Contents: Overview - Backplot - Questions - Analysis - Notes - JMS

Overview

A violent attack on a Minbari poet rocks B5 and leaves Sinclair scrambling to flush out a vicious pro-Earth group. Two star-crossed young Centauri lovers seek Londo's protection. Ivanova is shaken when a man from her past arrives at the outpost. Nancy Lee Grahn as Shaal Mayan. Danica McKellar as Aria Tensus. Rodney Eastman as Kiron Maray. Tristan Rogers as Malcolm Biggs. Michael Paul Chan as Roberts.

Sub-genre: Suspense
P5 Rating: 6.82

Production number: 107
Original air date: March 9, 1994
DVD release date: November 5, 2002

Written by D. C. Fontana
Directed by Richard Compton

Backplot

• The Homeguard, a radical pro-Earth group, has wide support among humans, and is growing in popularity back on Earth.
• Shaal Mayan is a renowned Minbari poet. "I create and perform Tee'la," she says: "poem songs that attempt to recall old memories and prompt new ideas."
• The only two human beings ever to have direct contact with a Vorlon have since been transferred to Earth - Dr. Kyle to work closely with the president (cf "Infection"), and the telepath Lyta Alexander just a week later. Neither of them shared their experiences with anyone on the station. (cf "The Gathering")
• Londo has three wives, all of them arranged marriages, all of them "great sacrifices." "They inspire me! Knowing that they are waiting at home for me is what keeps me here, 75 light years away."
• Ivanova used to be involved with a fellow named Malcolm Biggs, but left him when she enlisted in Earth Force 8 years ago.
• More insight into Londo's personality and Minbari beliefs:
  Mayan: Ambassador, you should listen to the girl. We Minbari consider love to be a most potent force for healing. She cares deeply for him. Such feelings can turn the tide when all else fails.
  Londo: Oh I see. And if he dies, despite this great power of lo-
  Mayan: If he dies, she will suffer enormous grief, but every moment together will make her grief a little less.
  Londo: I would expect such logic from a poet. What can a Minbari know about Centauri feeling?
  Mayan: Ambassador, I have traveled far and seen much. And what I have seen tells me that all sentient beings are defined by their capacity and need for love.
  Londo: And she will learn to live without it!
  Mayan: As you did?
  
• [later...]
  Vir: Kiron may die because our "glorious" tradition values wealth and power over love.
  Londo: My shoes are too tight.
  Vir: Excuse me?
  Londo: 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.

Unanswered Questions

• The black light camouflage suits worn by the Homeguard henchmen were developed by Earth Force; friends of Malcolm's procured some prototypes for them. Is a faction of Earth Force actually backing the Homeguard for its own reasons?
• Londo seems to have had a troubled childhood (see Backplot). What happened that he's so aggressive and melancholy? None of the other Centauri seem particularly so.
• Why is Kosh studying human history, as Sinclair's conversation with him appears to reveal, especially when he says "We have no interest in the affairs of others?" Perhaps for some reason Kosh does not consider humans "others." Or perhaps by "affairs" he meant the passing events of the day, as compared to the millennia of a civilization.

Analysis

• The Homeguard sign branded onto Shaal Mayan's forehead is a combination of male and female symbols from ancient Greek mythos. Perhaps it's a contemporary symbol for humankind.
• Vir passed himself off as the Centauri ambassador in letters to his cousins, and later rebukes Londo to his face about his decision on the matter. This is quite bold compared to the quavering fop he's been before.
• Londo's nicknames for his wives are "Pestilence, Famine, and Death" - three of the four horsemen of the apocalypse from ancient Christian mythos. Who is the fourth horseman War? Perhaps Londo himself.
• Talking to Kosh about the attacks on non-humans, Sinclair breaks off right after asking him to "lend a hand." Not long later Sinclair wonders aloud to Ivanova how an assassin had managed to poison Kosh on the "hand," through his encounter suit. (cf "The Gathering")
• Sinclair was brusque and callous to Delenn and the Abbai agricultural representative at the diplomatic reception. He also declared to the assembled Council that the hate-crime investigation was closed, offering neither arrests nor evidence of safety. This was part of his ruse to win the Homeguard's trust, but he may still have injured his reputation with other races.
• The Homeguard plot on the station was, according to its leader Malcolm Biggs, part of a much bigger plot to kill prominent aliens all over the Earth Alliance.
• Black light camouflage is a similar technology to the chameleon net the assassin used in "The Gathering." However, it requires an entire body-suit and only works while the user is motionless. No mention was made of what was done with the four suits captured with the Homeguard henchmen - Garibaldi may have stashed them away somewhere. And it's unlikely that those were the only four suits in existence; perhaps the technology will be seen again (cf. "Babylon Squared".)

