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Babylon 5 :: Midnight on the Firing Line (01x02)
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Episode Information |
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| Title: | Midnight on the Firing Line |
| Episode #: | 01x02 |
| Production Number: | 103 |
| Original Airdate: | Wednesday January 26th, 1994 |
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Episode Summary |
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An attack by an unknown party against Raghesh Three, a Centauri colony, causes tempers to flair between Londo and G'Kar. When the attacker is revealed, Sinclair must decide between following orders and obeying his common sense and conscience. Meanwhile, the station crew must deal with pirate raiders attacking transport ships, and a newly assigned Telepath attempts to check in as she is required to, but finds her presence unwelcomed by Sinclair's second in command.
| Summary Available In: English | Dutch
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Guest Stars |
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Main Cast |
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Episode Notes |
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Casting changes from the pilot movie:
With this "second episode" (after the pilot movie), some distinct and permanent cast changes take place, as Claudia Christian (LtCdr Susan Ivanova) replaces Tamlyn Tomita, Richard Biggs (Dr. Stephen Franklin) replaces Johnny Sekka. Only Ivanova is seen in this episode, though Biggs/Franklin receives screen credit.
It also adds Stephen Furst (Vir Cotto), and Bill Mumy (Lennier) as series regulars, along with Andrea Thompson (Talia Winters) replacing Patricia Tallman for the official "Telepath", and the addition of Julie Caitlin Brown (Na'Toth). Only Vir and Talia are seen in this episode, though the others are given screen credits.
The Talia Winters and Na'Toth characters will have regular roles for the first two seasons (though Brown will be replaced in season two by Mary Kay Adams in the same role under the Narn facial prosthetics).
Vir, Lennier, and Na'Toth are being added as assistants to their respective Ambassadors (Centauri, Minbari, Narn), and allow for more variety of dialogue & plot information sources, as well as alternative personality models for the main alien races besides the lone Ambassadors.
| Stephen Furst is most well known for playing the aspiring but hapless fratboy Flounder in the classic movie Animal House.
Bill Mumy is long-known to the SciFi community as Will Robinson from the 60s series Lost In Space ("Danger, Will Robinson!"), as well as being in Barnes and Barnes, the group behind the classic and strange song "Fish Heads" popularized by "Dr. Dimento". Bill Mumy also played the young boy in the classic Twilight Zone episode "It's a Good Life", which was one of the four selected as a basis for the 1980s Twilight Zone movie.
| Other changes from the pilot movie:
The appearance of the Minbari is slightly different, with fewer prosthesis (no doubt to make costuming quicker and cheaper in the context of production), particularly at the jaw line. The affect is still alien, but not quite so strange looking.
The doors also in some cases are less unusual -- while they retain the same distinctive "skeleton key" shape, for at least some locations they are now fairly standard sliding "pocket" doors rather than the unusual hinged-pivot type shown in the pilot movie...
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Episode Quotes |
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Sinclair: (The opening dialogue setting the tone of the series, echoing the one from Londo in the pilot movie)
It was the Dawn of the Third Age of Mankind. Ten years after the Earth-Minbari War, the Babylon Project was a dream given form. Its goal -- to prevent another war by creating a place where humans and aliens could work out their differences peacefully. It's a port of call, home away from home, for diplomats, hustlers, entrepreneurs, and wanderers. Humans and aliens wrapped in two million five hundred thousand tons of spinning metal -- all alone in the night. It can be a dangerous place, but it's our last, best hope for peace. This is the story of the last of the Babylon stations. The year is 2258. The name of the place is Babylon 5.
| Ivanova: Garibaldi! Have you seen the Commander? I've tried linking in and he's not responding.
Garibaldi: In that case, he's in the Observation Dome.
Ivanova: How do you know?
Garibaldi: (smiles) Ah. Right. You're new here. He only turns off his link for 10 minutes a day. And when he does, that's where you can find him.
Ivanova: But why? There's no traffic due in for a while, the Dome's on standby. No one's there.
Garibaldi: Exactly.
| Londo: All I'm asking is that you trust me!
