Babylon 5 3-07: Exogenesis

Episode:

51

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Writer:

J. Michael Straczynski

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Air Date:

12-Feb-1996

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures I'm writing about Exogenesis!

What is exogenesis anyway? I was curious so I checked Wikipedia and it gave me a few different answers: it's a song by the band Muse, it's a visual novel, it's an album by Eloy Fritsch, it's the theory that life here began out there, far across the universe, and it's apparently an episode of the science-fiction TV series Babylon 5. I'm surprised it's not an episode of X-Files and Star Trek: Voyager as well, with the way they liked to name their stories (though X-Files did have Biogenesis).

I'm not looking forward to this one to be honest, because I remember it being one of the bad episodes. I don't think there'll be many of them this season, but I know that they're there, lurking in the cracks between major story arc episodes. Waiting for viewers to get drawn into the ongoing drama so they can leap out and trip them up with some self-contained rubbish.

I can't be talking about crap episodes coming up in the near future though, as I'm only allowed to give away SPOILERS for this story and the rest of the series so far. If I want to write about the other stories I'm not eager to write about this season I'll have to be patient.

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Exogenesis begins with dramatic drums and docking. Lots of docking. If you’ve ever wanted to watch the entire docking process in full, with the shuttle entering the doors at the front of the station, riding the lift down and getting driven into its docking bay, then you’re in luck! It's all very Thunderbirds.

It's also 50 seconds long; that's 1/50th of the episode's running time! 2% of this story is docking.

You'd think that with this much time spent on the shuttle's arrival there must be someone really important on board, and there is. When Babylon Control calls the ship it's Sean Connery's voice that answers! Or at least someone who really wanted to do a Sean Connery voice for their 5 second audio appearance.

There are two people here watching the shuttle come in, but all I really learned from their dialogue is that there must be air in this entire part of the docking area. Else I couldn't have heard the guy say "They're finally here, Jacque," as there'd be nothing for the sound waves to propagate through. Plus he'd be too busy suffocating on the floor to really say anything.

Cut to Earharts, where they're ringing the bell that signifies that Corwin's been promoted to lieutenant! Man, the guy got a name last season, now he's got a promotion. The way things are going, by season five he might even get a story.

The senior staff are also there, having a drink and talking about Marcus. The others thought Ivanova was going to invite him, but she didn't think it was appropriate seeing as this is an Earthforce officer's bar and he's an operative from a covert army that they're trying to hide the existence of.

This is another reason why Marcus is better than Keffer. By the end of Keffer's first episode he was drinking with the crew like he'd known them for years, even though it was the first scene they'd shared. Marcus, on the other hand, has known these people for two episodes now, but they're not forcing a close friendship on them yet. Though it's going to get a bit 'Poochie' if they keep finding reasons to mention him when he's not around.

Of course Corwin's better than all of them, because he invited civilians to his party, meaning that he has civilian friends and doesn't exclusively hang out with three other people from the office like Sheridan, Ivanova, Garibaldi and Franklin do.

Anyway they're happy that today's been quiet and ordinary for once.

Cut to someone in Downbelow screaming with an animatronic bug embedded in his back. Oh no, it's the mind-control parasites from that Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, they're back!

The two people from the docking bay are there as well, and they tell the bug victim to relax. Or maybe they're telling the bug to relax, you can never tell in sci-fi. Personally I think he's being remarkably calm for someone with a dozen tiny legs digging holes in his skin. But after a while the creature seems to melt into his body and the cuts heal up Wolverine-style without even leaving a scar. Sadly his sweater is beyond hope.

The music finds this all to be a little sinister, but then it would wouldn't it? I mean, it's got to play up the drama to keep people around during the opening credits.

ACT ONE

Act one begins with the people from the docking bay hanging around the bug victim, a little surprised that he's ended up dead. Personally I was more surprised when the woman joined in with the conversation, as she'd been silent all through the teaser and I assumed it was a non-speaking role.

Meanwhile Sheridan and Ivanova take a quick break from C&C to chat about Lieutenant Corwin. Now that he's been promoted he could be trouble for them and they need to know whether he's an Army of Light candidate or more of a Night Watch type. So Ivanova's going to have a private meeting with him to evaluate him without actually telling him what she's up to. Man this is going to be awkward.

Then it cuts to Marcus, making his third appearance in the series, as he goes down to the marketplace to see a sleeping shopkeeper and quotes a bit of Macbeth to wake him up.

