Babylon 5 5-12: The Ragged Edge

Episode:

100

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Writer:

J. Michael Straczynski

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Director:

John Copeland

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Air Date:

08-Apr-1998

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm watching the 100th episode of Babylon 5! It wasn't the 100th episode to be filmed though, that was Phoenix Rising. It wasn't originally supposed to be the 100th to air either, but Day of the Dead got pulled forward and aired first. Which is a shame really, as if this had aired a week earlier like it was meant to, it would've been its 24th anniversary today.

I'm following the Lurker's Guide Master List which skips Day of the Dead until it's chronologically appropriate, so The Ragged Edge is the 11th episode I'm writing about this season. That means I've finally reached the halfway point of season five! I'm 90% through the entire series now, or at least I will be once I've gotten this episode out of the way.

It was directed by producer John Copeland and there aren't many episodes I can say that about. He did the fantastic Endgame from season 4, he did the last ever B5 episode filmed (Objects at Rest), he did this, and that's it. I don't want to get my hopes up too much but it seems like the guy only directed when he felt that he had a reason to so maybe I should be at least a little bit hyped.

Alright I'll be screencapping and recapping the whole episode for the purposes of writing my reactions, observations, opinions... basically I'm going to be overthinking everything. There will be SPOILERS, but this will be first time viewer friendly so as long as you've watched this far you'll be fine.

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The teaser begins with Sheridan frantically signing autographs for the Alliance council. Or treaties. Something that needs his name on them. He's already late for the meeting so he sends Delenn to stall the ambassadors somehow. She has the idea of declaring war against Earth and Sheridan's so distracted that he tells her to go for it.

What the hell Delenn? The person who sent the Minbari on a genocidal war against humanity does not get to joke about declaring war on Earth! Though Sheridan declared war on Earth himself last year now that I think about it. In fact these two may be the only people who ever did. Wow, that's kind of weird.

Anyway Sheridan finally makes it to the council chambers... and finds that they're empty. That means he signed all those treaties for nothing! Well, he rushed them for nothing anyway. Delenn reveals that the ambassadors are boycotting the council until the Alliance can guarantee the safety of their transport ships from the mysterious attackers that have been attacking them. I complain about the ambassadors as much as anyone, but I think they kind of have a point here and so does Sheridan and Delenn. What they need is a witness to tell them who's responsible for the attacks so they know who to go after.

Cut to the gunner on the transport ship Redstar 9 having way too much fun pretending to be Luke Skywalker on a gun turret. Actually I can't see any guns on the ship so maybe he's the pilot?

Either way, the Redstar's considerably less formidable than the Black Star or the White Stars and it's getting its ass kicked. It's a bit hard to tell who's shooting it though. It's surrounded by Drazi vessels but I can't see any of them firing.

See it's just a fleet of Drazi ships with a human transport in the middle getting shot at from off-screen.

I eventually caught half a glimpse of a Centauri vessel doing the shooting, but by then it was too late for the doomed Redstar. An escape pod is launched and the hostile Centauri ships either don't notice or don't care, which means Sheridan finally has that witness he needs! And that's the end of the teaser.

ACT ONE

Act one begins with Londo and G'Kar arriving home after departing for their Centauri Prime arc in episode 6. Well, actually Londo doesn't know where to call home anymore, all he knows it's that it's a relief to be anywhere else but his homeworld right now. Londo's going to become the Centauri Emperor soon, making him the most famous person in the Centauri Republic... but right now everyone on the station seems more interested in G'Kar for some reason.

The two of them have a nice conversation here, with G'Kar hypothesising that Londo just isn't meant to be happy anywhere, and Londo theorising that G'Kar's popularity is proportional to his absence. Though they say it with considerably more words. I mean seriously, Londo drags his joke right down the corridor and beats it to death right in front of G'Kar's audience.

Meanwhile Garibaldi's (eventually) woken up by a video call by Zack telling him that he missed a meeting with him and he's got another with Delenn coming up. Garibaldi lies about coming down with a cold but the empty bottle on his floor shows us the truth (it's not a bottle of cough syrup).

Turns out that the Rangers have discovered Redstar 9's wreckage but not the life pod. Even worse, it seems they were smuggling for the Drazi, which means they'll get no assistance from the Drazi government. Stopping the attacks on their shipping is important to the Drazi, just not that important.

Garibaldi has a friend on the Drazi homeworld who might be more helpful, but he'll have to go chat with him alone. He doesn't even want Franklin to come to the planet with him, which sucks because Franklin loves going on trips. But either way we're going to finally see the Drazi homeworld!