Garibaldi: Trust you? Londo, my brain will be five days dead before I ever trust a Centauri. The first time we met you people, the first time we met any other civilization... you told us you practically ran the entire galaxy. What was it you said (imitating Londo), "a HUUUGE empire!"
Londo: Come on, public relations!
Garibaldi: Only that hasn't been true for almost a hundred years. Then you give us this line about how Earth is some lost Centauri tribe, making us distant relatives... until we finally got our hands on some Centauri DNA, and we find out we're not related at all. Appearances aside, we're two completely different species.
Londo: A clerical error!
Garibaldi: A clerical error?
Londo: Yes!! We thought your world was Beta-Nine, it was actually Beta-Twelve. OKAY, we made a mistake. I'm sorry. (holds out arm) Here. Open my wrist!
Garibaldi: Centauri don't have major arteries in their wrists.
Londo: Of course we don't. What do you think, I'm stupid? Do you know what your problem is, Mr. Garibaldi? You're not a people person!
| Talia: Lt. Cmdr. Ivanova?
Ivanova: Yes?
Talia: Talia Winters, licensed commercial telepath. Psi Corps rating P5. I was assigned to Babylon 5 a few weeks ago...
Ivanova: (largely ignoring her) Tell fighter jacks to standby for launch. I want those ships prepped and ready to go.
Talia: Psi Corps regulations require me to log in with the second in command. I've tried to reach you three times, but I guess you've been busy. I figured I'd try the direct approach.
Ivanova: Your diligence is commendable. Anything else?
Talia: No, I just...
Ivanova: (rudely) Well then you'll excuse me I'm in the middle of fifteen different things, all of them annoying... Thank you for coming by.
Talia: (clearly not happy, but not willing to press the point, turns and walks out without further word)
| Ivanova: Commander?
Sinclair: (waves to chair) Lt. Commander...
Ivanova: Thought I'd see if there was any word yet from Earth Central on the Centauri problem.
Sinclair: No. And that worries me. They've had plenty of time to digest the reports but so far, nothing.
Ivanova: Who do you think attacked the colony? The Narns? The Minbari?
Sinclair: Not the Minbari. It's not their way. They're too honorable to pull something like this.
Ivanova: I'm surprised to hear you describe the Minbari that way. After all, you fought them during the war.
Sinclair: Welllllll, my father always told me: The best way to understand someone is to fight him. Make him angry. That's when you see the real person.
Ivanova: Was he also a pilot?
Sinclair: The best. The Sinclairs have been fighter pilots all the way back to the Battle of Britain. He taught me everything I know about flying... and combat. He said to ignore the propaganda. Focus on what you see. I've never seen the Minbari fight dishonorably. They'd never pull a sneak attack.
Ivanova: Perhaps. (nodding to the news program on the TV) Any word yet on the election?
Sinclair: It's going to be close. So... who are you voting for?
Ivanova: I think I'll vote for Marie Crane... I don't like Santiago. I've always thought that a leader should have a strong chin. He has no chin... and his vice president has several. This to me is not a good combination.
| Londo: I will kill him, though.
Sinclair: Ambassador...
Londo: My people... we have a way, you see... we know how, and sometimes even when, we are going to die. Comes in a dream, aah? In my dream, I am an old man, it's twenty years from now, and I am dying. My hands, wrapped around someone's throat, and his around mine. We have squeezed the life out of each other... The first time I saw G'Kar... I recognized him as the one from the dream. It will happen. Twenty years from now, we will die with our hands around each others' throats.
Sinclair: Twenty years is a long time. Long enough for your people to come to an understanding.
Londo: Believe as you wish. Twenty years from now, one of us will be wiser and older. Or one of us will be dead. Who's to say?
| Ivanova: Commander?
Sinclair: That might be it. Tell Garibaldi to stand down. I'm taking his place with Delta flight.
Ivanova: Shall I postpone the council meeting?
Sinclair: No. Look, if I'm at that meeting I'll have to do something I don't want to do, so let it go on without me. You can take my place on the council. Don't worry, it's all on the agenda, just take the vote and see what everyone wants to do.
Ivanova: Any other instructions, Commander?
Sinclair: Lots of them. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find you before I left, so you never heard about any orders from Earth Central. The last thing you heard we were voting for sanctions... Clear?