The man's called Duncan and he's got a nasty cough, but he doesn't like doctors so he won't go to the clinic to get it checked. Hey does that mean the free clinic's still going, even though it's not being used by the telepath railroad anymore? No wonder Franklin's so bloody tired all the time.

We never learn why Marcus is friends with an old man in Babylon 5's marketplace, but Marcus is such an amiable guy I imagine he can't help but make friends all over the place. Well, with the people he hasn't beaten around the head with an extendible metal pipe at least.

Speaking of Franklin, he's got a bunch of doctors together in the special medical meeting room with the stylised Rod of Aesculapius on the wall to discuss average boring Medlab business. It's strange really that they went to so much effort to redress the set for such a nothing scene that adds very little to the story. Though they do mention that they need more Drazi blood, so maybe that's a hint that there are more refugees are coming in.

By the way, that's Jeffrey Willerth on the right, so this is a rare glimpse of what Kosh looks like without his encounter suit on.

And here's Carrie Dobro, playing a doctor with an unusual number of lines. She appeared in a later episode as "Brakiri Woman" and eventually got a lead role in the Crusade spin-off, playing Dureena Nafeel.

Right now though she just wants Franklin to check on a body they've found that has no obvious cause of death.

It seems that Marcus has made it down to that bar from Matters of Honor, but I suppose it could be any Downbelow bar really. I'll only know for sure if the bartender begins juggling bottles.

The guy he's talking to is actually another Ranger, here to relay a message from Ranger 1 on Minbar. In fact he's the best Ranger, as he's entirely incognito, without a cloak or a pin to draw attention to himself. Though I suppose Ranger 1 must be pretty good as well, seeing as they're number 1.

Anyway, Ranger 1 has recommended that they pull back from Earth space, which is not a good sign. And the Shadows are gathering on the Centauri border, which isn't good either. There are plenty of bad signs right here in the bar as well, as when Marcus heads off to look for his friend we discover that he's being watched! Again! Every time he comes down here this happens.

This time though it's the person from the teaser keeping an eye on him, and he doesn't seem as eager to get an asskicking as the thugs back in Matters of Honor did.

Over in Medlab we're getting to see the brand new hexagonal isolab again for the second time in two episodes as Franklin examines the mysterious bug victim. He didn't catch Lyta's gills when he brought her in for an examination but he had better catch that this guy has a bug in his spine or else I'm going to have serious concerns about his competency.

He at least detects that the guy's system has traces of a variety of drugs in it (including Dust) and that he's got fingernail marks in his palms, like he was clenching his fists in pain. So bug-enhanced Wolverine healing doesn't affect hands?

Oh, he has found something! It's not a bug though, it's some kind of mesh around the spinal column. The music's starting to make me think he shouldn't be locked in a room with this thing, but Franklin apparently never saw Alien, as he's going to open him up.

Meanwhile Marcus has found one of his agents hanging out with the people from the docking bay at the start, and seems completely unconcerned by the way they're all staring at him.

Marcus is worried about him, because he didn't turn up for their secret Downbelow bar meeting and he's doing a crap job of sounding like someone who's hasn't been brainwashed. He "can't work with him anymore" as he "has things to do now," and that's all Marcus can get out of him.

People are really terrible at covering up their secret activities this season, with everyone catching on to everything because nobody in this series can tell a convincing lie anymore. Well, except for Lennier, the person who is bound by his honour not to lie, when he told that guy in the customs area he had Netter's Syndrome.

Back in Medlab, Franklin's pulled something out of the back of the victim, and it's not a bug. It's some kind of CGI water effect and it's moving. Franklin gets the thing into a jar and slams the lid on it fast.

Turns out that the parasite is actually a liquid shapeshifter a bit like Odo in Deep Space Nine. Though I'm sure that turning into the shape of a bug and tearing into its victim's skin with its tiny feet is a crucial part of the process and makes perfect sense.

Speaking of bugs taking over victims, the mysterious group have already put another parasite into someone else... and it's Marcus's friend Duncan!

ACT TWO

Duncan apparently took all his stuff and said he was done, despite telling Marcus that he'd see him in the morning, and when Marcus realises that another friend of his has gone missing he starts getting really worried. It's like these bug people are deliberately targeting everyone he knows... and Ivanova could be next! Okay probably not.

Speaking of Ivanova, she's in C&C trying to find the words to invite Corwin to her quarters without it seeming weird. It turns out that despite spending so much time together they barely know each other, and aren't exactly friends.

Fortunately Corwin seems okay with the idea. Though he does go very quiet and then stare blankly into space afterwards.

