s1e12: By Any Means Necessary

Space unions

We’re watching the pioneering 90s TV show Babylon 5. If you want to join us, hit subscribe then go to your account and turn on the Let’s Watch notifications.

There is almost no science fiction hook to this episode. It’s a union and budget dispute with a b-plot about religious ritual and cultural appropriation. Other than the opening sequence with the accident in the shipping lane there’s very little in the way of genre trappings.

It feels purposeful, as if it’s the show’s creators pointing out that Babylon 5 can be about real world issues in a way that 90s scifi wasn’t always. It’s successful, too, thanks to smart writing and good performances. It’s an episode that could very easily have tipped over into cheese or melodrama, or simply been a bit too blatant, but the conflicts feel real. The budget limitations that Sinclair is having to navigate sound very familiar.

I read somewhere that the key difference between the Star Wars and Star Trek settings is resource scarcity. In Star Wars, everything is difficult: ships fall apart, everyone is scrabbling for parts and fuel and power. In Star Trek, with replicators, there is abundance. Ships just work, nobody is short of food, everyone has a job and money is no longer a thing. That difference informs everything from the stories told to the visual language in the set and ship design.

Babylon 5 sits on the dystopic, resource-poor end, but without the overt fantasy elements of Star Wars. Hence it can dedicate an entire episode to dockworker unions without it feeling weird.

It helps that Katy Boyer is superb as Connoly, the union rep. It’s not an obvious piece of casting, but she commands every scene. Aki Aleong is brilliant as Senator Hidoshi, despite being stuck behind a TV screen for all his scenes. He plays the politician well,, clearly wanting to support Sinclair and B5 more but unable to do so. José Rey’s dockworker is perfect. Given that the episode leans heavily on dialogue scenes, it was critical to have good actors in those parts.

This guy.

There’s some really ominous bits from Orin Zento around the edges: “I know all about you, Sinclair,” suggesting that Sinclair has caught the unwanted attention of certain people. There’s a sense that there will be consequences for Sinclair’s solution, which makes it feel more real: the sneaky reallocation of funds only works because of ‘public opinion’ being on Sinclair’s side. Every victory in season 1 is feeling like a further slide towards long term trouble.

Meanwhile, G’Kar’s subplot is told in a similarly deft manner, held together by Katsulas at his absolute best. Throughout the episode he shifts from camp to contemplative to enraged to sympathetic, never being anything less than entirely convincing. By this point in the show I’ve entirely forgotten that he’s even wearing prosthetics: G’Kar simply is. I still maintain that it’s the finest performance underneath heavy make-up I’ve ever seen.

The main thing I enjoy about this episode is that it makes the point that Babylon 5 doesn’t just operate using space magic: there are real people doing real jobs in order to keep it ticking over. Every time we see a ship enter or exit the docking bay for the rest of the show, we know these dockworkers are busy making it happen.

Next up is ‘Signs and Portents’. Hoo boy.

‼️ SPOILER STUFF ‼️

It’s fairly light touch stuff for the most part. A lot of it is setup, with the senate and Zento’s general threats towards Sinclair. This will culminate in ‘Eyes’, when Sinclair’s record is called into question, and of course in his recall to Earth between seasons. Sinclair knows he’s making enemies, but it doesn’t stop him: I suspect he also doesn’t realise, yet, quite how serious it’s all going to go.

This ep makes for a nice double-bill with the season 5 episode ‘A View from the Gallery’, which also takes the time to get to know the people making the station work.