Ivanova: Yes, sir. Clear as crystal.
| Ivanova: We are convened to vote on sanctions against the Narn regime. Our options include the imposition of planetary blockade...
G'Kar: If it please the council...
Delenn: Ambassador G'Kar...!
G'Kar: I would like to remind the council that before the Centauri Republic invaded our sector, and began the hundred year reign of terror, Ragesh Three was a Narn colony. Now that we are free of the invaders, it is our right to reclaim it!
Delenn: We recognize the prior claim, but the reality is that Ragesh Three has been Centauri property for over a century. To start a war over blood spilled so long ago... Where does it end? You kill them and take their land. They kill you and take the land back. On and on and on.... A cycle of hatred.
G'Kar: Justice! Not hatred. We have no desire to start a war!
| Ivanova: I feel I should explain my behavior earlier. I was rude.
Talia: It's alright. I just wanted to know if it was me.
Ivanova: It's what you represent... My mother was like you. A telepath. None of us ever knew, it was her secret, since she was a girl. She wasn't trained, she was never able to use it well.
Talia: Well, that's why we have the Psi Corps, to help telepaths... bring out their talents to the fullest.
Ivanova: Yes, I imagine that's what they told you. Were you raised by the Corps?
Talia: (nods yes) Mmm-hmm.
Ivanova: Then you never had to make the choice. When they discover what you are, they give you three choices. You can either join the Psi Corps, or go to prison, or agree to take certain drugs for the rest of your life. Drugs that inhibit your telepathic abilities.
Talia: That's the law. Unregistered telepaths have to be controlled. In order to protect the privacy of others.
Ivanova: Have you ever seen the results?
Talia: (silent -- either she hasn't or has, but isn't happy either way with the idea)
Ivanova: They caught up with my mother on her 35th birthday. She didn't want to join the Corps, didn't want to go to prison, so they gave her the treatment. For ten years, a man in a gray suit came to the door once a week. And he gave her the injections. They were strong. Terribly strong. Every day we just watched her, drift further and further away from us. The light in her eyes just went out bit by bit. And when we thought she could go no further, she took her own life.
Talia: I'm sorry.
Ivanova: What happened back then is not your fault. But it's part of what you are. And yet you're as much of a victim as my mother.
Talia: I don't feel like a victim.
Ivanova: No. And so far I cannot tell if that is good... or bad.
Talia: Perhaps tomorrow, we can start out on better terms.
Ivanova: I very much doubt it.
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Cultural References |
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Sinclair: The Sinclairs have been fighter pilots all the way back to The Battle of Britain.
The Battle of Britain was the air war in 1940 between Nazi Germany and Britain which was intended to be a prelude to a German invasion. Thanks to British determination and American supplies, though, Germany never invaded Britain, and was available as a forward base for American and British troops to attack at Normandy. While a German occupation would have made an attack of a Nazified Europe more difficult for America, it was never impractical. It was Germany's first major defeat of WWII, and one of several key turning points of the war.
It is often referred to as "Britain's Finest Hour", when they stood against the previously unstoppable German war machine and, with their backs to the wall, fought them off to remain a free people.
It was also the first combat in human history in which the newly invented RADAR took importance, as it was used to provide advance warning of approaching German bombers, which helped the British fighter planes take off in time to engage the bombers before they were already over their targets. While some bombers still made it through to their targets, it became a very expensive proposition for the Germans. If a British fighter pilot was shot down, he might survive to fight again the very same day. When a German bomber was shot down, any surviving crew could hardly walk home across the British Channel, and generally became POWs.
| Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century
Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century was a 1950s cartoon spoof from Warner Brothers' Merrie Melodies series. It spoofed the late 1920s once highly popular Sci Fi character Buck Rogers (from the 25th century). Buck Rogers is generally considered one of the early sources for bringing the idea of space exploration to the public consciousness. The spoof, starring Daffy Duck, is now considered a classic, and it was voted #4 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time in 1994 by animators. It was also awarded a Retro Hugo in 2004 for Best Dramatic Presentation.
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Featured Songs |
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Episode Goofs |
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Episode References |
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Analysis |
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