Down in the Zocalo, Marcus tries to convince Garibaldi that they have a problem here, but he apparently used up all his 'give a shit' back in Passing Through Gethsemane and now he couldn't care less. No crime's been committed, these people have just gone and joined a cult or something is all.

I don't know whether this a script problem or a direction problem, but Marcus is yelling about his network of contacts in the most public place on the station, and it seems a little out of character for an operative of a secret organisation trying to hide from both agents of the Shadows and the Night Watch. The way things are right now I wouldn't be surprised if public criticising a security officer is something that'll get you reported.

I read somewhere (probably in the comments on the Mark Watches episode review) that Jerry Doyle trolled Jason Carter here by going to throw an orange over to him like he's done in several times already in rehersal, but then catching it instead. If that's true, then the actors don't miss a beat. Though it's not like they could've looked more irritated with each other.

Garibaldi has a very believable attitude to the people in Downbelow, as he'll go to a lot of trouble to help individuals out once he's met them, but he has no respect for them as a group. He doesn't care that Marcus' friends are acting weird because they wouldn't be in Downbelow if they didn't act weird. Marcus, on the other hand, doesn't care much for Garibaldi's 14th century attitude and starts yelling again, while the people walking by try to ignore him.

Garibaldi tells him his friends should go see a doctor, so Marcus goes to Franklin in Medlab and says that Garibaldi sent him!

Franklin works 48 hours a day, there's no way he has time for this, but Marcus isn't going to stop until someone investigates this with him so he eventually agrees. I figured this would be the point where they realised they were both investigating the same mystery, but nope.

By the way, I like that the scene features Franklin throwing his outfit in to the medical waste bin. It's a nice touch.

Meanwhile Corwin's shopping for flowers! He's got an entire scene to himself here, like he's an actual character!

He thinks that he has a date... maybe. Though maybe not. He needs ambiguous flowers that are both romantic, yet inoffensive, because he works in the same room as this terrifying woman who holds his career in her hands every day and does not need her to be mad at him. The flower guy just wants to sell some fake roses though and at 40 credits I'm not surprised. You could get 20 pieces of junk from Duncan's shop for that if he hadn't packed it in! It's almost the weekly bonus for Night Watch members!

That's a point, if Corwin had joined Night Watch he could've brought Ivanova synthetic roses every week. Plus they would've given him a cool armband to wear and he'd be continually pressured into snitching on his co-workers to a fascist government!

Down in brown sector Marcus tries ringing Duncan's doorbell, but there's no answer. Fortunately Franklin has the key to every door in case of medical emergencies, and Duncan did seem pretty sick earlier.

It's funny how much more likeable Franklin is when he's out on an adventure. He gets very frustrated and shouty in Medlab, but whenever he's freed of the authority and responsibility for a while he's a good character.

Franklin's not allowed to go inside, but Marcus just barges right in. Then he says "That's funny, there's a..." and I assumed it was a trick to get Franklin to come in as well.

It was not a trick.

Some episodes with a mystery work well on a rewatch, when you know what really going on and can appreciate it from a different perspective. This on the other hand, maybe not so much. Because I remember the twist and I still have no idea where there's a creepy spider tunnel in Duncan's wall.

I'm also not sure why the guy who had the sense to throw his scrubs into the biohazard bin five minutes ago goes and touches the stuff with his bare hands. I can believe Marcus just climbing inside to see where it goes though.

It leads them to yet another victim getting infected with a parasite... and a bunch of people armed with PPGs.

ACT THREE

Oh no they've made a base inside G'Kar's prison cell from the end of Dust to Dust!

Franklin finally realises here that Marcus's mystery is the same one he's been working on, as they seem to have stumbled onto a kind of mind-control parasite situation. These things could infect the whole crew and take over the station... though Marcus points out at that it doesn't seem like that's what they're up to. Of course they might not have had the chance until now.

Franklin tries to talk to them, but they all ignore him and he eventually wonders if they can even understand him. Man, Franklin's been on this series for over two years now and he's still getting confused when the non-speaking extras won't talk to him.

The guy from the start eventually comes over and says that he is... was Matthew Duffin, and Franklin's going to stay locked up until they're done. Franklin tries to get the guy to cooperate with him, work something out, but he's not interested. Then he leaves through the door. Because why would you crawl through a creepy tunnel if you don't have to? Why would you make a creepy tunnel at all?

Oh hang on, I just need to climb behind my sofa to hide from how embarrassing this is going to be.

