1.12
By Any Means Necessary
Cheesy puns ahoy matey! Sinclair appears to be a bit stubbly, maybe it’s the beginnings of a sympathy Stanley Cup playoff beard? Garibaldi so wants to shag Connelly, he just doesn’t know it. Speaking of barbarians, the one dock worker with the weird beard and caveman like forehead certainly reminds me of a caveman.
Written By: Kathryn M. Drennan
Directed By: Jim Johnston
Bare Essentials:
A Plot - The dock workers are overworked, underpaid and using faulty machinery. This results in an explosion that kills one of their own. After they find out that they won’t be receiving any pay raises, new workers, or new machinery in the new budget they go on an illegal strike. The Senate sends in their labor specialist Orin Zento to solve the matter. He enforces the Rush Act, but this backfires on him. Sinclair uses this as the opportunity to end the strike by allocating money from the military budget to provide new workers, pay raises, and improvements to the dock machinery.
B Plot - The Holy Days of G’Quan are upon the Narn. A G’Quan Eth flower that is necessary for a ritual is destroyed in the dock explosion. Their is one other Eth on B5, but it is in the possession of Centauri Ambassador Londo Mollari. After much haranguing and shenanigans Sinclair is able to convince Mollari to give G’Kar the Eth plant. It appears to be too late as the ceremony time has already passed, but Sinclair comes up with a clever solution that solves G’Kar’s problem.
More Arc, Less Arch:
Sinclair’s comment about things changing on Earth and not for the better is clear prelude to all that is to come with Earth. Night Watch, President Clark, The Ministry Of Peace, the whole shebang.
Idiosyncratic Musings:
The entire worker storyline is incredibly realistic and really helps to define the divide that exists more than ever in present day society between the upper class and the laboring class. Most people in the positions of power, the upper class, like to believe that this divide doesn’t exist outside of the fact that they are in charge. But, it clearly does exist in the difference in how the laboring class workers are treated compared to upper class citizens. By Any Means Necessary does a splendid job of highlighting this divide and really showing that the management portion of upper class has no idea about what work entails other than the dollars and cents side of the issue.
Sinclair’s solution to the strike is clever and once again relays how different he is from most military commanders. Even someone like Sheridan would have went with the usual Rush Act solution and used force because it’s the by the book thing to do. Sheridan eventually would change from that and look for ways around the by the book solution, but Sinclair was different because from all accounts he was a clever solution guy from the beginning. It really is a breath of fresh air from the usual sci-fi commanding officer.
I See What You Did There:
Babylon 5 apparently has a Swift Team, a group of people that respond to fires and/or disasters where people are trapped. This is the only time we see them, despite there being numerous other situations in future episodes where people are trapped under similar circumstances.
Lost In Translation:
Michael Garibaldi, “She’ll be spitting neutrons.” A bad, bad attempt at a futuristic pun.
Neeoma Connelly, “We’re as serious as a rip in a space suit and we want the Senate and Commander Sinclair to know it.” The bad pun parade continues.
Londo Mollari, “They’re all pagans, still worshiping their sun.” This said by the man that worships somewhere around fifty Gods and Goddesses.
It’s Your Cultural Imperative:
G’ Quan is a famous Narn religious figure. G’Lan is another one, but G’Quan appears to be the more dominant figure. He has numerous places and items that bear his namesake. He has many followers, most notably G’Kar. Every year there are a period of days referred to as The Holy Days of G’Quan, during which time his followers are forbidden to imbibe any alcohol, and as of this episode they are nearing an end.
The G’Quan Eth is rare Narn flower that is a religious item used in the closing rituals of The Holy Days of G’Quan by the followers of G’Quan, and it is the responsibility of the highest ranking Narn present to procure a G’Quan Eth for the ceremony. It is also used by Centauri as a potent additive to alcoholic beverages.