Meanwhile G'Kar is discovering that the closer he gets to his quarters, the more Narn are lining the hallways and they're all bowing and mumbling. At the very end of the line he finds his friend Ta'Lon, who's resumed his season 3 hobby of camping out in front of his empty quarters waiting for him to come back. I guess carrying a sword around everywhere means you get to skip to the front of the queue.

Ta'Lon reveals that the Kha'ri, the Narn government, was a bit concerned when G'Kar went to Centauri Prime with Londo, so they decided someone should break into his quarters and swipe that book he started writing in prison, to make sure it didn't end up lost somehow. The dude was only gone a month! At least now we know that Narn has the Kha'ri again and it's not ruled by an emperor.

Anyway, the book's sold 500,000-600,000 copies so far, it's on track to outsell the book of G'Quan, and G'Kar's now a religious icon. Man, I hope they're planning to pay him now he's back! G'Kar needs that money to supplement the income he makes from being the Narn ambassador, writer for the Interstellar Alliance and bodyguard to the future Centauri Emperor.

ACT TWO

Garibaldi's about to leave the station when Franklin comes up, a bit concerned that his friend might have a reason he doesn't want him around on this mission. Like maybe they've had a falling out and he hasn't noticed. I'm not sure if he suspects Garibaldi's drinking again (like Garibaldi once suspected he was taking stims) but he tells him he'll be there if he has a problem he wants to talk about.

It doesn't seem like Garibaldi's going to be taking him up on that offer, even though he's well aware he's got a drinking problem.

Then we get to see him boarding his flight. I'm not sure we've seen a Drazi ship like this before.

It's a bit of a shame that the Head of Covert Intelligence for the Alliance couldn't use one of their White Stars to get around, but that'd would break a three-season tradition of Garibaldi never getting to fly on one. Sheridan, Sinclair, Delenn, Ivanova, Marcus and even Franklin have all gotten to command a White Star, but Garibaldi hasn't even visited the sets.

Wait, it's launching from the top docking bay between the two prongs? That bit of the station doesn't spin and there's no gravity up there, so how did he just walk onto the ship? Unless... it does have gravity now! I mean the Alliance is giving artificial gravity technology to all of its members, so maybe they've upgraded the station to give the other docking bay gravity as well. Nah, probably not.

After a short scene of Londo and G'Kar chatting about his book in the Zocalo we get to see the Drazi homeworld! It's very yellow.

We also get to see a Drazi next to Garibaldi throwing up in a bag during atmospheric entry. That's a nice extra touch we don't usually get in this series. I mean the shot of the interior, not the vomiting.

Hang on, they're just sitting in seats like in an aeroplane without even having seatbelts? I guess the Drazi must have their artificial gravity sorted out then, on their commercial liners at least. Couldn't have been much fun for the passengers to sit there for however many days or weeks it took to make the trip though.

Damn, they're going all out with the CGI in this story, as they've even added a scene showing the ship landing at a spaceport. Amazingly this is the first (former) League world we've ever visited in the series. We've been to Earth, Minbar, Narn and Centauri Prime, plus we got that shot of the Vorlon homeworld from Lyta's memory, but this is something new. They've done a lot of design work for it as well.

We even get to see Garibaldi admire the blue-screened view from his hotel balcony.

Just then he hears someone sneaking up and immediately has his gun drawn. Fortunately it's the guy he came here to meet, the one who can give him information about the pilot. Garibaldi explains his quick reaction speed, saying that he's been shot in the back enough times to know to look behind him. Which makes sense.

Garibaldi's source tells him that his sources tell him that the pilot they're looking for is currently hiding from all the people who want to blame him for the loss of his ship (or just want to make sure he can't talk).

His old friend's called Tafiq by the way. Usually I'd be concerned when an old friend shows up in the series like this as it usually leads to disaster. But they're on the Drazi homeworld right now, not the station, so I'm sure it'll be fine.

The two have a chat about traditions for a while, discussing how the streets of this city were built to be very narrow because in the past it was a defence against invaders. I guess cars were never all that popular on this planet, at least in the cities.

Tafiq really knows a lot about the Drazi... probably. He only really tells us about their streets, but I'm sure he knows other stuff too. He's also very good at his job as he's already found the survivor somehow and arranged for him to meet them tonight. The pilot is going to signal the balcony with a light when it's time. Unfortunately Tafiq doesn't know that Garibaldi should stay away from alcohol, and he pours him a glass. Garibaldi does begin to stop him, saying "I don't..." but that's as much resistance as he's able to put up.

