Babylon 5 Episode 3 Season 3
Convictions was a pretty linear story, it was all centred around the one issue. A Day in the Strife is almost it’s polar opposite. The title is meant to refer to a typical day on Babyon 5, makes me wonder how they get through 364 of them. I’m not sure if strife means the same thing in the US as it does in Australia, down here it’s a slang word for trouble. It’s passed into popular use as in the phrase ‘in more strife than the early settlers.’
There are a whole bunch of stories going on here. One concerns the relationship between Vir and Londo, another is G’Kar’s status on Babylon 5 and the fact that the Centauri want him so they can execute him as a war criminal, a probe from an alien race arrives and makes aggressive demands and Franklin’s increasing reliance on ‘stims’ becomes of concern to Garibaldi. I’ll try to cover them as best I can.
Londo’s current role as aggressive warlord and his dreadful treatment of the Narns concerns Vir, and Londo starts to think that Vir is too soft for his role as Londo’s attaché. He makes arrangements to send Vir to Minbar as a member of a vacant mission there. Vir’s not happy about leaving Londo, but Londo is doing this for Vir’s good. It’s rather a sad send off, although I think Vir will be back. At least Vir got a send off, unlike Na’Toth who simply disappeared. In my head canon she’s leading a resistance unit on the Narn homeworld.
A Narn councillor by the name of Na’Far arrives and demands that G’Kar be handed over so that he can given to the Centauri. Sheridan and Ivanova refuse and say that unless G’Kar agrees to go, they can’t do anything. I don’t know what Na’Far’s game is, but it’s pretty clear he’s a Centauri puppet. Na’far has a bodyguard called Ta’Lon with him. I didn’t realise until Sheridan met Ta’Lon for a drink that this was the same Narn imprisoned with him aboard the Streib ship. G’Kar is willing to with Na’Far if it will prevent more Narn from dying, and this is even after he confirms to Garibaldi that he is totally aware he’s going to his death. The other Narn on the station refuse to allow G’Kar to sacrifice himself and send Na’Far off with a flea in his ear. To add insult to injury Ta’Lon decides to stay as well. I can definitely see him playing a significant role in future events.
The probe was kind of interesting. It claimed to be from an advanced alien race that would share technology if Babylon 5 answered a series of questions demonstrating their own technology. If they refused to answer the questions the probe would detonate a massive explosion. Under Ivanova’s command they got the answers. At the last minute Sheridan smelled a rat, and believed they were being played. He set up a ruse to get the probe out of effective range and sent the answers via a drone. Once it had the answers it blew up, indicating that Sheridan was right and the probe was from some sort of inter galactic predator who was trying to eliminate advanced competition. It reminded me of a New Twilight Zone story called A Small Talent for War which was about an alien race making contact with Earth and due to a misunderstanding resulted in Earth being destroyed by said race.
Franklin’s stim use was first noticed and brought to his attention in Confessions and Lamentations, but the only person who knew about it was a long dead Markab doctor friend of Franklin’s. Being an alcoholic Garibaldi picked up on it and spoke to Franklin about it. Franklin’s retort was typical of an addict who doesn’t want to admit that they have a problem. Stims are legal and he needs them to keep himself functioning at a higher level due to his workload. He does however agree to watch his use of them as a favour to Garibaldi and also to prove that he isn’t addicted. He does try, but late in the episode we see him using them to take the edge off. This is going to become a long running theme and given Franklin’s position within the station could cause problems down the track.
This season just got real interesting.