EpDis: A Race Through Dark Places

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Lurker's Guide Main Page for A Race Through Dark Places
Lurker's Guide Extended Synopsis for A Race Through Dark Places

An A I like it despite the fact that Talia didn't stay would have been another good story line involving her growing powers from Ironheart and it always good to see Bester again.

I happened to watch this episode again last night. I think its one of the weaker Bester episodes, and in since Talia was written out of the series it has become just a throwaway episode, which it was never meant to be. However, Walter Koenig is good value as always, and the leader of the rogue telepaths gave an interesting performance. Plus we see Sheridan go up against Earth Alliance for the first time- over the rent of his quarters!

Talia's leaving doesn't make this "throw away." It establishes the rift between Psi Corps and teeps who are fighting against it or escaping it.

LOVE this one! The first A I give, actually. When we first hear of the underground, I think you will agree that we all mentally went "Susan." right away. But it's not, it's that quiet moral giant of a doctor. And that "Oops!" scene is classic! I love the underground teeps, the scene where they relate their experiences really makes us see how low the Corps will go, even as far as the forced impregnation of teenagers. Talia completely doesn't want to hear this, it's like finding out your parents are murderers, but she has the strength to accept it and stand with them. The illusion scene is brilliant. I'll always remember the first time I watched Talia open fire, completely believing it with my heart in my feet, like "Oh God....No." then the confusion as they're all standing there again! JMS was a cruel man somedays! Oh, and: "As a soldier I am honour-bound to uphold the law!" and Micheal: "Want, agree, that has nothing to do with it." In hindsight, ooh the irony!

I think this is my favorite Talia episode.

I think the episode dull but rescued by the humorous subplot.. How many Minbari does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

The thing is .. also if Talia left, her story plot obviousley went on - through the Psi Corps in general, through Bester, mostly through Lyta. It's something JMS does a lot, transfering plotlines from one character to another if things don't work the way they were planned for whatever reasons. I'm SURE Sinclair was going to get together with Delenn eventually if he had stayed, after Catherine was lost in deep space on a survey mission .. to Z'ha'dum (Sinclair's other girlfriend, Caroline, was a freighter captain .. so a similar plan could have been in storage for her too) .. I'm sure that most of Takashima's plot was given on to Talia too in the end. So Talia leaving doesn't really make this episode a throw-away in any way.

This episode is interesting especially from the arc aspect - Psi Corps and the rogue telepaths tie into future developments including the fifth season (though I find the teeps here more simpatico than Byron and Co.!). We see Bester at his cruelest in the Mars scene, yet convinced that he is doing good and trying to get others to approve of him.

It's interesting to see the tie-in between Dr. Franklin's clinic in Down Below, previously established, and his work for the underground railway. I like those threads that carry over from one season to another.

By the way, did anyone else notice that the "Mary had a little lamb" poem was misquoted by the telepaths? They chanted "her fleece was white as snow" - the original has "its fleece". I wonder if that's a mistake or something intentional.

I find the joking Sheridan very annoying! I can feel with Ivanova in that situation - and when she finally thinks she can catch up on sleep, she's interrupted by Talia. That, however, is an interesting development in their relationship. I like the way it has built up very gradually, amost unwillingly - that makes it plausible.

Sheridan follows in Sinclair's footsteps in using Earth Gov's rules against them in his/B5's favour when he appropriates the credits for the extra rent from the budget - a nice touch!

One last thought - isn't it interesting that the scariest bad guys are those who are extremely polite?! Bester and Morden share that trait, and the contrast to their actions is deeply disturbing because of it.

Estelyn said:

One last thought - isn't it interesting that the scariest bad guys are those who are extremely polite?! Bester and Morden share that trait, and the contrast to their actions is deeply disturbing because of it.

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I think that's part of why the Gentlemen in Buffy The Vampire Slayer's "Hush" are so scary: they're so polite about cutting out someone's heart with a scalpel while they can't scream.

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If I remember correctly, jms did very accurately state "the monster doesn't see itself in the mirror" (or some statement similar to that).

Turns out the guy in Downbelow who first pointed Garibaldi to the conspirators in Chrysalis was a teep, and probably a very powerful one. Now given that he saw that informant as he was running to warn the command topside (he told Garibaldi that something was really scaring him), one wonders if he actually heard in his thoughts that "they are going to kill the President" (we know that, even when blocking the stray noise of others' thoughts their minds hear, that if the thought is particularly strong it's like a "shout" they can't ignore). He may have, and not shared them for fear of revealing his telepathic abilities. But then one wonders if he couldn't have just told Garibaldi that the guy told him this, rather than thought it. But even that might have ended up drawing more interest and attention to him, possibly endangering the whole Underground Railroad. He wanted to stay as far off the radar as possible, and didn't trust authority too much--and who can blame him really.

