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

Overview

Londo uses G'Kar and Vir to gain power in the Centauri Royal Court. Sheridan is consumed by his analysis of the Shadows' strategies. Louis Turenne as Brother Theo. William Forward as Lord Refa.

P5 Rating: 8.71

Production number: 320
Original air week: September 8, 1996 (UK)
		   October 14, 1996 (US)
DVD release date: August 12, 2003

Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by David Eagle

Watch For

• A Centauri guard leaving his post.
• A musical allusion.

Backplot

• The Minbari have been constructing a fleet of warships based on the White Star design. They are manned by Rangers.
• Sheridan has stayed away from Delenn up until now because "she has enough problems of her own."
• There is a thriving underground on Earth opposing President Clark.
• Na'Toth is believed to have been on Narn at the time of the Centauri attack ("The Long, Twilight Struggle.")

Unanswered Questions

• What does the countdown to Z refer to? (See Analysis)
• Why didn't Delenn inform Sheridan of the fleet of White Star-class ships before now?
• How long have the Minbari been building the ships?
• How big is the White Star fleet?
• What will Sheridan use the data crystal given to him by the Reverend for?
• Will Virini use the data crystal that Londo gave him? Will it result in Refa's family being discredited?
• Will G'Kar respect Londo more now that he has freed the Narns, or does he see Londo's ploy as purely self-serving?
• How did Londo get G'Kar to listen to him long enough to describe the plot, and how did he convince G'Kar it wasn't a trick?
• Virini mentions that Londo's house is gathering a lot of funds. Where is Londo getting the money?
• Did Refa's telepath find out about any of the activities Vir has been involved in, such as his work to help the Narn?
• What is the real reason for the Shadows' attack pattern?
• Is Na'Toth in fact still alive?

Analysis

• It seems likely that the "Z Minus..." times refer to Z'ha'dum, but they might also refer to a more specific "Zero Hour." The question remains, what happens at Z? A Shadow offensive? An offensive against Z'ha'dum? Someone's arrival on or from Z'ha'dum?
• G'Kar, in cooperating with Londo and killing Refa, has become an unwitting help to Londo in serving the Shadows. His desire for revenge against Refa and his need to save a small number of his people seems to have served the Shadows' greater purposes, at least to the extent that Londo's good fortune is part of their plans.
• G'Kar may have been in on Londo's plan even before he left Babylon 5, possibly even before Vir spoke to him. The story about Na'Toth was solely intended to lure Refa to Narn; there was no need for Londo to deceive G'Kar about his intentions, since G'Kar would almost certainly have been willing to risk a trip to Narn for the sake of two thousand prisoners.
• If the already-poisoned Refa could be considered "one who is already dead," Londo may have just passed by one of his prophesized chances for redemption.
• Neroon's statement in "Grey 17 is Missing" that non-Warrior Minbari had constructed ships may have been foreshadowing of the fleet revelation.
• Why did Delenn find Sheridan's attempt to think like the Shadows so abhorrent? Are there things about them she knows but hasn't revealed yet that would cause that reaction?
• Delenn said that the first wave of White Star-class ships was now ready. How many waves are planned?
• Now that Londo thinks he has avenged Adira's death ("Interludes and Examinations") will he be less eager to continue dealing with the Shadows? And will he ever discover that it was Morden, not Refa, who arranged to have her killed?
• A few readers have commented that since a replica of the Centauri throne room is being built on Narn, perhaps that's where Sheridan's flashforward ("War Without End, Part Two") takes place. That's unlikely, though, since Londo forces Sheridan to look out the window and see the devastated landscape of Centauri Prime.

Notes

• The song from which the title is derived, "No Hiding Place," refers to the Book of Revelation, in which man attempts to hide from the wrath of God in mountains and rocks. Revelation 6:15-17.
• During Refa's death scene, as the vocalist sings, there's a closeup of G'Kar just as she sings the name "Jesus." G'Kar-as-Jesus allusions are found elsewhere in the series as well, but this may be the most direct one.
• The mass driver attack affected the climate of Narn much as it's theorized a nuclear winter or asteroid/comet strike would affect Earth: the particles thrown up by the asteroids used in the bombardment have created a layer in Narn's atmosphere blocking out the sunlight and altering the heating of the atmosphere, which has disrupted the wind patterns on the planet.
• Refa's death scene may be a homage to "Cabaret," one of JMS' favorite films. See jms speaks.

jms speaks

• Where does the title come from?
  It's from an old gospel song/spiritual.

• Did Harlan Ellison suggest it?
  No, as a rule, Harlan doesn't suggest titles; "Rock" came from the quote from the Bible, which was later made into a gospel song, used in the show. So it's a real song, though I did write 2 for "Walkabout."