Back on the station, Franklin is trying to enjoy some dinner in the Zocalo (or a place that resembles the Zocalo) when he's interrupted by a priority message from Earthdome. He just has to leave the plate there and walk away to take the call in his quarters. And that's the whole scene.

On the Drazi homeworld, Tafiq and Garibaldi have finished off their bottle and Garibaldi's passed out. I guess it makes sense that the guy still has the alcohol tolerance of a man who hasn't touched a drop in four years.

His unconsciousness becomes a problem however when Tafiq is gunned down in the corridor outside. Damn I should've realised that Tafiq's not the old friend arriving and bringing disaster with him, Garibaldi is! In fact the same thing happened to Londo's likeable bearded old friend a few episodes ago when Londo came to visit his planet, though he at least made it out of the hallway before being murdered.

Speaking of hallways, they actually built a bit of set for the corridor outside! All this only exists for him to be shot in. The question is, would it have made a difference if Garibaldi hadn't been drinking? The episode did made a point of showing how quick he is with his gun when he's sober.

Okay, I've gone through this scene frame by frame a few times now and I can't tell if they've painted the burn mark onto his shirt digitally for the whole time he's falling down. He keeps his back to the camera right until he spins around and gets shot, so he could've just been wearing a shirt with a burn on it, but it looks a bit fake even after the initial blast has faded away.

ACT THREE

Garibaldi wakes up in time to see the pilot shining a laser pointer from the park next to the hotel. Fortunately we also get a voice over from the late Tafiq to remind us that he's being signalled, as for a moment I thought someone was about to snipe him.

The CGI team must have spent so much time rendering the transport landing and painting burn marks onto a shirt that they had no time left over for this shot. They just put some shapes together to stand in for buildings and then slapped windows onto whatever surface they felt like!

I know what this reminds me of. It's like when you're playing an old video game and you decide to stray from the path and go look around the corner at a bit of scenery you were never meant to pay any attention to.

Garibaldi races out to find that the Drazi assassin's still there! Or maybe it's a Drazi policeman coming to check on the body, it's hard to say with that uniform-looking costume on. He's wearing both green and purple, which is unusual for a Drazi. Actually I suppose we don't know what's usual. All we know is that every five years they pick a colour and then beat up everyone wearing the other colour.

Whoever he is, he leaps at Garibaldi and the two have a bit of a fight, with Jerry Doyle getting thrown onto a bed hard enough to break the legs. It looked like a very comfortable stunt.

Garibaldi's a bit too drunk to hold his own and he gets the crap kicked out of him, but he's able to get rid of his assailant over the side of the balcony wall. You can really tell that B5 had no time or money to waste, otherwise they would've done a reshoot here after firmly attaching the wall to something so it doesn't keep wobbling whenever anything brushes against it. It's really obvious.

I still don't know who that guy was, but an aircraft comes over to investigate, so Garibaldi gets out of the spotlight and makes a run for it.

I wish I could get a good screencap of the thing, but this is the best I could do. It's like a helicopter built around a single ducted fan.

By the way, if that Drazi was a cop then he did a crappy job of getting Tafiq some medical assistance, as it turns out he's not quite dead yet!

Unfortunately he's only able to hang onto life just long enough to tell Garibaldi to find the pilot. Personally if it was me I'd say fuck the pilot, get me a doctor first! Wait a second, Garibaldi actually had a doctor practically begging to come here with him and he made him stay home. In retrospect that seems like a bad choice.

Meanwhile it turns out that the cop/assassin is still hanging onto the balcony, and he pulls himself up!

Then we get a CGI shot of Garibaldi leaving the hotel, followed by an actual shot of him walking down actual streets! Is this still Babylon 5? Where did all this extra money come from?

Actually I think the reason that this episode may be a little more elaborate than most is because they were preparing for the upcoming spin-off series, Crusade. They knew that Crusade was going to be a more like Star Trek, with the crew visiting different planets each week, so they were experimenting here to see what kind of virtual locations they could pull off with their budget. They even asked NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to work out what colour the lighting should be on an alien world like this.

They haven't quite managed to match The Mandalorian's virtual visuals but it is nice to see characters off the station again.

