1.10
Believers
I believe I can fly, I believe I can touch the sky… Oh, that’s not what this episode is about, damn! I wish I could skirt authority as much as Franklin does. I skirt the authority here and Paul breaks my leg or some other appendage. If only today’s sci-fi on TV could be as daring and challenging as this episode. But, that’s alright, we all have the next episode of that zany and wacky Flash Gordon to look forward to! Stare inside the insides of Shon on a computer screen and find yourself transported to a classic Contra level, wicked rad!
Written By: David Gerrold
Directed By: Richard Compton
Bare Essentials:
A Plot - A member of the Children Of Time, Shon, is dying. A simple surgery will solve the problem, but for religious purposes his parents, Tharg & M’Ola refuse to allow the surgery. Franklin petitions Commander Sinclair to intervene, but after talking to Shon he rules against Franklin. Ignoring this decision Franklin goes ahead with the surgery leaving Shon a healthy boy again. Tharg & M’Ola now view their real son as dead and so they kill Shon, or in their eyes the shell of a body that was once their sons.
B Plot - A starliner has broken down in Raider territory and Ivanova has gone out to investigate. After she escapes a skirmish with the Raiders she manages to safely guide the starliner to B5.
More Arc, Less Arch:
Franklin and his belief that he is always right and always in control will rear it’s head again in the episodes, The Quality Of Mercy, Confessions And Lamentations, A Day In The Strife, hidden within Ceremonies Of Light And Dark and brought to the forefront again in Interludes And Examinations before finally coming to a head in Shadow Dancing.
While purely conjecture on my part I do believe that Kosh’s line about it being too late for the pebbles to vote is a foreshadowing of the events that are to come. The major events in the universe that will bring about the upcoming war have already started and therefore it is too late for the relatively minute, at least to the Vorlons, problems of the Children Of Time.
Who Are You? What Do Yo… Hey, I’m Asking The Questions Here!:
Does any puncture wound allow the soul to escape according to the Children Of Time? Would a simple scrape on the knee allow the soul to escape or does it have to be a deep cut?
Do all of the Children Of Time follow the same beliefs as M’Ola, Tharg and Shon? For that matter are the Children Of Time a race or just a religion within a race?
Ivanova shoots down the first Zephyr with no provocation, why is this?
How did Ivanova escape from that many Zephyr’s?
What consequences did Tharg & M’Ola face for their actions?
Idiosyncratic Musings:
Tharg & M’Ola’s refusal to allow Shon to watch the TV on B5 because it may contain some false belief systems is possibly the most troubling aspect of the entire episode. Belief is a very tricky thing and nothing can railroad a belief more than seclusion or ignorance. By teaching Shon to be ignorant of other beliefs they are stifling the growth of his own belief in a positive way. Sure, his belief will continue to grow, but a lot of that growth will be out of the feeling of necessity and conformity as opposed to a willingness on his own behalf. I am of the mind that if Tharg & M’Ola want Shon to be devout in his beliefs then he needs to be exposed to other beliefs so that he can fully appreciate whether he actually believes in what his parents do.
Believers tries to make a connection between the case of the Children Of Time and that of Kosh in the pilot, The Gathering. Unfortunately there is no connection there and that is the one major place where Believers falters. In the case of Kosh he was attacked by an outsider, the issue at hand was a political and legal matter, and most importantly Kosh had no say at all in what was going on . In the case of Shon it is a spiritual and religious matter, he was not involved in any attack but is suffering from an existing medical ailment, and most importantly he is able to voice his feelings about what is going on. The two cases are completely different and one should not be used as a point of reference against or for the other.
