s1e11: Survivors
"Drunk again, Uncle Mike?"
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After ten episodes and a pilot, we finally get a Garibaldi-focused episode. As a 13 year old I was briefly surprised that the guy from Die Hard was in this new TV show, and this is an episode that channels a bit of John McClane as Garibaldi tries to clear his name. In a later season the double-down on that, having Garibaldi crawl through vents to save the day.
Director Jim Johnston puts together some good scenes in this one. The editing feels more intentional than usual, such as during the MedLab scenes where the camera holds of Franklin while the other characters talk in the background: we feel Franklin’s irritation at his sacred space being invaded.
This is most effective during the bar scene in which Garibaldi succumbs to his alcoholism: there’s a slow, delicate push in on Garibaldi as he considers the bottle, and the music builds, and the shot holds and holds for uncomfortably long as we see Garibaldi slide. It’s a great shot and a good scene.
Also good is Sinclair taking away Garibaldi’s badge and sidearm: Michael O’Hare plays it well, clearly disliking what he has to do, but unable to make it right. Ivanova isn’t in this one much, but the dialogue and scenes she gets are amusing.
That said, there are some issues. I’ve always felt that it treats Garibaldi’s alcohol addiction a little too lightly, in that we find out he’s been sober for years, then in the space of one episode he lapses and still saves the day and sobers up again immediately. Sure, there’s a good scene with Sinclair at the end in which Garibaldi is shocked at his own behaviour, but it all feels a bit too easy. The effects of addiction are dealt with in more nuanced ways later in the series, in various contexts.
It’s weird that we don’t get to meet the President after his much-heralded arrival. It’s probably not necessary for the main plot, but following last week’s weird missing space battle with Ivanova it sticks out. That said, Earth Force One looks cool, and the background story points of the President’s immigration policies and his support for Babylon 5 make for interesting flavour.
There’s an unfortunate final line in which Garibaldi witters on about “how much it hurts to be human”, which rolls so much cheese into the scene that it nearly derails the entire episode. That aside, though, this is a solid episode with some excellent interventions from G’Kar and Londo.
Oh, and on the VFX side, the penultimate shot in the hangar as Liana boards her transport is a really fantastic comp. Plus there’s a cool sequence where Garibaldi and Ivanova board the central tram. In fact, this episode does a really good job in terms of establishing the geography of the station. It feels like a big place, into which Garibaldi could disappear.
Next week we have ‘By Any Means Necessary’.
‼️ SPOILER STUFF ‼️
Lots of good stuff in here. Home Guard rears its ugly head again. We see the President implementing policies that are going to seed discontent. The bombing attempt here is a clear precursor to what goes down in ‘Chrysalis’.
There’s an ominous sense that this isn’t over by the time the credits roll. We sense that the rot in Earth Gov is pretty systemic and will get worse before it gets better. This episode significantly advances the internal threat but it’s perhaps not evident on a first watch. As far as the episode itself is concerned, there’s a problem, Garibaldi solves it, President is fine, carry on. It’s only in retrospect that we realise this was just one part of a much larger and more dangerous conspiracy to undermine the Earth Alliance.
‘Mind War’, ‘The War Prayer’, ‘And The Sky Full of Stars’ and now ‘Survivors’ have all been about building that picture of a corrupt and crumbling Earth Alliance, and the sense that no matter what Sinclair and his crew try to do to run Babylon 5, there’s bigger problems coming down the track. Even ‘Deathwalker’ was about a moral absence at the centre of government.
I find it fascinating how little of this would have been apparent on first airing in 1994. We’re still two episodes out from ‘Signs and Portents’, which is when the arc kicks into high gear for the first time.
One thing that struck me watching this: does Liana die during the events of ‘Chrysalis’ when Earth Force One is destroyed? I don’t recall if it’s ever stated.
Non spoiler stuff.
Not too much to add to what's been discussed above. Garibaldi gets a personal story, Homeguard gets a name check, and some more subtle seeds are planted for future developments.
The episode is able to have the proper buildup to Garibaldi taking that drink, but resolves the situation to quickly. As Simon noted the theme of addiction will arise on Babylon 5 again, with better long term storytelling.