Garibaldi spots three monks next to the pilot and he just charges right at them with his pistol, firing at one in mid-flight while diving at the other two. That's not how you're supposed to use guns! He's a little more effective in this fight, at least at first, but it's three vs one so it goes about as well as you'd expect. They escape without killing him, but he finds that the pilot's dead, and when he spots purple and green police lights down the street he knows it's time to make a run for it again.

Tafiq really wasn't lying about how narrow these streets are and the tiny pointless pavement either side isn't helping. The actual reason they're so small is that they were running out of room on the stage and this is all they could fit. It's still a big step up from the complete lack of streets in almost every other episode.

Garibaldi contacts the station via channel 4 (another Channel 4 shout out) to tell them he needs a rescue. He wants a White Star to come down nearby so he can leap on board and escape the planet. Wait, did Garibaldi deliberately screw this mission up just so he could finally get a ride on a White Star? Actually I have a better, more serious question: could he have gotten a better outcome here if he'd been sober?

Meanwhile G'Kar is clearly being tormented by his fame as he yells at Ta'Lon to go away when he rings his door bell. G'Kar doesn't want to take on the responsibility of talking to his followers, so Ta'Lon draws his K'tok sword to make a point. Man, why does he keep doing this? The sword has to draw blood before it's put back so he's going to have to cut himself again later.

We get a callback to the last time he drew his sword (in A Day in the Strife) and how he told G'Kar he had a 2-to-1 advantage in arms as "you carry yours in your heart and in your mind". Actually he gets the line wrong here and says he has an unfair advantage because "you carry your sword in your heart, where no one can take it from you," but it still works. The point he's making is that G'Kar has an obligation to use his metaphorical heart-sword and share what he's learned since his epiphany back in Dust to Dust: that they need to unlearn hate and fear. Neither of them mentions that other cult leader who tried teaching his followers the same thing and then burned to death in a fire last episode.

G'Kar's worried that the celebrity will go to his head and Ta'Lon promises he'll kill him if that happens. He's a true friend. And then he cuts his palm with the sword again. He didn't even take his glove off first!

ACT FOUR

Hey they've moved Sheridan's desk and put the logo in the middle of the window. Every little helps to make it look less like Lochley's office.

Garibaldi has made it back to B5, but all he's brought back with him is a button from one of the people in cloaks who killed the pilot. He can't identify it and neither can any of the others, but he's certain it's from the people who've been attacking transports and they knew exactly where to find him. Which means they've got a leak. Just then Londo strolls into the meeting and tells them exactly where the button's from: a Centauri palace guard.

Garibaldi immediately lies and says he bought it in the Zocalo, and the others keep quiet, so they move onto the next topic. But the episode jumps ahead to a secret meeting in Sheridan's quarters later on. Secret from Londo anyway.

So now they're pretty sure that Londo's the leak, but they also think that he's innocent. He just reported back to his government like he's supposed to. But it doesn't make sense that the Centauri would be behind the attacks as they gain from the Alliance just like everyone else. I'm not sure why the most paranoid man in space is taking the button at face value, especially as we know these people are planting fake evidence, but it does match up with what we've seen on Centauri Prime.

G'Kar tells the others about the assassination attempt on Londo and how he was saved by an outsider with the run of the palace. There are two different factions at work on Centauri Prime right now and if Londo starts to investigate then the one that's behind the attacks will murder him.

It's nice that the heroes are finally figuring out that the Centauri are involved and that things aren't so simple, but it sucks that they're secretly kicking Londo out of their secret club again after he's been isolated for so long. He's trying so hard to be good and they're all pulling a Delenn on him; making choices about what he needs to know.

Oh, I was wondering where Franklin was during the meeting. And the other meeting. Turns out that he was busy being moody in Medlab. The series seems determined to throw in a Medlab scene in almost every episode this season, like it's making up for its frequent absence during season 4.

Franklin's sitting in his office recording a personal log in which he reveals what his urgent message from Earthdome was about. Well, he almost reveals it. He does at least say that he's going to miss "this place". I guess that whole hostage situation last episode hasn't spoiled Medlab for him.

ACT FIVE

Act five begins with G'Kar in the Sanctuary trying to be a teacher for the first time, and struggling with the fact that his book was stolen and taken to the printers before he could take out the part where he says the Centauri can't be trusted.

One student believes it was written under the direct inspiration of the universe and this means that it all has to be true. So G'Kar decides to teach him to question his beliefs, starting with the belief that Narns can always be trusted. He has him put his face in the book and then slams it shut. He's a more violent teacher than Byron was but he's much better at getting his point across.

