Believers
Reviewed by Keela Shanri
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This was a quiet episode, but well-written. I did not like it very much the first time but on second viewing I got more out of it. This episode will never be a favourite of mine or go down in the great annals of Babylon 5 history, but it was definitely NOT bad, either.
I would describe it as rather...Star Trek-ish. Because of its "let's all try to accept each other's differences" philosophy. And it's not surprising that I would see a similarity to that show, considering that Believers was written by DAVID GERROLD, the same guy who wrote the The Trouble With Tribbles. Also, the actress who played the alien boy's mother, Tricia O'Neill, has been on "Trek" several times. She's kinda of a "Ms. Every-Alien".
On to the plot itself. First, to get the only truly bad part of this episode out of the way. The subplot involving Ivanova, the raiders, and the Asimov. There was NO point to this. It was strictly filler material, designed to give the people who only watch science fiction for the space battles something to get their attention and keep them from changing the channel during the more sedate and more intelligent rest of the episode. I honestly could not see any other point to it. Now, if Ivanova had discovered something really CREEPY and mysterious while she was out there, and it was NOT resolved by the end of the episode, and turned into this big mystery in subsequent episodes and even seasons and kicked off a major plotline, WELL, then it might have been excusable. But in this case, it was PURE filler. Oh, sure, it gave us a couple of cute lines "Maybe I'll try pacing fro and to for a change!", but nothing more.
And now on to the episode's REAL plot. It concerns this young alien boy who is going to die from a blockage in his breathing passages UNLESS Dr. Franklin does a very simple and easy operation on him. The problem? A doozy--this species believes that if your body is cut open, your soul escapes and you are nothing but an animal, or a suffering shell, afterwards. "Food animals are cut open", says the mother to Franklin. "It's all right because they don't have a soul. But Chosen Ones must NEVER be punctured."
Sounds like a silly belief to Franklin and to almost all of his superior officers, but the fact is, Babylon 5 was meant to be a neutral meeting place for members of all races, and to violate their beliefs like that, by operating on the kid, would be to throw away that ideal and make B5 a laughing stock. And these people very, very DEEPLY believe in this. They are religious FANATICS. For example, they won't even let their kid watch videos while he's laying there dying because it would "expose him to inappropriate ideas!" REAL fanatics. Brrr...
Well, after the parents appeal to all the alien ambassadors for help and they all refuse, and after Franklin asks for permission from Sinclair and doesn't get it--he operates anyway. The boy lives--but his parents, when they see that he is still animate, think that his body must have been possessed by a DEMON, and they pull a knife on Franklin. They then say that they have nothing more to say to him and will be taking "the boy" away now. Franklin finds out that what they REALLY mean to do is to KILL him ritually so that his "shell" can be put out of its pain and his lost spirit will still have a chance to make it to their heaven.
This is an intelligent script. It's shades of grey. No-one is all the way right, or all the way wrong. It makes you think, it's deeply philosophical, and it brings up interesting religious issues. "Who's to say if their beliefs are wrong?" says Sinclair to Franklin. "Maybe if ONE religion is right, they ALL have to be. Maybe God doesn't care HOW you say your prayers as long as you SAY them."
"What if there isn't any God at all?" says Franklin. "I sometimes think that we'd all be better off if God--if the IDEA of God--had never been invented."
On the one hand, the parents did indeed have their right to believe the way they choose and to raise their child with those beliefs. No matter WHAT the cost.
And on the other hand, Stephen Franklin took an oath to save lives whenever he could. No matter WHAT the cost.
Who's right and who's wrong? Nobody, really. But for all that moral and philosophical struggling and rationalisation, the child dies anyway at the end and it was all for nothing.
Or was it?
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