Legacies

Neroon is like Shaft, except for white, and with a bone crest on his head. Otherwise, he’s a dead double for Shaft, or not. Personally if I find out some little girl that just stole from my shop has psi ability I’m going to ask her if she can sense the fact that I’m about to punt her across the room right as I do so. Talia, you’re still hot, but the hair, great Odin, the hair!

Written By: D.C. Fontana
Directed By: Bruce Seth Green

Bare Essentials:

A Plot - The Minbari are parading the body of their great war leader, Branmer, around the galaxy. When they arrive at B5 the body is stolen. A war almost erupts over this until it is discovered that it was stolen by Delenn for reasons of her own and she uses her political clout to end the dilemma.

B Plot - A young thief from Downbelow, Alisa Beldon, has been discovered to be a telepath. Ivanova and Talia fight over where she should go and what she should do. In the end Alisa chooses to go and live with the Minbari where her powers will be appreciated but she won’t be governed by the Psi Corps.

More Arc, Less Arch:

Ivanova and Talia really display how far their relationship has come. The friendly nod to each other in the beginning is followed by plenty of child like behavior on the Alisa matter. However by the end of the episode they are friendly yet again and even sharing a cup of coffee with each other. It’s quite a change from how Ivanova first treated Talia in Midnight On The Firing Line and is taking us along the path to Divided Loyalties.

When Delenn is peaking to Sinclair in her quarters as well as later before Alisa arrives she is working on the machine that she will use in Chrysalis.

Na’Toth’s offer to Alisa is almost the same offer given to Lyta Alexander by G’Kar in The Gathering, minus the sex of course. The fact that Narns do not have telepaths will be addressed again in Ship Of Tears, and possibly begin to be addressed in Objects In Motion.

The rift between the Minbari Warrior and Religious castes that Delenn mentions will be seen again in season two’s All Alone In The Night, season three’s Severed Dreams and Grey 17 Is Missing. It will come to fruition in season four’s Rumors, Bargains And Lies, and Moments Of Transition.

Neroon’s final conversation with Sinclair is a big hint at what is to come with Sinclair in War Without End, Part 2.

We learn that Delenn is thinking of the word chrysalis, meaning cocoon and that she doesn’t want others to know this. This will play out in Chrysalis and Revelations.

Who Are You? What Do Yo… Hey, I’m Asking The Questions Here!:

What makes Alisa have an unusual Psi quality for a human in Delenn’s mind? She doesn’t display any special telepathic abilities that we see?

How is Delenn able to identify when Alisa is reading her mind?

Idiosyncratic Musings:

Neroon’s insistence that Minbari and only Minbari have anything to do with Branmer’s body both before and after the abduction is the first real instance where the Minbari show that racism, or xenophobia in this case, is profound in their culture. They may not even view it as racism/xenophobia, but their inability to ever trust any race except their own or the Vorlons, and their history of non-interest in everything not Minbari paints a different picture. This is a subtext of the Minbari that will be present for the entire run of the series, but it is never addressed openly.

Legacies from start to finish serves to cast Delenn in a bad light. Neroon may have been wrong to ignore the wishes of Branmer, but the problem is that we really don’t know whether Neroon is telling the truth or Delenn is telling the truth. Branmer may have at one point told Delenn that he did in fact want to be cremated. However it is also equally as likely that in the fifteen years he served with Neroon day in and day out he may have changed his mind and told Neroon something differently. Personally I don’t believe he changed his mind (and the end of the episode shows this to be the case) but that doesn’t change the wrongness of Delenn’s actions. Remember the old adage of “two wrongs don’t make a right?” That applies to the case of Branmer’s body perfectly. Even if Neroon was wrong in his actions that does not make Delenn’s actions right. She almost gets B5 destroyed, stops the prophecy of the upcoming war that she believes in so much, and re-ignites the war with Earth single handedly. What casts her in such a bad light isn’t just the fact of how wrong she is in her actions, but how selfish she is in them and how smug she is in them. The smugness on her face after she is done dealing with Neroon at the end of Legacies and in her comment ” We shall see what we shall see” to Sinclair about the possibility of another war is particularly telling. Not only is Delenn unable to realize or accept that her actions were wrong, but she flaunts her power over Neroon, is flippant with Sinclair’s very real concerns that she is the cause of, and all the while acts the role of the smug child. To add on to all of that, when she is finally confronted about her actions Delenn doesn’t accept responsibility for them but instead tries to blame Sinclair and Garibaldi because they did their jobs and investigated a missing body. If ever there was an episode that makes you question everything that Delenn stands for, Legacies is that episode.

Ivanova’s point about the Narn being nothing more than conquerors and enslavers is a good illustration of why the Narn are no better than the Centauri. A lot of fans feel sympathy for the Narn, or will as we get into seasons two and three, and that is a testament to how good of a job Babylon 5 did of distancing the Narn from what they were before the Centauri conquered them a second time. But, if people go back and look at the facts they will see that the Narns at this point in time have turned into that which they hate so much, the Centauri. They are no better than the Centauri because they have become what the Centauri are and do to other races what the Centauri once did to them. They will cry and wail about being oppressed, but the oppressed are no longer victims when they have started to oppress other people and turn them into victims.