By this point in time worker strikes are illegal on Earth or Earth controlled lands, once you sign a contract you are bound by it. It’s unclear whether this applies to strikes across the board or just to workers under government contracts. The governments solution is the Rush Act. When the Senate puts this act into effect it allows the highest person of authority in the region to stop the strike by whatever means they deem necessary. Usually this entails the use of force, be it military or security officers, and eventual arrests and incarceration. The last time the Rush Act was invoked was on Europa. It has also been used in 2237 on Ganymede, as well as on New California. Matewan is referred to, but this was not a result of the Rush Act, but rather is a historical labor dispute that took place in the town of Matewan, West Virginia in 1920.
The Centauri have a God named Ruterian.
I Think This Might Be Based On Something:
I believe that the Rush Act is named after uber-conservative, and all around scumbag, radio host Rush Limbaugh.
You Look Mighty Familiar:
The tall mangy looking dock worker standing directly behind the main cast most of the time is Floyd Van Buskirk. He has played some bit roles in Reno 911! and Reno 911!: Miami.
Katy Boyer, Neeoma Connelly, appeared in the Angel episode, I’ve Got You Under My Skin as the mother of the Ethros demon possessed child.
Casting Ahead:
John Snyder makes a return to B5, he last appeared as Soul Hunter #2 in Soul Hunter. This time around he plays labor negotiator Orin Zento.
Michael McKenzie appears in the B5 universe once again, this time as the Narn captain of the Tal’Quith.
Aki Aleong returns as Senator Hidoshi.
Patricia Healy returns as ISN reporter Mary Ann Cramer.
MaCauly Bruton is seen again as Garibaldi’s right hand man, Jack.
The Ombuds Have Decided:
This is an episode that I happen to like quite a bit, mainly because of the subject matter that it tackles. There aren’t any other sci-fi shows out there that are willing to look at the men and women that make the gears turn. B5 did this and they did it in exquisite fashion. However for as accurate of a job as they did of portraying the main theme of the episode there were too many flaws for this to be any more than a middle of the road episode. It’s not an episode that will be a burden to watch, but it does have its flaws and those hold it back from a higher status.
Sinclair’s increasingly haggard look as the episode progresses and he has to deal with more and more problems is a sweet touch.
G’Kar’s hesitation to strike the Book of G’Quan is a nice little tidbit that shows how deep his spirituality really is. It’s not touched upon all that much at this point in the show and it’s a sweet little Easter egg of what is to come with his spirituality. The ensuing conversation between G’Kar and Na’Toth is another nice little thing. It manages to show the closeness of the two while establishing G’Kar as the thinking spiritual man and Na’Toth as the straight forward warrior.
Katy Boyer does a fair amount of overacting with her facial expressions and reactions throughout the show. Sometimes it’s not noticeable, but other times it’s extremely noticeable and detracts from the scene.
The final solution to the strike is fine and it works really well. But, the cheering, back slapping, and “yeah, we did it” tone of the scene feels over the top and too much of a happy feel good ending.
The scene in the Zocalo with Londo and G’Kar feels forced and contrived. Somehow Londo knew at that exact moment that Na’Toth would be coming to speak to G’Kar. Somehow he knew that she would already know that he was in possession of the lone G’Quan Eth plant on B5. And worst of all somehow he knew that she would manage to tell G’Kar this precisely the moment before his lift doors closed so that he could laugh out loud at G’Kar.
The tough guy routine by Eduardo Delvientos towards Garibaldi falls flat. He tells a security officer that puts his life on the line every day and has seen numerous friends and fellow security officers die that “people are dying out here” like he doesn’t know what that is all about. It’s a laughable concept and doesn’t work at all any of the times they try and push that notion across the screen. No laborer would be as stupid as to use that line on someone in Garibaldi’s line of work. They may hate someone like Garibaldi but they still recognize that at the end of the day he’s the same guy that they are.
I particularly love the hilarity of the scene where Connelly rushes out of the conference room to warn her workers. Sinclair chases her down and an upbeat fast tempo music begins to play. The characters response to all of this is to engage in the slowest walk and talk down the corridor I have ever seen.
Rating:
66/100
C
That’s all for By Any Means Necessary, join me next time as we dig our teeth into Signs And Portents.
Cheers,
Bill
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