Ivanova is particularly wonderful in this episode with her own little plans to subtly help Garabaldi. Her loyalty and friendship are good things to have.
President Santiago (who is voiced in a line or two) was portrayed by a photo of B5 Executive Producer Douglas Netter in "Midnight on the Firing Line," and voices again by Netter in this episode. Not to be confused with General Netter from the same episode.
B5 will mostly stop sneaking in references to its own production staff, but a future episode references a disease called "Netter's Syndrome." Not important to that episode's plot, so not a spoiler.
Of course this episode shows continuing issues, not only with Babylon 5 security, but Earthforce as a whole.
Earthforce One is a great design, but it shown on screen WAY too small, along with the Presidential shuttle. We can use the Starfury Cockpit for rough scale - we know the pilot is in a "standing" position ("lying on their back" under acceleration), and the full sized cockpit prop is about eight feet tall. From there we can see the centrifuge on Earthforce One is... Pretty narrow in any relevant dimension. It's a rare misstep from the artists at foundation.
But the shot of Kemmer entering the shuttle at the end is a truly amazing virtual set. Other than the actress and the ladder that entire set is a comp, and it's done really well with her cast shadows and cast reflections utterly selling the detailed matte painting. So far it's probably the single best VFX shot of the series so far.
The sequence with Ivanova and Garibaldi in the core shuttle is a nice try, but Ivanova's hair is fringing badly. This would have been a good episode for her to have her tight ponytail - just thinking from the VFX standpoint.
Speaking of the core shuttle, and the security issues, am I the only one who finds it odd that the shuttle AI announces "Cobra Bay Area?" This is the launch point for station fighters and shouldn't be accessible to anyone on the bus. After Garabaldi and Ivanova get off a random Centauri exits as well... Speaking for myself this sure as hell led me to wonder if there was Centauri involvement... Who is this random Centauri and why was he (apparently) wandering into a high security area unchallenged?
Mark Hendrickson appears as the drunk alien in the bar with the floppy hat. For this evoking of the B5 drinking game one drinks for and WITH Mark.
"Drink with Garabaldi" is another rule.
SPOILER STUFF
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First appearance of Security Officer Lou Welch. I like Lou, and I like how he is instantly established as loyal to Garibaldi. Even when Kemmler is standing in front of Garibaldi's quarters after Garibaldi's suspension, yet Welch waits for Garibaldi's nods before following Kemmler's orders.
Again, I LIKE Lou, and wish he'd stuck around longer rather than have his role effectively pass to Jeff Conaway, but... For this episode I do wish we'd had another appearance of Macaulay Bruton as Garibaldi's (never named) aide. We'll just assume he's lurking around unseen helping Cutter. We certainly know "Officer Bruton" will have no problem shooting Garibaldi in the back.
Think this is only the second episode Maggie Egan's ISN anchor, Jane, appears. Always appreciated how, after clicking along in many episodes as a news reader how she eventually gets a very effective character arc in TWO SCENES. Just shows how by having a "nothing" character who keeps recurring for years you can cleverly twist them into someone with an internal life in very little time with efficient scripting. We'll talk about her again come "Severed Dreams" and "Endgame."
While it's never explicity stated, it's a reasonable assumption Lianna Kemmler is killed in the destruction of Earthforce One in Chrysalis. At the time Garibaldi is comatose after being shot. By the time he awakens, Sinclair is gone, Sheridan is in, Garibaldi is too busy trying to clean out his own forces, and that's also when Delenn emerges from her cocoon, G'Kar starts warning about the Shadows, Lennier drops the truth about the Battle of the Line and Sinclair, and a lot of other stuff. Dropping in the reference to the dead one-off guest character, despite her importance to Garibaldi, just doesn't fit anywhere. We'll assume Garibaldi raises a glass (of water) to her on his own time. Alone.
Is it Lianna Kemmer or Kemmler? I feel like I heard it as Kemmer during most of the episode, but once I thought I heard her say Kemmler right at the end. Anyhow.
I also thought that moment with Garibaldi in the bar was very effective. I'd forgotten about Earth Force being destroyed specifically, but I did remember something happening to Santiago and I had a feeling that we wouldn't be hearing from Lianna again. Looks like I was right.