Sunday 17 January 2010

1861 Don't go down to the woods at night if you do not want to get in the soup and a great week for Babylon 5

It is Sunday evening. Late after watching the most brilliant and likely award winning episode of Wallander with Kenneth Branagh, following from managing to recover sufficiently from the cough cold to get to Newcastle for the relayed production of Carmen for the New York Metropolitan at the Tyneside Film Theatre which together with watching the Placid Domingo on the iplayer beforehand will become another memorable day, leaving me feeling privileged. I need to write about these experiences but they will have to wait

Last week was a bonus week for my interest in science fiction although there was more fiction than science! The FX channel commenced the important third season of Babylon Five with episodes 45 Matters of Honour, 46 Convictions, 47 A Day in strife, 48 Passing through Gethsemane and 49 Voices of Authority.

Unknown to Commander of the Space station, John Sheridan, the unknown space craft which approached and offered medical and scientific knowledge in exchange for responding to a test appeared to be a Shadow probe. A recorded message stated that if the station failed to provide all the information required or if the information did not meet standards, the probe would self explode destroying the station with it. In the last seconds Sheridan changes his mind and decides not to send the information, correctly fearing the probe is an intelligence seeking device to establish if the station will pose a threat in the coming war(47).

Lt Keffer’s visual of his encounter with a Shadows craft reached an international media service before his destruction and Earth Force send an investigation team to the Space Station in episode 45. Sheridan and Ambassador Delenn continue to express ignorance about the Shadows as they do not trust the Earth Alliance government or want the Shadows to know they are aware of the threat they pose until they have made preparations to defend themselves. When the investigator approaches Ambassador Londo Mollari, he, understandably, feigns ignorance while G‘Kar explains his knowledge from the historical book which appears to be some ancient manuscript/book of knowledge that he studies. Returning to earth we the audience learn that Earth through Psi Corp had had contact with the Shadows.

In Voices of Authority Draal, the wise Minbar who has become part of the great knowledge, insight and defensive system on the planet below, uses a holograph of himself to visit the station and advise Sheridan that he wants to help with the defence against the Shadows now that he has time to adjust to his new situation and Sheridan and Delenn have proven themselves, He believes it is opportunity to try and contact some of the other ancient races who fought the Shadows 1000 years before along with the Vorlons and suggests that Sheridan uses the machine to try and locate where they are, Sheridan is prevented from making the appointment and sends deputy Ivanova who identifies that one group are hiding close to a planetary system within close travelling time a la jump gate and Ivanova goes on a first contact mission with one of the Rangers who is able to communicate with the Minbari space craft provided through Delenn as a gift from the Minbari religious leaders without the knowledge of the Grey Council and which has Minbari and Vorlon technology, It is called the White Star. as a cover for the operation. Ivanova uses her recently learnt negotiating skills to persuade the race to assist if necessary, by pointing out that the Vorlons are already helping and by implications this meant the Vorlons were better than this other race.

The reason why Sheridan has to send Ivanova in his place is the arrival of an Earth Force Political Adviser as part of the Night Watch. She speaks traditional totalitarian truth reorganisation with Orwell’s Animal Farm the classic example. All Earth languages are redefined so that there are no social problems and the government does not make mistakes. Anyone who questions must be a traitor and eliminated and she signals that the purges are about to commence. Nightwatch on the station are to double their efforts to check on what is happening and to report directly to her. As part of her attempt to take effective control of the station she offers herself to Sheridan who she warns will be replaced if he does not submit to the new regime in every respect.

While temporarily replacing Draal to make use of the great machine Ivanova is able to tap into what happened to the former President Santiago and she is able to record a visual conversation between the new President and the Psi Corps confirming his part in the assassination and taking of power. Sheridan arranges the evidence to give to his contact with the Earth Force hierarchy who ensures that the information is released to the media. Far from toppling the new regime they ensure the evidence is branded as a fake and example of why it is necessary for the government to commence its purges and tightening controls on opponents and dissenters. The Political Adviser is recalled to earth to assist in dealing with the threat from the recording.

Meanwhile G’Kar is put under great pressure by the arrival of a new Narn Ambassador to replace him. The Ambassador has a personal security guard whose life Sheridan saved and therefore there is a bond between them. G’Kar is told that he must return to his homeworld where he and his family is promised protection and he must halt the opposition to the Centauri take over or else the families of Narns on the Space Station known to be helping him will be in peril. G’Kar decides this is his destiny knowing that if he returns he will be killed. Security chief Garibaldi had previously maintained a good relationship with G’Kar and advises him not return which moves G’Kar in realising that other races have concern for him and the position of his people but he explains it is his duty to follow his conscience even knowing what this is likely to lead to,

I have been faced with a similar predicament in life more than once. It is not an experience I wish to face again although my intuition tells me it is to happen.

