Babylon 5: The Quality of Mercy

[cdrood]

Having come the the show in Season 2, I find this episode an essential world building episode. It presents a lot of what would later become important without feeling that way. One thing Star Trek rarely ever did was present the limitations involved with living in space. How would you deal with violent criminals somewhere where space and resources are limited and transportation is expensive? On a planet, exile might still be an option, but not so much on a ship or station. Add in the existence of telepaths and you have a whole new way of dealing with it without killing the person who'd just be a drain on a system where food and water are limited. I liked how "Passing Through Gethsamane" showed us this concept from the other side.

The machine not only came into play, but so did the concept of transferring life energy independent of it. Also the clinic shows Franklin's "over dedication" to his job will lead to his own stim use once he has a war to deal with.

The episode isn't NECESSARY for any of those later stories, nor are they specifically necessary to this. Really only how Franklin got the machine is relevant, but the in episode explanations on its later use were sufficient. It does help, however, as a way of building the story.

Babylon 5 almost HAS to be watched differently. It's a novel for television with a beginning, middle, end, and epilogue. Season 1's weaknesses are a combination of typical season 1 weaknesses of many shows, the need for world building, and its role as the first few chapters of a book. Most shows have in season arcs and sub-arcs that are their own thing as well as contributing to the show as a whole.
B5 is different. Game of Thrones is a show where a complete novel more or less represents a season of the show. B5 is a SINGLE book spread out over 5 seasons. Not a lot is SUPPOSED to happen in season 1.

[Archanubis]

The episode does layout some threads that will be important later:

1) It does introduce the machine that will be used to revive Garibaldi in the next season, as well as Ivanova at the end of Season 4. The machine was apparently a replacement for the life serum introduced in the earlier "Deathwalker," as JMS apparently ran into a block when he thought about how the latter would actually work in the context of how he wanted the story to go. I'm sure it's something Chuck will mention whenever he gets to "Deathwalker."

2) It's revealed that Minbari will lie if it means saving the honor of another. That will be VERY important for Sheridan in the next season.

3) It's not really out there at the time, but it does foreshadow Franklin's own addiction to stims in the later seasons.