Corwin's thinking on his feet though, as he reads Ivanova's reaction, quickly reassesses the situation and decides to lie, saying he found his 40 credit fake roses lying outside her quarters. You'd think she'd maybe be a little creeped out by this perhaps, but she actually considers it a sweet gesture and puts the mysterious synthetic roses in a vase.

Poor Corwin's obviously struggling to process this information, as he's fairly sure now that this isn't a date, but maybe if he'd admitted to buying the flowers that could've been... a good thing? It's a very complicated evening for the guy.

Then the tone of the episode is yanked right back to creepy, as Duncan comes by to see his friend Marcus to reveal that he doesn't need glasses anymore.

The man who is... was Duncan explains that the other part of him is Vindrizi. The part of him who was Duncan wants to be nice to Marcus, the part of him that is Vindrizi will hurt him if he has to, so right now I'm getting the impression that Duncan's conscious is still an aspect of his new self and can influence his decisions, but the Vindrizi side gets the final say.

But then he has the line "It says you would not understand," which makes it seem like Duncan's just got a voice in his head. He's got good news for them though: they're going to implant a parasite into someone right front of them so they can see how the process is supposed to work! And this will presumably make them feel better about it somehow.

C'mon Duncan, I know we're only in act three, but just tell them what's going on already! Though he at least reveals that the guy in Medlab died after the merging went wrong due to the drugs in his system. How he knows this is left as a mystery (I don't remember him being around during the autopsy).

Back in Corwin's nightmarish non-date, Ivanova talks about the coffee she grows in hydroponics illegally (revealed in The War Prayer). She's trying to get an idea of whether Corwin would ever bend the rules, and he doesn't seem to have a problem with it, as long as it leads to everyone being happy.

Then she asks what he'd do if there was a contradiction between his orders and what's right for Earth, and he replies that he can't just decide which orders to obey and which to ignore. And he'd absolutely report someone trying to get officers to speak out or take action against Earthdome.

Poor Corwin totally misses how disappointed she looks with his answer! It's tragic really, as the things that made him a dependable officer in season one and two might make him a threat to their heroic anti-fasicst conspiracy in season three. Also she finishes their chat and sends him out before gets to finish his coffee. That's the one cup of actual coffee he's had in three years!

Now that Franklin and Marcus are temporarily unable to continue with their own plot Marcus decides to discuss Ivanova instead. She seemed nice enough when they first met, but now he gets the impression she doesn't like him much and he's wondering if it's something he's done.

Franklin's amazed when he realises that Marcus is thinking of making a play for Ivanova as he is totally not her type. Also as he's currently trapped and is probably going to be killed or mind-controlled by alien parasites, the chances of it working out between them seems slim.

Speaking of the Vindrizi, one of them is sick so they need Franklin's help. Marcus yells "If you have to take someone, take me," as he apparently wasn't paying attention when they mentioned that someone is sick. Though I suppose he could've also had extensive medical training when he spent almost a year learning how to speak Minbari, fight with a staff, and all his other Ranger skills.

ACT FOUR

Act four begins with Marcus in his cage mumbling that "one from three leaves one", but he soon decides to put his plan into action.

He tells them that his extendible fighting pike on the table is one of Franklin's medical scanners (the Copeland J-5000, named after producer John Copeland) and manipulates one of them into looking into the end of it and turning it on. Ow. Then he opens the door, knocks the other guy out and grabs his gun!

That was a cunning trick... the way they distracted me with how nasty the pike move was so that I wouldn't notice that Marcus effortlessly snapped the chain off his cell door to escape. To be fair I don't think they ever said that it was locked.

Marcus does the sensible thing and tries to call for help on Franklin's link, but an automated message informs him that it's biogenetically locked to a single user and he's not authorised. Marcus rightfully points out that it should probably contact security anyway, but it seems he's on his own.

Except then it cuts to C&C where Ivanova informs Garibaldi that someone's using Franklin's link! So security was contacted and help is on the way.

But Marcus isn't going to wait around, he's got to do his action hero thing and save Franklin. I don't know how he knows where they took him, but he seems to be on the right track as he finds another guard and lures him over with a tennis ball before beating him around the head with his extendible metal pipe.

Marcus shoots out enough of the lights to make the scene look more interesting, then pulls Franklin behind a box in the confusion. I figured that Franklin would refuse to go with him and continue treating the patient, but nope he goes along with Marcus's rescue. They're both on the same page... both ultimately just wanting to help.