Delenn’s speech to Tharg & M’Ola about “whose belief is correct” really shows her hypocrisy as well as that of the Minbari as a whole. She refuses to interfere and help Tharg & M’Ola because the Minbari do not interfere in the matters of the soul. However she had no compunctions whatsoever about decrying the beliefs of the Soul Hunters. She made sure to interfere in their beliefs by cracking open a whole bunch of soul globes. She satisfied her religious belief at the cost of another and didn’t bat an eyelid at it. Yet, in this case she refuses to help. This is a trend that Delenn and most other Minbari show of a complete hypocrisy in the way they treat matters that involve what they believe as opposed to matters of belief among other peoples.
Sinclair has a quote in Believers where he makes the questioning statement that maybe religion got it all wrong. That quote couldn’t have been more perfect and really helped to tie the episode together. Instead of simply leaving you with the impression that Franklin was completely in the wrong that quote brings into question the actions of the Children Of Time. I don’t think I can say it better than Sinclair did, because I agree with him one hundred percent. Religions have in the past, are right now, and will in the future get it all wrong. I have no problem with the idea of faith or belief in something, but I do have a problem with organized religions that tell you who or what to believe in and chastise those that don’t share their beliefs. If there is a God then I truly believe that he/she doesn’t care how you say your prayers, or even if you are saying them at all. All that would matter is whether or not you believe and have faith.
Shon’s reaction after the surgery shows Franklin just how wrong he was, but he refuses to see it. The moment Shon realizes that he is alive and a down expression comes across his face is the moment that Franklin should have realized the mistake he made. Shon isn’t happy to be alive because he knows what is probably coming, and even if he doesn’t know that he knows the scorn he will face from his parents as they shun him. This is contracted nicely with the blank expressions on the faces of Tharg & M’Ola after they have killed Shon. They absolutely refuse to see how wrong they were in killing Shon. The entire episode they held the moral high ground and held it firmly but in that one act they completely lost it. There comes a time when a matter goes beyond religious and into the realm of murder. This has happened with Shon and yet his parents do not see it at all.
Just as powerful as those two scenes are is the moment when Franklin discovers that Tharg & M’Ola have killed Shon. While he was able to ignore Shon’s initial reaction after the surgery and he was willing to flaunt his success in the face of Sinclair this scene brings him crashing back to reality. Franklin is finally confronted with what he has done and he isn’t able to handle it. He knows how wrong he was and yet at the same time he blames the parents. This carries over into his scene with Sinclair where he rebukes every effort that Sinclair makes to alleviate some of his guilt. He does this because at this point in time he is so arrogant that he refuses to see any other insight into how the situation unfolded than his own. Truly a great first step in forming the character of Franklin.
I See What You Did There:
Delenn’s inference about the Minbari suffering interference in the soul department was an obvious reference to the Soul Hunters.
Just like Garibaldi, Franklin has a key card that allows him access to all the quarters on B5.
It’s Not Kosher If It’s Not Kosh:
“The avalanche has already started. It is too late for the pebbles to vote.”
Say It Again Mac:
Susan Ivanova, “I think I’ll just walk to and fro for a while. Maybe over to my console. After that maybe I’ll try pacing fro and to, ya know, just for the kick of it.”
Commander Sinclair, “Maybe God doesn’t care how you say your prayers, just as long as you say them.”
Stephen Franklin, “Maybe we’d all be better off if there was no God. If God had never been invented.” Amen to that brother.
Yes, I Am A Fleet Junkie:
The Aurora Class Starfury Heavy Fighters jam the signal of the lone Zephyr 109 Light Fighter easily and Ivanova catches up to the Zephyr easily enough. In the combat you are shown her Starfury destroys the Zephyr with a single shot and displays the one on one tactical advantage the Starfury enjoys over the Zephyr. However the amount of damage Ivanova’s Starfury takes off camera shows just how effective the Zephyr’s can be as pack hunters with superior numbers.
It’s Your Cultural Imperative:
The Children Of Time are a biped humanoid race with a raised bone structure on their foreheads. They are oviparous as their offspring come from eggs. The Children Of Time we see in Believers hail from the planet, Thalitene. Their religion, at least the one we are shown in this episode, does not allow for the skin to be punctured in any way lest the soul escape and they be replaced with a demon. It is a sign of weakness in the culture of The Children Of Time to acknowledge your feelings for someone to another being.
