’s nothing that says that they can’t be like that. But the contrast between a starfaring people with millennia of experience in interspecies politics and the willingness to stick to a dispute resolution technique favored by adolescent boys with poor judgment just feels like a stretch. Not one that’s uncommon for SF, especially TV/film SF, where alien cultures’ laws and rituals often involve One Weird Trick that everyone agrees to abide by in a way that would be hard to believe if they were humans. (At least humans-like-us; stories are also more willing to ascribe similar things to humans if they’re exotic outsiders in some way.)
It does fit with much of what we know about Minbari. But at the same time, the fact that Shakiri is willing to defect from the ritual shows that Minbari aren’t all like that. Which raises questions about rest of the Warrior caste being suddenly persuaded by Neroon’s martyrdom, when this was previously important enough to them to start a civil war over, they were previously fine with Shakiri’s leadership (this presumably wasn’t his very first foray into expedience ever), and they haven’t actually been defeated.
That said, JMS had limited time and a lot of plots running, and Minbari internal affairs aren’t the central story of Babylon 5. As with the resolution of the Shadow War, if things feel a little simple, there isn’t time and space to deal with everything at the same level of depth. Especially with the expectation that everything has to be wrapped up this season. The Starfire Wheel isn’t a dealbreaker for me. But it is something I kind of have to consciously let slide.
Hey, what if the enemy leader had not been Shakiri, but Shakira? Would it have come down to a winner-take-all song and dance contest?
That starts to get close to the plot of Catherynne Valente’s “Space Opera”. :-)
(Which wasn’t for me, even though I found the premise intriguing, but evidently worked for enough people to snag nominations for the major awards.)
Interesting point. It _is_ single combat, but the weapon is self-sacrifice. It’s a great noble idea, but in practical application there are flaws.
Once your noble “champion” sacrifices themself, what do you have left? A collection of caste members who range from not-Quite-as-noble down to potentially venal and corrupt. Shakiri himself demonstrates that all Minbari aren’t as high-minded as Delenn and Neroon.
All your caste needs is the one loony with the biggest messiah complex–then you can do whatever you want afterward.
I always felt Alexander’s problem was too contrived. She had been a major asset for Sheridan during the Shadow Wars. One would think that he’d find a position for her in his organization, rather than letting her fend for herself.
I’ve always felt this way also, even though on this rewatch I don’t think it’s quite right. Sheridan (and most non-telepaths) have repeatedly shown attitudes ranging from aversion to antipathy toward telepaths. Sheridan saw telepaths as a weapon against the Shadows, not necessarily as people. A few episodes ago, Sheridan expected Alexander’s help without asking to hire her, and at the end he and Alexander did not part on the best of terms. So, on reflection, it does make sense to me that she’d be left out in the cold, much as I don’t want that to be the case.
That said, on this rewatch I’m seeing the authorial hand moving all the pieces around a lot more than on previous viewings. Even if most people don’t like telepaths, and even if Sheridan and Alexander don’t get along personally, surely Allen (who seems to be the closest thing to a friend she has right now) or Franklin (former telepath underground railroad runner) would try to find a way to make things right. But they don’t.
There’s also the problem of Sheridan’s characterization. Based on some of JMS’s comments and some of the things that we’ve seen in the show, we’re supposed to recognize that none of our main characters are paragons (and, for the most part, we do). They’re people who stepped up when the call came and thus became heroes, but they’re all imperfect and have their blind spots. And yet, with Sheridan, JMS seems to want to have him be a shining, square-jawed, mythic hero too. The tension between those two viewpoints is never resolved, but what’s shown on screen often leans more toward mythic hero than flawed human. I don’t think JMS is a deft enough writer (at least on B5) to get us to appreciate and evaluate that conflict ourselves, so instead we recoil when he mistreats Alexander (and Garibaldi). Surely this isn’t how our hero would behave.
For the record, even though I just walked through why it shouldn’t be out of character for Sheridan to behave that way, I still think it feels wrong too.
I’ve always seen Sheridan’s attitude to Lyta as falling into the “everyone’s a little bit racist” category. It’s not right and it made her situation and the telepath situation worse. He saw Telepaths as tools, most of society did. He also knew Bester had influenced Garibaldi to betray him, so any underlying negative feelings he had toward
Telepaths were reinforced.
Sheridan is also an example that one skill set doesn’t transfer to another job. Sheridan is a great military leader. He inspires people, who then go out and do what he orders. Politics is a whole different world. He was juggling a job that he wasn’t particularly suited for and dropping a lot of balls. It was easy for him to drop the Lyta ball because he didn’t care about her.
I did find it odd that Zach didn’t try to help her more and, as you noted Franklin should have shown more compassion. I also think Delenn dropped the ball. She came from a culture that revered Telepaths, she had interacted with Lyta and she had political experience. She should have stepped up, but that wasn’t the story JMS was telling.
I’m sure he was setting up the conditions for the Telepath War. He may also have been showing how society doesn’t support their soldiers after a war. We didn’t give Vietnam veterans the support they needed and deserved. We still don’t give veterans the support they deserve. Lyta, like them just wasn’t important enough to anyone, after the Vorlons left.
He also knew Bester had influenced Garibaldi to betray him, so any underlying negative feelings he had toward
Telepaths were reinforced.
At this point in the story, none of the opening credits characters has any idea or reason to believe Bester influenced Garibaldi in any way
Heck, even the audience didn’t have any evidence that Bester influenced Garibaldi until the closing scenes of this episode when Bester implied it in his voiceover. (Alert viewers might have suspected he’d been influenced by Psi Corps and reasoned that Bester might have something to do with it, but there was no direct evidence of that until now.)
I seem to be fated to consistently run 10-14 days behind on a variety of blogs and forums I follow including Reactor.
Which means a Princess Bride quote hits a lot differently today that it would have back on December 8th.