A Day in the Strife
Reviewed by Lady Keela Shanri
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This is a slice-of-life episode of Babylon 5, seemingly quiet on the outside but full of important character development and foreshadowing on the inside, with no fewer than FIVE seperate plotlines going on at once! I have NO idea which one would be the "A-plot" and what order of importance they would go in as they all seemed to get just about equal screen time, so I'll talk about them each in random order. And yes, some of them DO eventually hook into some of the others.
I'll start with the plotline which I liked LEAST--the "probe" one. It was just TOO typical sci-fi and felt tacked-on, or like it was filler. Although it DID tie in well to one of the other plots, and it DID allow our boy Corwin, the tech-with-a-personality, to get probably the very best line of the entire episode:
Ivanova: "If I get through this job without going COMPLETELY insane, it will be a miracle of BIBLICAL proportions."
Corwin: "There goes MY faith in the Allmighty!"
What was this plotline actually ABOUT? Oh, that. Well, what it was about was that this really funky-looking alien probe shows up and tells B5 that they can give them advanced technology and solve all their diseases and such, IF they can answer me these questions three--erm, I mean, answer about 600 questions in complex areas of technology and science. Fine, great. But here's the kicker--they have to answer ALL 600 questions correctly within only 24 HOURS--or else the probe will go KABLOOEY and take B5 with it!
The deadline keeps getting closer and closer, but they DO get all the info, and as the very last minutes tick away, Sheridan suddenly stops and thinks about it. He figures out--correctly--that instead of giving them new technology and stuff if they pass the test, that this race--WHOEVER they are--is trying to figure out who is advanced enough to pose a THREAT to them! So instead of having stressed-out Ivanova send the information, he lets the deadline pass.
And the probe...goes away.
But then Sheridan, thinking of the probe's next potential victim, has a maintainence bot transfer the information to it instead, and THEN the probe blows up--and takes the bot with it, but not the station. Problem solved, and all it took was Ivanova's sanity. (The banter between Ivanova and Sheridan is quite funny through the entire episode, including in the "strike" plotline, which is the only space that one will get here. Just in case you're counting plots and only come up with four...)
And here is one of the examples of a plot merging with another one...a lot of the questions the probe asks are medical in nature, so the burden of answering them falls directly on the good Dr. Stephen Franklin. Which forces him to take more stims to stay awake, as he is VERY stressed and hardly getting any sleep at all and now has even MORE pressure on him than usual (and the usual is considerable--THIRTY-SIX HOUR SHIFTS?! GACK!). So that brings us into the next plotline--Franklin's stim addiction FINALLY comes to light.
This problem of his HAS been hinted at in several earlier episodes. For example, Dr. Laura Rosen in the first season's "The Quality of Mercy" got kicked out of her job because she was addicted to stims--and her reasons for getting hooked were practically IDENTICAL to Franklin's. Then in later episodes we see him acting, from time to time, JUST as cranky and snappy as he is here. Then we thought (or would have if we hadn't seen the episodes out of order) that it was just his natural personality, but now that we've seen him inject himself and THEN act EXACTLY the same way...his actions in the earlier episodes comes to light. Garibaldi's compassion and friendship is just what the good doctor needs, whether he wants it or not. However, the problem is NOT solved--it's getting worse, now that Franklin is outright LYING about his addiction...
Garibaldi seems to be awfully good at befriending people for a guy who claims he's so "hard-nosed"--Sinclair, Ivanova, Londo, Franklin--and now, starting, with G'Kar. Which segués us into our NEXT plotline.
