What even is morality? How important are the right words? When does the pursuit of knowledge become an unethical violation of privacy? Welcome my friends. This is the story of the last of the Babylon stations. The year is 2262. The place: Babylon 5.
Spoilers ahead.
1. Politics. Politics Never Changes.
You didn’t think things would be all hunky dory right from the get go for the Interstellar Alliance, did you? This isn’t early Star Trek. There’s no utopia at the heart of “Babylon 5,” just the messy but hopeful business of building a better future. I love that season 5 didn’t jump to a few months into the formal existence of the Interstellar Alliance. Instead we started with the inauguration of Sheridan and are only now getting down to formally establishing the core of the Alliance.
Now, what’s so great about the conversations Sheridan, Delenn, Garibaldi, G’Kar and Londo have about the core of the Alliance is their deep dive into what is most important right at the start. This mostly happens when they discuss G’Kar’s declaration of principles, which we didn’t get to read back in “No Compromises”. At first, it seems like it’s going to be shelved in favor of a focus on “bread and butter issues.” However, as the episode goes on, Babylon 5 makes the argument for setting the foundation of the Alliance on these principles rather than on practicalities.
It’s also not really the focus of the episode. Instead, it provides a frame for the rest of the plots, asking a central and fundamental question about the Alliance: what do they stand for? It might seem silly on the face of it, having a document with a set of moral guidelines as the central governing document of the IA, something the Drazi echo at the start, but that’s what all constitutions, magna cartas, declarations, etc. are; they’re less upfront about it, usually, but that doesn’t change their central function.
“The Paragon of Animals” goes out of its way to establish that groups need a shared touchstone to work from. Without it, the whole thing falls apart because no one can agree on what it is they should be about. By agreeing to uphold a specific set of standards, ones which are written with care, they can begin the work of creating something better than what came before. It is not sacrosanct nor is it perfect but it is an ideal, and we are at our best when striving to make the reality reflect our ideals.
2. The Iron Fist in the Velvet Glove
I’m of two minds of Garibaldi’s insistence on a covert telepathic force and his trying to convince Sheridan he needs to have a show of force. On the one hand, he’s right and he’s acting out of genuine care. On the other hand, his ideas don’t gel with what the IA is trying to accomplish in the way he proposes them and they’re, well, kinda uncomfortable to consider. He’s essentially proposing to create a spy network of telepaths and telling Sheridan he needs to scare the other worlds in the IA in order to get them to sign on to the declaration. Would you say that’s a good foundation for a new coalition?
Garibaldi being correct in the abstract is what makes this all so interesting. Sheridan ends up needing to use a show of force to convince everyone to sign the declaration AND the A-plot was only possible thanks to telepathic knowledge. Where Garibaldi is wrong is in the details.
Sheridan’s show of force was one of unity and protection rather than threats. He essentially argues what he’s been saying all along – that they’re stronger together and stronger WITH their principles – with a preemptive, protective blockade of a planet beset by raiders. Does it reek a little of US 90s neoliberal foreign policy? Yes but in context it works. As for the telepaths, well, there’s a reason Garibaldi gets dunked on so hard. Speaking of…
3. Stop Shouting! I CAN HEAR YOU JUST FINE.
Anytime we get to see Garibaldi get taken down a couple pegs by someone he thinks he can outsmart is a fun day. He’s so sure of himself that he needs it every so often to keep him humble and at his best. Cynic that he is, it helps to be reminded that the world isn’t all transactional or conniving. It also helps solidify Byron and the telepaths as a fully fledged faction on the station and Garibaldi’s frayed relationship with Lyta.
Continued belowGaribaldi & Byron’s conversation was also a good check in morally. He basically wants to create X-Force but for B5 and while it’s done with good intentions, we all know how good a paving that makes. It makes one worry for the new regime not because things are sinister but because things could easily spin out of control. Garibaldi seems to realize this a bit, and Lyta & Byron both understand it quite well, so it’ll be interesting to see how this plays out and whether or not the two of them end up having more or less freedom than they imagined.
4. Dead Inside. Don’t Open.
Lyta is also in the unenviable position of having been present at the death of the ranger who brought back information on the world that was being raided at the edge of Drazi space. That was an excellent scene in an episode full of excellent scenes but it’s one of the only ones to have stuck with me afterwards in full. Or, well, not exactly that scene but the scene that follows with Lyta telling Garibaldi about what it’s like to be there at the moment of death.
It’s spiritual but it’s also practical and scientific while retaining a haunted quality to the whole affair. I shuddered in low-level terror when Patricia Tallman was talking. She absolutely sells me on the beauty and horror of it, especially when she ties it into the boogeyman that is Bester. Great worldbuilding there.
And it’s not just a maybe, what if either. Lyta is clearly less of herself afterwards. You can see it in her eyes and her mannerisms. Maybe that’s why she joins Byron at the end, even after all his “being better” talk. We’ll just have to wait and see.
5. We Don’t Need Water Filters: Says the Man Pissing Downstream
Yeah, so remember how the Drazi ambassador objected to the Declaration of Principles? It’s because their government was secretly supplying the raiders with weapons and reaping the profits. Raytheon and the CIA would be proud. It provides a nice, neat way for Sheridan to prove his point about the Declaration while tying the two plots together. There’s not much more to say about it other than as a transition to talking about the Declaration itself.
It’s a source of many jokes in the episode but also a serious document. The dichotomy is wonderful and makes for great TV but also lets JMS flex his monologue muscles. That scene is maybe my favorite of the whole episode, maybe second only to Delenn & Franklin talking in reflection by the body of the dying ranger. By having G’Kar’s opening play over the silent buttoning up of many of the smaller plots in the episode, Straczynski creates a moving tableau. Sure, the speech is born of the 90s in its “we are one” rhetoric but I still found it profoundly effective.
And as I said at the top, ideals are valuable, even if they are not reflective of present reality.
That about does it for now. Join me again in a week for a ground eye view of life on the station where no one is exactly what they appear to be.
This is Elias. Signing out.
Best Lines of the Night:
1. Sheridan: Come all the way out here just to depress me?
Garibaldi: “No, I could do that anytime.”
2. G’Kar: I revised it again. It’s better.
Sheridan: G’Kar!
G’Kar: Well, look.
Sheridan: It’s better.
G’Kar: I’ll be in touch.
3. G’Kar:
The universe speaks in many languages…but only one voice. The language is not Narn or human or Centauri or Gaim or Minbari.
It speaks in the language of hope.
It speaks in the language of trust. It speaks in the language of strength and the language of compassion It is the language of the heart…and the language of the soul.
But always it is the same voice. It is the voice of our ancestors speaking through us. And the voice of our inheritors waiting to be born. It is the small, still voice that says: ”‘We are one.”
No matter the blood, no matter the skin…no matter the world, no matter the star…we are one. No matter the pain…no matter the darkness, no matter the loss, no matter the fear…we are one.
Here, gathered together in common cause…we agree to recognize this singular truth…and this singular rule…that we must be kind to one another. Because each voice enriches us and ennobles us…and each voice lost, diminishes us. We are the voice of the universe, the soul of creation…the fire that will light the way to a better future. We are one.
We are one.