The Lamada is the Children Of Time death robe for the journey to the beyond.
I Think This Might Be Based On Something:
The Shakespeare Corporation is an obvious reference to English playwright William Shakespeare. But, that corporation and the pfingle eggs they want imported are also a reference to the novels, Under The Eye Of God and Covenant Of Justice both written by David Gerrold.
I feel like an idiot for having not done this already, but the namesake of the station is a historical reference. The city of Babylon, and later the empire of Neo-Babylonia, is an ancient Earth city that was noted as a seat of culture, commerce, and enlightenment during it’s periods as the largest city of the world from 1770-1670 BC and 612-320 BC respectively.
Pontius Pilate was a Prefect in the ancient Roman Empire. He is most well known as the man who ordered the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
You Look Mighty Familiar:
Stephen Lee, Tharg, portrayed the character of Duffy in a personal fave of mine, RoboCop 2. He also played Barcus in the forgettable, albeit great to laugh at, Ghoulies III: Ghoulies Go To College. He was Sheriff Bo Loman in a trio of Quantum Leap episodes as well as the character of Captain Strickland in a pair of Black Scorpion movies.
Tricia O’Neil, M’Ola, was Captain Rachel Garrett in the episode Yesterday’s Enterprise and Kurak in the episode Suspicions of Star Trek: The Next Generation. She played Korinas in the Defiant episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
The Ombuds Have Decided:
Man, if not for a couple of flubs, and they happen to be big flubs in my eyes, this would have been a perfect episode. Everything came together, the acting, the writing, the setting, the atmosphere, everything to form quite the episode of TV. It flows from beginning to end and it is a really light story in terms of facts and references and instead tackles a moral and philosophical issue head on. Believers doesn’t hold back and merely takes you along for the ride.
Believers does a great job, perfect I would say, of conning the viewer. The story is presented in such a way that you want to view Franklin as the sympathetic hero, or at the very least a sympathetic character. But the entire time the episode is conning you into thinking that way it is laying all the facts right in front of your face. Franklin isn’t sympathetic, he is extremely arrogant and is far from the hero of the story. Believers strings you along and deceives you into believing one thing and then at the end the truth of the situation comes crashing down on you in a great bit of storytelling.
The actors portraying Tharg & M’Ola did a splendid job of portraying their conviction in their beliefs. They came across as stout as could be, but what really hammered their roles home was the underlying sense of sadness that they brought to the part. They believed that Shon had to die according to their beliefs, but at the same time they weren’t happy about that and weren’t completely accepting of that.
Despite all the good, there were a couple of points that didn’t sit well with me.
Believers could have done without any of the references to the Kosh poisoning incident from The Gathering. It was an atrocious plot hole from the get go that he was ever poisoned & operated on and bringing it up only causes me to cringe. I do believe this is the last episode that it will be referenced in and that is a good thing because bringing that up only helps to drag an episode down.
I also had a problem with Sinclair’s inaction against Franklin. He disobeyed a direct order, was insubordinate in front of others, flaunted that fact in front of Sinclair, and then ultimately his actions led to the death of a child (Yes, Shon would have died anyways, but he would have died naturally as opposed to being murdered by his own parents.) Despite all of this Sinclair takes no action at all against Franklin and that doesn’t jive with me at all. Sinclair gives Franklin a light slap on the wrist and that leaves the viewer with the impression that Franklin was somehow justified in his actions.
All in all a great episode and an episode of B5 that is required viewing for those who think that B5 only functions because of the arc.
Rating:
87/100
B+
We’re on a roll with one good episode followed by two stellar eps. Next up is Survivors and let’s hope the good times continue to roll.
Cheers,
Bill