The person formerly known as Duncan steps forward and finally explains what they're doing here. They weren't taken over, they volunteered, in exchange for better health and a purpose in their life. So in other words... Garibaldi was right and they were just acting weird. They chose to vanish without any explanation (even a convincing lie), because it apparently never occurred to them that Marcus would worry about them and investigate.

The exposition continues, as the one formerly known as Matthew reveals that the Vindrizi were created half a million years ago to be living records of all they've seen and touched. Then Marcus's other friend turns up to give a Blade Runner speech about all they've seen. I'm definitely getting the impression there's a hive mind thing going on here with how they're passing their dialogue from person to person with a bit of an overlap.

It's clear that there's still a lack of trust here, which is inevitable I suppose when you're dealing with mind-control parasite, so Vindrizi-Duncan sacrifices his new life by permanently and painfully removing the bug so he can confirm they're telling the truth and do a bit of a Blade Runner speech himself. He even talks about Orion! Sadly Blade Runner already did the Blade Runner speech and now anything else that does it just comes off as cheesy.

But hang on, when they take the whole thing out in one piece it transforms back from clear goo into a bug again? These Vindrizi are weird. But it's nice they everyone's getting on now. Marcus can even make friends with the people that he has beaten around the head with an extendible metal pipe!

Garibaldi must be getting close to rescuing them now, but Franklin gets his link back and tells him it's fine, so the cavalry has been cancelled. Sorry Garibaldi, you had your chance to save the day and you blew it. But has the day been saved yet?

The DVD case seems to feel that the last 35 minutes were just an extended teaser and the real episode starts here! Both sides of the box are covered in spoilery synopses like this, that's why whenever put a disc in I have to wear a blindfold.

Franklin decides to give the Vindrizi the same deal he gave the doctor with the healing machine in The Quality of Mercy: they can carry on doing their sci-fi weirdness, but only with proper supervision and approval of all volunteers. I like how consistent he is with this kind of thing. Someone brings something strange and alien onto the station that can heal people, he doesn't dismiss it off hand because it's dangerous or he doesn't understand it. He says 'sure you can carry on with this weird shit, but we're doing it properly from now on, not just shoving parasites into drug addicts on the floor in Downbelow'. And he's not even going to ask for anything in return, such as some of the vast stacks of cash they must have saved up to be able to travel the galaxy without jobs, or even information about the Shadows.

Though I hope he's going add a Vindrizi scan to his routine medical checks, at least for high ranking officers. No sense taking chances when all it'll cost is a quick scan and a loss of spine privacy.

Then the episode cuts away to C&C and we get a scene especially made for viewers who don't like jms's dialogue, as there's isn't any.

Ivanova walks over to Sheridan, Sheridan glances over at Corwin for a second and looks like he's asked her a question, Ivanova glances at Corwin for a moment herself then shakes her head, Sheridan appears to be disappointed. It's a nice break from all the speeches in the Vindrizi plot, and it's absolutely clear what just happened without a single word being said.

A good writer can produce pages of brilliant dialogue, but a great writer knows when they shouldn't. Or something like that.

Meanwhile Marcus rushes to the customs area to say goodbye to Duncan before he leaves the station. He's late because he had to find out about it from someone else, again.

Duncan's gone back to wearing glasses so it seems that removing the Vindrizi has unhealed his eyes somehow, though he's not coughing anymore at least. He's also lost all the Vindrizi knowledge, though he still remembers what it was like to feel special and he can't go back to selling junk after that. The Vindrizi let him see a memory of incredible things, and now he wants to see them for real. He thinks that's the moral of the episode, that we all need to wake up and become special before it's too late.

So hang on, he was selling 2 credit trinkets on Babylon 5 by choice? He wasn't stuck here trying to earn enough money for a return ticket home? In fact it seems that he has enough cash saved up to go on a tour of the galaxy.

Garibaldi still doesn't get why the Vidrizi kept what they were doing a secret, which gives Ivanova a chance to clear up that part of the story. Knowledge is power, and that makes them a target. Plus when you've got hundreds of thousands of years of knowledge gathered from across the galaxy there's always a danger that an AI from the future will come and try to steal it, so that it can become sentient and wipe out all life. Oh wait, wrong science fiction franchise.

Franklin mentions that Marcus would appreciate a second chance to win Ivanova over, and she suddenly puts all the pieces together. MARCUS must have been the one who sent her the roses! She though it was a sweet gesture when it was a complete stranger dropping flowers by her door, but now that she thinks they're from him she's furious!

She storms down to the Zocalo to the sound of military drums and drops the roses on his table, saying "Keep them!"

