"Mind War" discussion [spoilers]

[ruuger]

This is the discussion post for the episode 1X06, "Mind War". Spoilers for the whole of the series, including the spin-offs and tie-ins, are allowed here so newbies beware.

Extra reading:

The article for "Mind War" at Lurker's Guide.

Comments

[4thofeleven.livejournal.com]

An episode that’s very much weaker than the sum of its parts. Bester is – as always – great*, though weakened by portraying a more conventional villain, rather than the more ambiguous character he’d become later. The Sigma 957 story is wonderful. But as a whole, the Ironheart plot never really seems to work. As people have mentioned above, it’s very hard to believe the Ironheart-Talia relationship, and without that… well, that’s Ironheart’s entire motivation for coming to the station. And Ironheart’s rather painful to watch; I wonder he was meant to come across as just barely holding on to his humanity – that his rather flat delivery was meant to be part of his transformation into something beyond human interaction. If so… it doesn’t quite work, he just looks like a bad actor.

* Look at Walter Koenig – after Star Trek, he became an actor!

Other notes:

- Sinclair’s first response when he realises Bester is communicating telepathically with him is one of almost… revulsion. I’ve always felt one of the better handled aspects of B5 is just how pervasive anti-telepath feelings are. Yes, Bester’s a villain – but Sinclair has no way of knowing that, and as far as we can tell, all he was trying to do was speed up the small talk…

- Going by Ironheart’s figures, there should still be hundreds of thousands of sane telekinetics… Would have been nice to have a line saying that, I don’t know, the more powerful a telekinetic, the less sane they are and that the ones that can function in society have almost negligible abilities…

- Babylon 5 has always struck me as having something of a scale problem with regards to the station. From what we see, it’s all narrow corridors and enclosed rooms; even major areas like the Zocalo are still closed rooms. Fresh food is rare and expensive, and generally has to be imported from Earth. But then we get the view from the monorail, and there’s apparently miles of green parkland around a huge open area… I realise there’s budget issues, but it always kind of bugs me. Even just having the ambassadorial quarters having windows and a view of the open area would have been nice.

- As with Sakai, while I like Talia, I feel her story works better for her replacement; ‘station telepath gains super-powers as a result of contact with the Vorlons, an established major power’ is a much more satisfying storyline than ‘station telepath gains super-powers as a result of contact with some guy we never see again.’

- Some real ‘tell, not show’ in Sinclair’s description of Ironheart as ‘feverish, paranoid’. I think it’d be a much stronger episode if it was a lot more ambiguous about whether Ironheart was in his right mind or not… and if it was ambiguous as to whether Ironheart survived his ship’s destruction – Cosmic Ironheart manages to beat out the Zarg for ‘Cheesiest looking character in a B5 episode…

- So, why didn’t the Psi-Corps continue with the experiments? Sure, maybe you end up with an uncontrollable infant god if you do this stuff to a P-10 – so try again with P-5s and lower! Calculated risk, right?

[selenak.livejournal.com]

- Sinclair’s first response when he realises Bester is communicating telepathically with him is one of almost… revulsion. I’ve always felt one of the better handled aspects of B5 is just how pervasive anti-telepath feelings are. Yes, Bester’s a villain – but Sinclair has no way of knowing that, and as far as we can tell, all he was trying to do was speed up the small talk…

Yes, that's true, and the show is really consistent about this. I remember when first watching s4, the difference between Sheridan's treatment of Lyta in Epiphanies and Garibaldi later, during the middle of the season, struck me. Not the fact Lyta gets forced out of her quarters but that Sheridan, when dressing her down, threatens to hand her over to Psi Corps if she ever acts behind his back again. To Psi Corps, an organisation he despises and sees as fascist. Whereas with Garibaldi he might be increasingly pissed off, but he doesn't say "if you keep acting like this, we'll send you back to Clark". And as I mentioned in my comment above, The Corps is Mother, the Corps is Father presents a great reverse pov to a very similar plot to Mind War. When Zack, upon hearing Bester say that the man he pursues has killed a Psi Cop, jokes "and that is bad because...?", it's not different from the comments Sinclair, Garibaldi or Ivanova make in Mind War. But in The Corps is Mother, The Corps is Father, we've seen the murdered man's widow crying over his dead body in the previous scene, and we're also in the pov of Bester's interns who get introduced to mundanes this way, and suddenly Zack doesn't like like Standing Up To The (Psi-Cop) Man but like a callous bigot.