It might actually be a good thing that his book contradicts itself, as clearly a lot of people have found that his words resonated with them and if it brings people on the same journey he went on then he's not just preaching to the choir.

We're at the end of the episode now and Sheridan's still signing things.

He gets a brief respite however when Franklin drops by to finally let us all know what that urgent call was about. It was from Dr Benjamin Kyle, the doctor from The Gathering! He's retiring as Head of Xenobiological Research and wants Franklin to come to Earth and take over. It'll actually make it easier for him to do his other job researching alien diseases, so really there's no down side... except for how he'll have to leave all his friends on the station.

The thing is though, he'll be leaving at the end of the year and each season spans a single year, so the character's not actually leaving the series. In fact he won't even be leaving Sheridan and Delenn behind as they'll be going to the Alliance facilities on Minbar as soon as they're built. Despite this Sheridan still seems genuinely sad to be losing him. It's going to be worse for Zack I reckon, as he'll be the only one still wearing an Army of Light uniform after this, and it's not really a uniform if only one person's wearing it. They wouldn't be having this problem if they'd just given Corwin one too!

Franklin tried to tell Garibaldi about the news as well, but he's drank himself into unconsciousness again. You'd might think this disaster of a mission would've been a wake-up call for Garibaldi, but nope, there's an empty bottle of Afterburner Whisky lying next to his sad looking Bugs Bunny "Couch Potato" figurine. In fact if you look carefully there's some cans lying at Bugs' feet as well, but they're just cola.


CONCLUSION

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It's weird watching a Babylon 5 episode with absolutely zero telepaths in it. Byron's telepath cult has had so much focus for so long, but now the 'mysterious attacks' arc has moved to the foreground and B5's decided to be a spy thriller for a bit.

The A plot is about Garibaldi's trip to the Drazi homeworld, which is the first new planet we've visited in forever. It doesn't actually get a name, but we do get a hotel room, a corridor and some streets. We never get streets! Usually a planet will get an establishing shot or two, but here we get multiple CGI scenes depicting Garibaldi's whole journey, plus his view from the balcony and a shot of Garibaldi exiting his hotel. It feels like the series has been saving up money all season by making station-bound stories and they've finally decided to spend some of it. The CGI looks pretty bad even for 1998 to be honest, but that's an inevitable side effect of having a tiny budget at the best of times. Not sure what the deal with the wobbly balcony wall was though.

Unfortunately Garibaldi doesn't have James Bond's tolerance for alcohol, so his spy mission didn't go entirely smoothly. The poor guy's barely had time to heal after the hostage situation in Medlab before getting his face messed up again. It's hard to say whether things would've gone any better if he hadn't been drinking, but if he hadn't been trying to hide it he could've at least brought Franklin along. I'm not sure that the Alliance's Head of Covert Intelligence should really be taking Earth's future Head of Xenobiological Research on a dangerous spy mission, especially as they have Rangers for this, but going alone was probably not the right play. Still, he got a button at least!

The B plot is G'Kar being faced with something no writer should ever have to deal with: his first draft being published before it even has an ending. So now he's simultaneously the Narn representative to the Alliance, the writer for the Alliance, Londo's bodyguard, a best-selling author, and a religious icon. I get that series can get a bit implausible the longer they drag on, but we're only in season 5! There's not much plot here, it's mostly about him being talked into accepting his new role, but it was watchable enough. I did think it was a little weird though that no one mentions the other leader and teacher who was bringing his followers onto the station. Not a single person compares G'Kar and Byron in any way.

There's also a bit of a C plot with Franklin, or at least a sequence of scenes. Playing Franklin's departure for drama just comes off as a bit daft, as this is the final season and everyone's leaving the series at the end of the year, but at least it was resolved quickly. I'm a little surprised that the hostage situation isn't influencing his decision though. Someone fired a PPG at Franklin's face in Medlab and he barely ducked out of the way in time; it'd be understandable if he was a little bit shaken by that.

Anyway the episode was alright I thought. Definitely a step up from the Byron arc, even if the story's nothing amazing and it doesn't push the 'mysterious attacks' arc forward much.

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COMING SOON

Babylon 5 should return with The Corps is Mother, the Corps is Father, but I skipped Neil Gaiman's Day of the Dead a while back and this is apparently the right place to slot it back in.

Thanks for reading by the way! If you want to give me (and everyone else) something to read you should leave your own thoughts in the comments below.