• Why's it called that? Because it's quite appropos. How do we fit it? Not a big deal. Longest title up to now was one I did for MURDER, SHE WROTE, a quote from Moby Dick, "To The Last Shall I Grapple With Thee."

• The song in "Rock" is an old gospel song. I've always had a soft spot for old gospel songs and spirituals because of their wonderful use of language and imagery, and you can dance to 'em. Not that I dance, but the theory is there, at least.

• My own take on "And The Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place," which airs tomorrow in the UK...I like it. The Brother Theo stuff is a tad stilted in a couple of places, but it's only a couple of minutes, and the rest works real well. It's a very subversive episode in its way, and a part of it still creeps me out.

• I like symmetry...both as a word, and as a concept. It plays into the show a lot, showing the balance that the universe tends to impose whether we like it or not. What goes around, comes around.

• Some of the Narn buildings looked like Hiroshima after the atomic bomb. Intentional?
  Yes, there was some element of that. It's not a moral judgment thing, but a referential point. As for Narn architecture overall, I told them I wanted sort of an alien culture as the Soviet Union might've designed it.... everything tending toward the blocky, the functional, less aesthetic than you would find on Minbar. This is a culture that has crawled up from war, and functionality is more important.

• Was there a Narn standing in the queue of telepaths?
  Not in the queue, but providing security within the station... remember, many of the Narns have joined B5 security.

• We're generally very careful about what aliens show up in what scenes.

• Was the fact that the countdown started at 14 days an intentional reference to the season finale being two weeks later?
  Somewhat intentional; in the long run, the show will end up either aired daily, or stripped weekly, so either way the 14 days until climax works well, as it does now for the UK.

• The countdown aspect does add a lot to this, gives it a forward momentum and a kind of subliminal ominousness. And as for the Refa situation presented in counterpoint...I love how that came out. It's almost subversive in a way...just gives me the quiet chills.

• Re: the rabbi singing the gospel song...a couple of points. First, if you're visiting someone's church, it's only considered polite behavior to go along with what's there. I have a number of Catholic friends who would sometimes go to temple with Jewish friends...and when it came time to sing, would do so. Why should it not work the other way around?

  Second, as I seem to recall, the line about "no hiding place" is taken from the Old Testament, which forms a substantial portion of Judaic teachings (but not the whole of it, a mistake many make). Yes, there's some later stuff worked in, but the heart of it is from a common ground.

• Waitaminnit...I retract part two of my reply...I think I just stooged the origins of that song.

  (whaddyawant from me, I just spent 12 hours putting my hard drive back together....)

• About the juxtaposition of Refa's fate with the song
  It's comical...and it ain't comical...it's designed to elicit conflicting emotions, between what you *are* feeling, what you *should* be feeling, and so on. I like uneasy laughter....

• That was one of those scenes which, when you do it, you know it's gonna stay around for a while....

• When I thought of that one, I just sat there and grinned. It's so perverse, but yet so appropriate, all at the same time. Just to further add a bit of creepiness to it, in the sound mix I had the editors verb up the music toward the fade out, so it had a slightly distorted edge to it. The details are everything in a scene like that.

• Vir has to be *very* careful...he's on the razor's edge these days. The higher up you go, the more you know, the higher the stakes and the greater the risk of choosing badly.

  Re: "funny yet chilling," those are the scenes I love most...the ones where you're utterly conflicted, it's grotesque or frightening on the one hand, and comic or absurd on the other. It leaves you uncertain which way to jump emotionally, and I love that feeling...caught betwixt and between.

• Originally in response to "Severed Dreams." "Cabaret" is one of JMS' favorite movies.
  In a sense, it's going from one emotion or thematic element to a very different, but equally strong one, either as bookends or through intercutting. Going from the high of the victory, to the sudden shot of the dead troops, is thematic counterpoint.

  Here's another...in "Cabaret" you've got a scene where the performers in the Cabaret are doing the sort of German dance where you slap your knees and thighs and chest...and they take it a bit further, slapping one another, it's all for comic effect...but during this, you're intercutting the owner of the cabaret being beaten to within an inch of his life by some Brownshirts outside. You go from comic to brutal and back, with the result that the happy little dance suddenly takes on ugly characteristics, and the beating takes on the sense that the participants are having a sick kind of fun, that it's all just another kind of dance, a ritual.

  That's what you have to look at as a writer...how this scene works, and how it interacts with the scenes in front, behind and "beside" it (for things happening simultaneously). Sometimes, with the proper counterpoint, you can add whole new levels of meaning to a scene, or make the scene much stronger than it would've been on its own.

• That was an elaborate scheme if the goal was simply to have Refa killed.
  Londo points out that he could easily have killed Refa elsewhere...as he says, the point was to do it on Narn so that he could dishonor his house back home.