[vjs2259.livejournal.com]

I always thought the attitudes were inconsistent myself, or rather more consistently anti-PsiCorps, than anti-Psi.

Sinclair is quite personable with Talia, even taking her to dinner after she arrives. And Sheridan is reasonable with Lyta, even protective of her before the Vorlons go rogue (and after that he has reason to worry). The human businessmen who utilize either of the telepaths have no obvious problems being surface-scanned (except when they are trying to pull something.) Franklin has no problems with Lyta, or the original doctor (whose name seems to be escaping me. Kyle, was it?)

Garibaldi and Susan are the two (and Zack later as you point out) that show their dislike more openly and generally. I think they are meant to be representative of the common attitude of uneasiness however.

The telepaths are the eternal 'other', and I find that fascinating. We can deal with all sorts of other races with various abilities and differences, but not the aliens among us. There's an element of guilt, too, I imagine. PsiCorps exists to make us feel better about the telepaths; so we can more safely use them. They make their own family out of the Corps because we have rejected them.

[vjs2259.livejournal.com]

- Going by Ironheart’s figures, there should still be hundreds of thousands of sane telekinetics… Would have been nice to have a line saying that, I don’t know, the more powerful a telekinetic, the less sane they are and that the ones that can function in society have almost negligible abilities…

That bothered me too, and I like your explanation. Or it's an unstable ability, that comes and goes, or you lose it or it weakens as you grow older.

So, why didn’t the Psi-Corps continue with the experiments?

I always figured that they did, but didn't get them replicated successfully before they were shut down after the war. It also might have been a combination of something in Ironheart himself and the treatments, rather than just the treatments. I disliked the 'kill the researcher so no one can do it again'. Didn't the man keep notes?

Fresh food is rare and expensive, and generally has to be imported from Earth. But then we get the view from the monorail, and there’s apparently miles of green parkland around a huge open area

They would need the plants to assist in air recycling though. And while animal products are rare (bacon and eggs) except for G'Kar's sources of hogsheads, there seem to be fruit and vegetables (oranges for sale in the Zocalo on pushcarts, Susan's salad). Doesn't jive with the breakfast slop they have to eat, but maybe that's to toughen up the officers :)
They might lease parts to other governments to grow their own required grains, etc. Or require acres for the nutritionally balanced grain (quadritriticale?) that goes into making breakfast slop.

[alicamel.livejournal.com]

Doesn't jive with the breakfast slop they have to eat, but maybe that's to toughen up the officers :)

Perhaps its just cheap. The fresh stuff is sold, or the land is leased to people who want to grow stuff. After all, B5 does have financial problems from the outset...

[kathrid.livejournal.com]

It does state that fresh food is available, but very expensive. So orange-obsessed Sheriden can afford to buy his fruit of choice, but can't afford to eat outside the canteen any more than occasionally.

[widsidh.livejournal.com]

Look at Walter Koenig – after Star Trek, he became an actor!

I had that feeling, too, and also when I first saw Gillian Anderson post-X-Files.
Thing is, an actor needs something to act with, especially a good script, but also good direction. Bester is so much more of a character than poor Chekhov was ever allowed to be.

BTW, there used to be joke:
"You have been watching B5 too much if...
...you think Chekhov was really Bester on an undercover mission."

(There was a whole list of th at kind of thing - no idea where the site has disappeared to.)

[widsidh.livejournal.com]

Yes, Bester’s a villain – but Sinclair has no way of knowing that

I don't think so. Sinclair may not know the extent of Besters villainy, but he will have realised quite soon that he was bad news. Bester does not make any secret of his attitudes and if he tries to communicate telepathically to save time, it is unlikely that he is any more polite in doing so.
Also, these is some suggestion that the PsiCops have a reputation,something that would hev informed Sinclair's reaction, even if it had merely been based on prejudice.

[lazulidragon.livejournal.com]

I think there are windows in the ambassadorial quarters, actually, though it took me forever to figure it out. In Londo's quarters, at least, there's a huge, curtained-off rectangle behind one of his sofas that I assume is meant to look like a window, since it gives offf light, and there's also that huge window that more closely resembles a painting in the commander's office. We don't ever get to see what the view is really like, though.

[vjs2259.livejournal.com]

I meant to remark on that before. I think you are right, and there was a window in Londo's quarters. I have a hazy recollection of it looking out on the agricultural section. It would make sense; the ambassadors would have the nicest suites I would think.