You may recall that in "The Long, Twilight Struggle" that G'Kar was kicked out of his office as Ambassador and that the Centauri would be choosing who would speak for the Narns from now on. Well, for a while there they had NO Ambassador at all. Here we finally see the new one--the "collaborator" (as the Bajorans would call him)...a slick dog named Na'Far. He arrives on the station with his bodyguard Ta'Lon--who happens to be the exact same Narn captain that Sheridan was kidnapped with in "All Alone in the Night"! The scene where the two of them renew their accquaintance and remind us briefly of where and how they met was a very nice touch. Anyway, the riots that almost started, Narn against Narn, in the hallways (and I find it interesting that Narn warriors evidently use SAMURAI SWORDS!) and the prospect of G'Kar leaving were, bad as they looked here, actually just shades of things to come. Another shade of things to come is seen in Garibaldi's trying to convince G'Kar not to go back to Narn because he KNOWS, as everybody does, that if G'Kar goes back there, he will be killed. There is no WAY they'd let the last of the Kha'Ri live. (They want him to leave B5 because they're worried about the influence he STILL has over the Narns there, and because he seems to be stirring up a resistance movement--both of which are true.) This is the first evidence of the friendship between Garibaldi and G'Kar.
The descriptions of exactly how bad the situation is back on Narn and the threats against peoples' families are chilling, but not anywhere NEAR as chilling as Londo's attitude. Which takes us into yet ANOTHER plotline.
This plotline, being the Centauri one, is of course my favourite. And yet it chilled me absolutely to the BONE. Before, I've been able to excuse Londo's evil behaviour by saying that he did not KNOW exactly who he was dealing with--as when Morden "took care of" the problem in Quadrant 37 without telling Londo HOW he was going to do that ahead of time (kill 10,000 Narns), or that he was being misguided by even MORE evil souls--as when Lord Refa got him to--reluctantly--agree to help with the bombing of the Narn homeworld by pointing out how many Centauri lives it would SAVE. But this time...I don't know HOW to apologise for him. I don't think I can. I don't even know if I SHOULD. I'm referring to his HORRIFYING string of questions to Na'Far and his conversation with Vir afterwards--he asks if the forced-labour camps, the relocation centres, the mining pits, and the EXECUTIONS--are all continuing as planned, and when the Narn says "yes" to all of those, Londo's scary answer is "Progress."
OOohhhh....
And when Vir confronts him about it, his explanation is that it's not enough to take their world, they also have to take their PRIDE. (In another one of those parallells B5 does so well, Na'Far confronts G'Kar about HIS pride shortly afterwards.) If they don't BREAK them as well as defeat them, then the Narns will still remain a threat to the Centauri.
Londo. Londo, Londo, Londo. This has got to be one of your darkest hours. No-one forced you to say those horrible things, no-one lied you into it, no-one held back any information or manipulated you--that came out of your OWN mouth, willingly. And you MEANT it. Sigh.
Or DID he? Really? Bear in mind--usually when Londo is at his angriest towards other people, it is because he's REALLY angry at HIMSELF...
On the other hand, in the EXACT SAME EPISODE, he shows his good side, too. He goes to talk to Delenn about getting Vir appointed as Ambassador to Minbar (and here's a question--he said that he had done things for her in the past. WHICH things? When? Somehow, the idea of those two characters working together just NEVER occurred to me.) For a moment, he shows real feeling for poor little Vir--that he has grown to really care about him in the past two years, and he's worried about him, thinks he won't be able to handle the "coming darkness". When Delenn pries further into his feelings, he instantly retreats into "bluster mode" and goes on about how Vir is a "pox" and "a stone around my neck."
But he MEANT what he said the FIRST time...
She accepts his proposal, eventually ("He would not even spy on your government! He would consider it rude.") and Vir is indeed shipped off. This scene is as bittersweet as they come. Londo makes some cracks about how Vir is getting promoted, he "will have more money, more prestige. Women may EVEN come to find you attractive! In time." but there is an undertone of "laughing away the tears" here--being silly to cover the TRUE emotions. And then the oh-so-poignant line:
Vir: "But you'll be all alone!"
Londo: "I have always been alone."
Shudder...
Londo is getting Vir sent away for TWO reasons--one kind, as he really does want to protect him from the coming great danger, and one selfish--as he wants to get rid of his...conscience, so that he won't be bothered by it/him when he does even further evil deeds.
Oooohhh....
How can you LOVE a character and HATE him so much in the SAME FRAGGING EPISODE?! Either he's schizoid or I am...my money's on BOTH.
In the end, B5 does what it does best in this episode--make you think, and somehow feel two TOTALLY conflicting emotions at once!
And so, with that, dear readers, I leave you for tonight. Valtoo!
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