Notes

• Mayan, a childhood friend of Delenn's, arrived on the station on a tour of other worlds. Earth was to have been her next stop.
• Mayan (of her attacker): "All I could see was a shadow. It was a shadow, that is all I know."
  (cf "Signs and Portents", perhaps?)
• Ivanova is illegally growing coffee in the station hydroponics area.
• Kosh speaks.
  [...]
  Sinclair: Meanwhile it might be helpful if you spoke with the other ambassadors.
  Kosh: We take no interest in the affairs of others.
  Sinclair: Well I hope you'll reconsider. If you could give us a hand, we -
  Kosh: Yes?
  Sinclair: Nothing. We'll respect your wishes. [pause]
  That's quite a viewer. I've never seen anything like it before. What is it?
  Kosh: Efficient.
  Sinclair: Those are images from my world. If I may ask, what are you -
  Kosh: I am studying.
  Sinclair: Studying what?
  Kosh: [shuts down]
• The images on Kosh's levitating viewer were zoom-ins on pictorial records from Earth history throughout the span of its civilization.

jms speaks

• Correct; the title of "The War Prayer" is a nod to Twain's piece of the same name, which should be read by *everyone*. Given the growing problems with illiteracy, I try to refer not to pop society so much, as to literature...Tennyson, Twain, even writers whose last names don't begin with T.

• Of course, you're assuming that a Centauri year is the same as our year. The speed of light is constant...but defined by us by our own 12-month year. For instance, in one episode, we mention that B5 is 12 of our light years from the Narn homeworld, which is equal to about 10 of their years.

  So without knowing the Centauri year, the figures are faulty.

• For those out there who still think the skin tab getting through Kosh's encounter suit was an error...we're going to be dealing with that, and some other interesting threads in [this] episode. Sinclair comments on the whole question of how the poison ever got into him...and notes how curious it is that, within weeks of that incident, Dr. Kyle was transferred back to Earth to work directly with the Earth Alliance President on matters of alien immigration, and Lyta Alexander was similarly transferred a week or so after that. The only two people to have personal knowledge of a Vorlon have been shipped off and possibly locked up.

• By the way...on the Kosh poisoning thread, which was originally to be discussed in "Parliament"...we ended up about 3 minutes long on "Parliament," and three minutes short on D.C. Fontana's "War Prayer." So we lifted that scene and inserted it into her episode, doing a small bit of ADR to facilitate the move. It's now quite seamless.

• Why was Delenn unfamiliar with poetry in "The Gathering?"
  For the Minbari, it's tee'la, which is a kind of poem-song, sort of. Delenn was mainly just unfamiliar with the term.

• Y'know...it's a funny old world. And sometimes it just astonishes you.

  About 2 months ago, one of our freelancers turned in a script that has to do with a hate group, in the course of which a guest character -- a Minbari -- is attacked and has her head branded with the symbol of the group.

  So you will doubtless understand my astonishment when I turned on DS9 and saw the same thing happen.

  Unfortunately, we've already shot that episode, it's in the can, so ther nothing we can do about it now. Further -- and let me be totally clear about this -- there's no way that DS9 could've borrowed the idea from us, or in any way been influence by us, and no way we could've been influenced by them. To get on the air now, they would've had to shoot their episode some time before the writer turned in that draft for our show. And none of us were in any way aware of what was going on there until we saw it the night of the broadcast...and came in the next day with looks of absolute shock.

  These things do happen...and when you're dealing with similar general areas -- humans vs. aliens, or one alien group vs. another alien group -- then something like this becomes inevitable. And given the foreheads on Ferengi, and the foreheads on Minbari, the obviousness of that target becomes clear. Still, it's amazing when it happens. And I guess I just wanted it to be clear when this thing airs that the sequence in our show was in the can and done when the DS9 episode aired.

• We're in discussions to see if there's any way we can cut this from the show...the only problem is that the brand stays on throughout the show. If it were just in one shot, we'd cut the shot and find some other way around it. The only way we can lose it now would be if we literally wiped off the brand by going into every frame in which it appears and digitally removing it from the frame...which is a *real* pain in the butt...but we are considering it.

• The points made above are essentially correct; the brand goes on in the very top of the show, in the teaser, and stay on throughout the episode...and part of the story is dealing with this, and what it means. An offer is made to remove it, but the victim decides *not* to have it removed, because there are lessons in these things...and it becomes almost a badge of defiance.

  In addition to the notes here, I've received a whole bunch of email notes saying to leave it in, on the grounds that it *does* happen in real life (or incidents close to it), and how we're handling it *is* very different. (Some indicated that it can illustrate how the two hows handle their themes in different ways.) So it's a tough call ...to change would also mean some re-shooting...but given the responses here, I think it's okay to leave it in place.

  File this one away the next time someone asks, "What sort of ways has the BBS discussion actually affected Babylon 5?"

• There is some limited life within the garden...some birds (which you can hear sometimes), and insects, and the like. (In one shot you can see an insect fly off one of our actors. Yeah, sure, like we planned that....) It's generally one season in the Garden, and plants requiringvariation are raised in a separate hydroponics area, such as the orchard (seen in "War Prayer").

• Lennier is not in the cargo area during the beating, nor is he in BG during the negotiations. That's a Minbari of the worker class. (You can generally tell from the orange-ish smock-thingie they wear.) Sorry.

Last update: June 10, 2018