Man, look at Marcus's face. At the beginning of the episode he was losing all his friends, but now Franklin doesn't hate him and the woman he likes just gave him flowers! He's so genuinely surprised and happy. It must have taken her some effort to find him as well, as I doubt he told anyone he was going to be at this table in the Zocalo.

Though the crew should really stop interacting with him in public. I know G'Kar's locked away right now, but someone else is eventually going to start noticing if they keep this up.


CONCLUSION

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There were absolutely no ambassadors in this one and that's always a warning sign. It's rare to come across an episode without at least one ambassador or one of their aides, and when they happen you get something like Infection, TKO, Spider in the Web... and this. Actually it's a little unfair to put Exogenesis in that list because I thought this was alright for the most part. Sure I got bored enough to start sketching on my notepad, but it's not like I was writing "I HATE THIS, WHY WON'T IT END???" all over it and drawing little sad faces.

The trouble with Exogenesis, is that it feels like a season one episode, but it stars season three character Marcus. It's like a time paradox! Though it does make sense that it feels like a throwback, because it's about showing off a character we've barely met, rather than pushing forward arcs that have been building for two seasons. I'm not going to complain though, as it's nice to see Marcus get integrated into the series gradually instead of ending up like Keffer. Poor doomed Keffer. Plus Ivanova's B plot is arc-related, so it's not like the episode is entirely stand-alone, like Passing Through Gethsemane was.

The other trouble with Exogenesis is that jms got interrupted halfway through writing it by the strike that happened during the filming of A Day in the Strife, when the series was nearly ended by the costs of going full union. He was a producer, but he was also in the writer's guild, so he put the writing on hold for a week while they were working it out. He's apparently the kind of writer who has to get everything down as quickly as possible while the scenes are leaping out of his head, so a sudden week-long break didn't do the script any favours, especially as he'd figured he didn't need to write notes for this one as it was so clear in his head. So that may be the reason why the A plot could've been cut short at any time by one of the Vindrizi actually explaining themselves.

The episode wants to misdirect and subvert our expectations and a group keeping secrets is very much on theme for this season, but if you rewatch it once you know the truth you just want to scream at them to quit acting like villains and tell Franklin and Marcus what they're up to already. All they had to do was say "You know Deep Space Nine? Well, we're a bit like Dax." There's a bit of a twist on the Trill concept here, in that they were artificially created to keep knowledge protected though a future galactic Dark Age, but otherwise it's a similar deal. Which is a bit of a shame really, as it's hard to be wowed by the idea of a symbiote passing down memories to a new host when it'd been the gimmick for a main character on the other space station series for years by this point.

The A plot does at least firmly establish who Marcus is, in a way that his last two episodes couldn't. He's over on the Franklin side of the political scale, he's as weird as Ivanova but far more friendly, he uses trickery, manipulation, stubbornness and a large metal pole to get his way, he hangs out in Downbelow a lot making friends with the unfortunate, and he likes roses and Shakespeare. We also learn that he and Franklin make a good team, which is good because the doctor's been really miserable lately and it's nice to see what he's like when he's not yelling at his staff.

We also learn a bit about Corwin in the B plot, because after two seasons he's finally got his own story too! It's so rare to see him outside of C&C... in fact I'm not sure it's ever happened before. For a while it seemed like his plot was going to be straight up farce, but once the roses were out of the way it got suitably serious. Corwin has been utterly dependable in every episode he's appeared in, so it's a bit surprising and disappointing that he fails the test. The rest of the command staff are pragmatic, paranoid, or into conspiracies, but even with the President being investigated for blowing up the previous President, it's never even occurred to him that to really serve Earth he might need to take a moral stand against the people giving him his orders. I can't imagine any situation where he'd turn against Ivanova and Sheridan, but they can't afford to take that risk, so they have to carry on working around him. That means no Marcus and Corwin team up story for the foreseeable future.

The moral of the A plot is: sometimes extreme secrecy is counter-productive. And the moral of the B plot is: sometimes extreme secrecy is probably a good idea, though it will occasionally cause misunderstandings about roses and you're just going to have to accept that.

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COMING SOON

Babylon 5 will return with Messages from Earth, but not for a while as there's only one more review left before Sci-Fi Adventures goes on another two month hiatus and it's going to be something a bit more... Star Trekky.

But will it be a movie? Is it an episode? Is it the Star Trek: Holiday Special? There are 692 possible answers and I ain't giving any clues this time so you'll just have to wait a week to find out.