B5: Confessions and Lamentations

[Mickey_Rat15]

It is a good, but damn grim episode that does not really touch on the series story arc, except I believe this is the incident that started Dr. Franklin's stim dependence, and it gives some insight into Delenn's character.

The disease is a bit contrived. Evolution would not favor its traits of being that deadly, that contagious, that easily spread, and that incubation period that is too long so that a carrier dies before infecting others of the host species but too short so for the species to replace population ahead of the death rate. A disease that absolutely destroys its host species is an evolutionary failure. Even the bubonic plague in Eurasia or smallpox among the post contact Amerind population did not kill everyone. Though was it not suggested later on that this might have been something spread by the Shadow faction?

Dr. Lazerine not telling Franklin what was going on right away is rather inexcusable , even if he is under orders by his government. because they did not know if it was capable of jumping species, but also because of how many Markab dead the dcrew of the station they have to deal with.

I can understand why JMS disliked being forced to insert Keffer into his carefully plotted series, but was Keffer really that unlikable as a character in himself?

[MadAmosMalone]

...was it not suggested later on that this might have been something spread by the Shadow faction?

I also seem to recall something mentioned to that effect. Can't remember where in the series. It may have been brought up in Crusade.

[Trinary]

Then again, if I'm being fair, Star Trek wasn't always safe for kids, like little girls in pink dresses. But that's another instance where they were right not to save her, so ... yeah that is an unfortunate pattern.

What episode is this referring to?

A reference to "Hide and Q" where Q gives Riker the power of the Q Continuum while they're en route to a colony where there was a mining accident. Because he promised Picard, Riker doesn't use his power to save them or restore them to life ... including a little girl in a pink dress. Afterwards, we get this exchange:

Riker: "I could've saved that little girl."
Picard: "You were right not to try."

SF's comment is great: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJ3kC23GYMQ

[Durandal_1707]

Then again, if I'm being fair, Star Trek wasn't always safe for kids, like little girls in pink dresses. But that's another instance where they were right not to save her, so ... yeah that is an unfortunate pattern.

What episode is this referring to?

A reference to "Hide and Q" where Q gives Riker the power of the Q Continuum while they're en route to a colony where there was a mining accident. Because he promised Picard, Riker doesn't use his power to save them or restore them to life ... including a little girl in a pink dress. Afterwards, we get this exchange:

Riker: "I could've saved that little girl."
Picard: "You were right not to try."

SF's comment is great: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJ3kC23GYMQ

Ahh yeah. I'd blocked that one from my memory, it seems.

[Durandal_1707]

The disease is a bit contrived. Evolution would not favor its traits of being that deadly, that contagious, that easily spread, and that incubation period that is too long so that a carrier dies before infecting others of the host species but too short so for the species to replace population ahead of the death rate. A disease that absolutely destroys its host species is an evolutionary failure. Even the bubonic plague in Eurasia or smallpox among the post contact Amerind population did not kill everyone. Though was it not suggested later on that this might have been something spread by the Shadow faction?

There are ways that this could make sense, though. For example, it could have been a less-deadly disease from some other space-faring race that jumped species, and had a far more severe effect on the Markab. Consider the Emerald Ash Borer: a minor pest in its native Asia, but in North America it mercilessly destroys every ash tree in its wake. Presumably, its future won't be bright once it's driven all its host ash tree species into extinction, but hey, bugs aren't environmentalists.

http://www.americanforests.org/magazine ... h-goodbye/

[CareerKnight]

The disease is a bit contrived. Evolution would not favor its traits of being that deadly, that contagious, that easily spread, and that incubation period that is too long so that a carrier dies before infecting others of the host species but too short so for the species to replace population ahead of the death rate. A disease that absolutely destroys its host species is an evolutionary failure. Even the bubonic plague in Eurasia or smallpox among the post contact Amerind population did not kill everyone.

Evolution does tend to favor and breed milder diseases with time but the key part is that with time part. If a species has very limited exposure to a disease there isn't time for the species to develop resistances or the disease to become milder. Such a fatal disease would be a failure evolution wise but they due occur. A day is enough time to infect others especially if its suppose to be highly contagious. JMS said they consulted with the CDC and they said that hypothetically a sudden eruption of a disease like this was possible (though not very likely).


I like this episode a lot and probably would have given it a rating of recommended despite not having much relevance to the arc. JMS main point with the episode was that scapegoating or politicizing a disease is always the wrong thing to do and has very bad consequences as it distracts from or even prevents dealing with the problem.

[SuccubusYuri]

Most radical diseases anyway are species jumps to begin with. That particular island probably had a rare species of cat. Spreading the disease by biting people with their bills.

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

I really treasure the bitter, disgusting coda at the end, with a couple of humans at the bar saying the entire disease was a sinister Vorlon plot.

We don't learn. We never learn.

[Fixer]

The disease is a bit contrived. Evolution would not favor its traits of being that deadly, that contagious, that easily spread, and that incubation period that is too long so that a carrier dies before infecting others of the host species but too short so for the species to replace population ahead of the death rate. A disease that absolutely destroys its host species is an evolutionary failure. Even the bubonic plague in Eurasia or smallpox among the post contact Amerind population did not kill everyone.

Evolution does tend to favor and breed milder diseases with time but the key part is that with time part. If a species has very limited exposure to a disease there isn't time for the species to develop resistances or the disease to become milder. Such a fatal disease would be a failure evolution wise but they due occur. A day is enough time to infect others especially if its suppose to be highly contagious. JMS said they consulted with the CDC and they said that hypothetically a sudden eruption of a disease like this was possible (though not very likely).

We actually have some historical precedence with South America.

During the South American conquests an European diseases being introduced to the new world. Millions died and entire civilisations disappeared thanks to the diseases brought by the foreign invaders.

Imagine if the Drafa plague was a a flu like disease that an isolated nation had suffered with and built immunities to over centuries until a particularly nasty strain developed. Now imagine what introducing that to a population with no resistance to the disease and with zero attempts to contain or control it in a highly mobile, mass transport civilisation.

It would be like the Spanish flu Epidemic times twenty.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1918_flu_pandemic

[Tintinaus]

This is another episode that I don't think could've been done on Star Trek. They would've technobabbled up a solution to the cure just in the nick of time, and not have such a downer ending. Unless it was Enterprise, in which case, they'd pat themselves on the back for NOT helping out.

What JMS did in this episode and "Believers" (mentioned above) is one of the things that wowed me about B5. And it was for just as you say, Trek(at the time) wouldn't let this happen. B5 was willing to show the dirty side of life to a much greater extent. And that made me love it all the more.

I also love how this didn't turn out to be a just a "problem of the week" episode, even if it didn't have much to do with the ongoing plot, since even after wiping out the Markab JMS didn't forget them and uses their homeworld in later storylines.