• Was William Forward the one who said, "Why me?" as mentioned in one of your Usenet messages?
  Yes, it was with the actor who plays Refa that I had that conversation. He was initially bummed out, figured I was doing what I was doing in "Rock" because I wasn't happy with his performance or something. So I pulled him aside and explained the situation, and indicated that we'd likely use him again as an alien character, under prosthetics. If he hadn't done such a good job, this wouldn't have happened, because no one would've cared about the character.

• You said a major character would die in season 3. Refa wasn't major.
  Well, given that Refa has been around for two years, and Keffer was only in a few in one season, I'd hardly put them in the same league. Part of all this is how you define "major." Usually, I've refrained from using that term...I would say someone you've seen since the first year, for instance, or an important character.

  Certainly I was primarily referring to Kosh in my original note about all this...but a lot of folks took that and extended it past that point, which I just let go rather than correct, because the show should do any correcting.

• I think the message of mine you're referring to are the ones I wrote with Kosh in mind, not Refa. But since I obviously couldn't say that at the time, some of it sloshed over into how folks viewed later episodes.

• Will 500 Narns die in retaliation?
  Except, of course, that going on at length about the death of Refa would require revealing what he was doing there...and I doubt very much that the Royal Court would like even the suspicion that one of its own was making deals with the Narns to become public knowledge...so it's extremely unlikely that there would be any retribution. This is one the Centauri would prefer to sweep under the rug, I think.

• Why didn't Refa's allies help him?
  Bear in mind that all of Refa's people were *back on Centauri Prime*. He didn't bring them with him; to send word to Centauri Prime to bring them all the way out here, then on to Narn, would double the time required to get there, and by then the "rescue" would've been over. That was part of Londo's scheme...he wouldn't have much time, he had to get in and get out. Refa only brought a few with him, and they were needed to watch Londo and guard Vir.

  As for the Centauri back home...you proceed from the assumption that all Centauri act as one. I'm basing this somewhat on the early Roman civilization and government, where one side would sell out the other, arrange for deaths and murders, turn people over to their hated enemies as long as it advanced their position, or if they were allied with persons of power on a particular side. Why did the Roman guards escorting Tiberius (a much less worthy emperor) kill the heir to the throne in "I, Claudius" (a much better leader, and well liked among the military)? Because they were told to do so.

  SF in TV has the tendency to portray aliens as monolithic...they put the good of their species as a whole above everything else. Some do that; some do not. Just as with humans.

• Refa had a flashlight, not a gun.

• Refa was his last name/family name.

• Minister Virini looked disappointed by the outcome.
  Not sure it was so much a look of disappointment as..."Okay, I know something here isn't on the level...but he's got it very well surrounded...and is it worth sticking out my neck to get into this?"

• Why wasn't Na'Toth replaced?
  I briefly considered giving G'Kar a second, after the revolving door Na'Toths, but as I looked at it...as you say, the others all DO have one like that, and I figured it might be good to have someone *without* that...especially after the fall of Narn, when the staff would be canceled. And there's something I like about G'Kar being alone in all this. Anyway, it varies the mix a bit.

• Why did G'Kar help Londo?
  Well, you combine the release of 2,000 prisoners, many of whom were likely resistance fighters, and the payback to one who orchestrated the bombing of Narn, and that adds up to a pretty good incentive to get Refa even WITHOUT Londo's presence in the deal.

• I wouldn't say they hate one another any less now than before; and yes, he would've sent word to G'Kar and arranged a private meeting, just the two of them.

• These two characters, Londo and G'Kar, are linked at the hips. That is their beauty and their tragedy. And you will see some new colors to this in the first part of season 4. This story is as much about them as anyone else.

• I think that if Londo sent word via the Babcom unit that he wanted a one-to-one with G'Kar, and that thousands of Narn lives were on the line, he would come. G'Kar has nothing to fear from Londo as long as he's on B5...and if anything, I think he'd be amused if Londo did try anything.

• Wayne Alexander was listed as playing G'Dan. Which one was he?
  He was the Narn who first met G'Kar on their homeworld; the only one with any lines.

  Wayne has a considerably larger role in year 4 as an alien named Lorien.

• Why doesn't Vir leave Londo now?
  I don't know if Vir really has anywhere else to go....

• John and Delenn kissing in front of a big group of warships seemed a little odd.
  I guess it's really a matter of perspective. It depends on what the fleet is *there* for, as well.

• Why didn't Delenn mention the fleet before?
  Well, as she indicates, she didn't *have* them before.

• I don't think she was so much withholding the information, as they just weren't ready yet, and the need for them wasn't there yet.

Originally compiled by Jason Snell.

Last update: May 27, 2024