Whereas Garibaldi cannot persuade G’Kar to stay on, the combined company of Narn’s remaining at the station do, They argue that G’Kar has become an important beacon of hope for their countrymen and while they and their families know what is likely to be in store, they express the age old belief that it is better to fight and lose, to die than to remain enslaved. He stays.

Meanwhile Ambassador Mollari is feeling increasingly isolated and threatened. He meets the Shadows agent and informs him the services of the Shadows will not longer be needed. The contact, Modern, then advises that he as bypassed London and done a deal with Lord Refer who is effectively running the Centauri home world. In part because his assistant Vir has repeatedly warned him about the consequences of the actions he has taken and in part because of genuine concern for the future of Vir as a consequence of his misgivings about the new regime, and we suspect, in part for some purpose as yet undisclosed, Londo persuades Ambassador Delenn, and Lord Kefer, that Vir is the ideal person to be appointed to reopen a consular link with the Minbari. Vir is reluctant to leave Londo on his own despite promises of more money, status and opportunities for relationships with the opposite sex. Londo also tries to establish contact with others such as Ambassador Delenn and Garibaldi without success. G’Kar on the other hand gives Garibaldi his ancient text about the Shadows which he says will help. This is part of his attempt to find out what is going on as he ahs found out about secret meetings (the Babylon 5 War Council) and secret missions.

There are two episodes where the main subject can be considered a digression. An order of Catholic Monks arrive at the station and offer their services although Sheridan is hesitant even if they promise to pay their way because of their knowledge of technology and other skills. In Passing through Gethsemane one of the monks, a man of peace, and artistic skill who offers his services to everyone is suddenly besieged by disturbing experiences. The episodes reveals that Earth has developed a new way of dealing with criminals who in the past would receive the death penalty. Their minds and therefore their personalities are wiped and a new peace loving and socially responsible personality is imposed. It is learnt that the monk was a former serial killer and that the families of his victims have gathered together at the space station, having tracked him down, to seek revenge. Having made him realise who he was, the monk can only seek punishment and place himself in the hands of the relatives all of whom, but one. find that they cannot physically act against him. One does tortures the monk and then crucifies him as Sheridan and Garibaldi are unable to save his life by the time they find his whereabouts. The man who commits the murder is tried and sentenced to have his mind wiped and he then becomes the replacement monk at the request of the head of the group.

The second divertissement of a kind is in Convictions, where a disaffected member of staff commences a series of bombing outrages with his last effort a device with the capacity to destroy the entire station. Sheridan has to use all his courage and skills to contain the man when his whereabouts are discovered while Garibaldi and crew work out where the device is located and disarm it. This is not the first encounter with near death for Sheridan recently as he has had to deal with a potentially violent group of dissenters over their conditions of employment. At one point he is challenged by one of the men who says that Sheridan is hiding behind his weapons where he only has a tool of trade. Sheridan calls the man’s bluff and exchanges weapons, or does he, disclosing to Ivanova after the man has backed down that he had removed the power clip before passing his weapon over. The highlight of this episode is however when Londo and G’Kar become imprisoned in a lift as a consequence of one of the explosions and face death as they run out of breathable air. When they first encounter Londo decides to take another lift but has to change his mind as a fireball comes along the corridor. He expect G’Kar to attack him but G’Kar laughs explaining that although he would like to kill Londo and give up his life in doing so he was prevented by the threat of the Centauri to kill 500 Narn for any Centauri killed by a Narn in the future. Now he is to have the joy of watching his enemy die slowly without repercussions. They are rescued of course.

There is one other minor sub story which is to have along term consequence. Garibaldi had found out that his friend Dr Franklin has become dependent on Stimulants and as all other addicts, he denies the problem when they are confronted by family or friend, they claim that they are in control and that the substance helps them cope with the pressures and stresses of their life, in this instance significant staff shortages and 36 hour shifts. After reacting with hostility and resentment when Garibaldi raises a subject which he knows all about, having been dependent on alcohol, the good doctor does make a serious attempt to stop but gives after a day when he under pressure from the Commander to supply the required information for the space probe, a translator is not available so he can help an individual patient and he has become tired and generally stressed, He gives in and then lies about the situation to Garibaldi.