I See What You Did There:

Neroon is an Alyt in the Minbari Warrior Caste and he will be just as curmudgeonly in all his future appearances.

The onset of puberty can trigger the abilities of a latent telepath. This can result in a mindburst where the inability of the person to deal with all of a sudden hearing so many voices in their head causes their mind to shut down.

The music used for the march of Branmer’s body is the same as that used in the rebirth ceremony in The Parliament Of Dreams.

Sinavel, the war leader that did not agree with the decision to surrender at the Battle of the Line and took his own life will come into play later. While he may be gone his impact will be felt in Points Of Departure.

Talia’s new haircut is not something to be proud of. She’s lucky she’s really hot to begin with because the new hair is not appealing at all.

Alisa Beldon is a P10.

Say It Again Mac:

Na’Toth, “Good idea about the teeth.”

Neroon, “You talk like a Minbari, Commander.”

Yes, I Am A Fleet Junkie:

The Ingata, a Sharlin Class War Cruiser visits the station. Sharlins are also shown in action during Sinclair’s flashback to the Battle of the Line. Like always they are completely destructive in battle, wiping out every Aurora Class Starfury Heavy Fighter that is seen with little difficulty.

It’s Your Cultural Imperative:

Shai Alyt and Alyt are Minbari military ranks. Shai Alyt is probably the equivalent of a General or Admiral, while Alyt is most likely the equivalent of a Captain.

It is not the usual Minbari custom for Branmer”s body to be paraded around on display like it is. His clan, the Star Riders insisted upon this display of his body.

The Llort are collectors of everything and anything and are viewed as the pack rats of the universe.

The Pak’ma’ra are one of the more interesting aliens in the series. They are members of the League Of Non-Aligned Worlds and a smaller force in the universe. They are carrion eaters, they only eat that which is dead. The Pak’ma’ra can breathe both oxygen and non-oxygen atmospheres and they can do this through gills. They have very humped backs, but it is believed that in all instances the hump is actually a female Pak’ma’ra attached to her mate. They are biped with tusk like faces, hairless large heads and they have three fingered hands. The index finger is much larger than the other two fingers, and they have an opposable thumb on each hand. They need a computer translator to speak to other races, it is unclear whether this is because they have the inability to speak other languages or they simply refuse to.

The Minbari view telepathic ability as a gift. Those who have it render their services to all those that need it and they are not paid for these services. However all of their needs are taken care of so that they may continue in their work.

In Minbari society the lineage of the mother takes precedence over that of the father.

You Look Mighty Familiar:

John Vickery, Neroon, played the role of Orak in the Enterprise episode, Judgment. He played the Cardassian Gul Rusot in a trio of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episodes. He also portrayed Counselor Andrus Hagan in the Star Trek: The next Generation episode Night Terrors.

The Ombuds Have Decided:

Legacies is a good episode that is knocked down a few pegs by some of the more ridiculous elements. The verbal exchanges between Sinclair and Neroon are quite fun, as is Garibaldi throughout the episode. The problem with Legacies is that it falls off the tracks a few times and when it does fall it’s not just a little tumble but a big dive that drags the episode down. Legacies could have been something much better had it possessed a better understanding of the Babylon 5 universe. As it is Legacies is a solid episode that fails to deliver anything really memorable or great.

The scene where Talia explains to Alisa how to build a wall in her mind to block out the voices is a neat way of displaying how telepathy can work. The voice distortions and chaotic nature of the scene really make it work.

The fact that such a big deal is made about the Ingata approaching with its gun ports open is very stupid. In light of the events we will learn in the movie In the Beginning as well as what Legacies tells up about the beginning of the last Earth-Minbari War being a giant misunderstanding this entire sequence seems even more stupid. Earth now knows that it is Minbari custom, at least among the Warrior Caste, to approach with gun ports open. They know that their lack of understanding on this matter is what caused the Earth-Minbari War. All of this serves to make all the people freaking out on the Observation Dome look dumb. It especially dumbs down the usually very clever and perceptive Commander Sinclair when he is about ready to start another war over the gun ports being open.

I know that the show was trying to make a point with the whole “we are accepting of the Minbari bringing the great war leader’s body here because it shows we are over the war.” However that entire story point wasn’t interesting in the least. Wars happen, and people either move on and learn to get along again or they continue hating one another. That’s how life works and Legacies really didn’t need to hammer that point home.

I have major issues with the Tiluminary being a super powered stun beam. It’s too powerful of a weapon, much like the Minbari rings of death from The Gathering, and it falls into the standard science fiction cliché of the all powerful weapon that is used once and then never seen or used again.

I also have major issues with Sinclair’s fight with Neroon. All series long we are told that the Minbari are much stronger and bigger than even the best humans. Yet even when a highly trained warrior like Neroon has the advantage of surprise Sinclair beats him down with brute force and relative ease. The entire fight is really messed up and doesn’t work at all.

Rating:

71/100

C+

Legacies is done with, next we shall trek into the woods for A Voice In The Wilderness, Part 1.

Cheers,
Bill

Previous – 1.16

Next – 1.18