The most interesting other consequence is when Lyta Alexander, the original Psi Corps telepath on the station returns on a Vorlan ship saying she has been changed by her experience of being allowed to live on their home world. A medical examination reveals that the illnesses and physical problems previously experienced have been removed. In the last of the five episodes she has a meeting with the Vorlon of the station in which it appears they have direct communication which raises the question as to whether a Vorlon is in fact inhabiting her body.

Whereas no episode of Babylon % goes by without some development in the two main story lines of the coming of the Shadows and the development of a totalitarian dictatorship on Earth following the assassination of the previous President, the same cannot be said for the X Files

There was no progress in the episodes of series of the X Files last week. However this is because although going back to the Pilot for the series and then the first episode proper, the editors switched episodes around and to appear to have concentrated on those which involve excursions into the Forests.

In the Jersey Devil, episode 5 of season 1, the murder of a homeless man leads to Mulder suspecting there is a mutant creature, ape like with human features, inhabiting the forest around Atlantic City in New Jersey. The classic story feature is the local police who dismiss the idea that a monster is on the lose because of the likely impact on tourism. The police are also responsible for killing the creature when it is cornered after having to come into the city to forage. However there is a child who we learn survives as the episode closes

In Darkness Falls, episode 20 season 1 a group of loggers disappear and Mulder is interested because a similar situation is recorded in 1934. The sub story which contains the message is the activities of an environmental disruptor’s group, (disruptions as opposed to eco terrorists) who are challenging the loggers who are destroying some of the ancient trees of over 400 years and which are protected. The episode reveals that the loggers have unintentionally released some micro-organisms which go in the search of food at night and because they are micro can penetrate vehicles and envelope in a cocoon before draining the subject. Sculley and Mulder escape but require hospitalization.

Die Hand Die Verletzt the 14th episode of the second season concerns the death of a school pupil who evoked the devil in a ceremony in the forest in a community of long standing devil worshippers, generation upon generation cantering on the local school. However they have long since ceased to believe and even carry out the their daily ‘prayers’ and services. One of the girls who were involved in the ceremony makes allegations against her step father claiming he raped her and her sister and sacrificed babies although in reality her sister died at eight weeks., She appears to have committed suicide and her step father who is the least committed of the group dies in a situation where we the viewer know it was death from a boa constrictor/python snake. When the remaining teachers trap Sculley and Mulder with a view to killing them, they kill each other under the influence of a temporary natural history biology teacher who disappears having exercised hypnotic and magical abilities over the community as punishment for not keeping the faith. She appears to have been an agent of the devil if not the devil herself!

In Our Town episode 24 of season 2 we moved from forest to jungle. Although a lose connection because the plane in which the owner of the small town chicken producing factory crashed into a jungle some forty years before and escaped bringing back with him a their knowledge of long life through a cannibalistic soup. In fact Mulder is called in when a witness claims to have seen a foxfire at the time lover of a local resident was killed by a man wielding an axe when he went into the woods. I cannot remember what a foxfire in this context was. The local Sheriff, as usual, dismisses the claims staying it was just local people burning trash and that the missing man probably went off to another own with one someone else and that his work as an Inspector at the local factory had no bearing. Mulder is less sure when he finds that the man was about to submit a report critical of the factory production methods. Then a woman who appears in early twenties and is forty seven dies of Creuxfeldt-Jacob disease and then a truck driver from the factory runs off the road into a lake and it is found that the driver has also dies of the same disease. Mulder was concerned when visiting the factory to find that the chickens were fed the remains of the processed chickens and that lake is badly contaminated with the effluent from the factory which includes chicken blood. Mulder insists that the lake is dragged and this produces the bones of nine human beings including the missing inspector minus their heads. The bones have smooth edges as if boiled. When Mulder visits to the owner of the chicken factory to arrest him he finds he is missing but he has a cabinet with the missing heads. Meanwhile Sculley is tricked into going to the home of the lover of the missing man where is abducted and taken to where local residents are enjoying soup and where first the owner of the factory is behead as punishment for feeding them from the body of the inspector who had the diseased which is now being transmitted. They are about to behead Sculley when Mulder Intervenes and the man in the mask wielding the axe is of course the local Sheriff.

At present I cannot remember what the other episode of the week was about and a search of those in the first four seasons did not trigger memory except if you go down to the woods at night you are in for a big surprise.

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