So, tough dilemma this guy may have had. Especially given that the beneficiary of this would-be coup, Clark, was the Psi Corps' political favorite and would likely make them stronger and more dangerous. If he read the paper and knew that, of course.

I edited the above post some because it was a pretty confusing jumble of thoughts before. But did anyone else wonder just how much this leader of the Underground Railroad telepaths knew about the assassination plot (i.e. that he at least knew who the target was), once it was revealed, in this episode, that he was a telepath? Since it was revealed very early on that teeps can inadvertantly hear thoughts, even when blocking them out, if they are strong enough and thus "shouted" loudly enough? (Remember the episode soon after Talia and Susan meet, when she "hears" Susan thinking of her mother when the subject of her opinion of Psi Corps is brought up, and explains she couldn't help but hear it. And we see other examples of this phenomenon later.)

Not that Garibaldi knowing the target before apprehending Devereaux would have necessarily prevented the assassination. (It would have helped, though, at least to give warning. Also, they were probably focusing on possible targets on the station more before that.)

Not to indict him or anything--again, we understand his fear of getting even a little bit on the radar of the authorities--but maybe that could be fuel for a side story: he would feel bad for not doing as much as he could to prevent the assassination, for putting teeps like him in even further danger from a more powerful Psi Corps.... Maybe, someday, he and a group of fellow fugitive telepaths come up with a way to strike a big blow against Clark and Company, as a form of redemption as well as just being in their interest to do so. He'd make an interesting character: his whole appearance and manner are such to make people grossly underestimate him if they notice him at all, and yet he may be one of the most powerful telepaths out there and he can be very resourceful.

Alioth said:

I edited the above post some because it was a pretty confusing jumble of thoughts before. But did anyone else wonder just how much this leader of the Underground Railroad telepaths knew about the assassination plot (i.e. that he at least knew who the target was), once it was revealed, in this episode, that he was a telepath? Since it was revealed very early on that teeps can inadvertantly hear thoughts, even when blocking them out, if they are strong enough and thus "shouted" loudly enough? (Remember the episode soon after Talia and Susan meet, when she "hears" Susan thinking of her mother when the subject of her opinion of Psi Corps is brought up, and explains she couldn't help but hear it. And we see other examples of this phenomenon later.)

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Actually, I think that was the episode "Eyes" where the Colonel Ari ben Something - Garibaldi refers him as "Colonel Ben Hitler" - has it in for Sinclar, and is accompanied by the telepath who wanted to be a pilot, but couldn't because he turned out to be a telepath. It is this telepath, who while talking to Ivanova "hears" her thinking about her mother, and realises that Ivanova can feel someone scanning her.

Alioth said:

Turns out the guy in Downbelow who first pointed Garibaldi to the conspirators in Chrysalis was a teep, and probably a very powerful one. Now given that he saw that informant as he was running to warn the command topside (he told Garibaldi that something was really scaring him), one wonders if he actually heard in his thoughts that "they are going to kill the President" (we know that, even when blocking the stray noise of others' thoughts their minds hear, that if the thought is particularly strong it's like a "shout" they can't ignore). He may have, and not shared them for fear of revealing his telepathic abilities. But then one wonders if he couldn't have just told Garibaldi that the guy told him this, rather than thought it. But even that might have ended up drawing more interest and attention to him, possibly endangering the whole Underground Railroad. He wanted to stay as far off the radar as possible, and didn't trust authority too much--and who can blame him really.

So, tough dilemma this guy may have had. Especially given that the beneficiary of this would-be coup, Clark, was the Psi Corps' political favorite and would likely make them stronger and more dangerous. If he read the paper and knew that, of course.

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Although I always liked that that character was someone we'd seen before, I never considered the possibilities you raise here. I now wonder if that is in fact the implied meaning of that one character appearing in both those episodes.

I like this episode. I generally like all Psi Corps-related storylines, and I really like the underground railroad thing, the trick they pull on Bester, Talia's "conversion", the further development of Talia's relationship with Susan and all that. It is a shame that that Talia storyline ultimately didn't go any further. I'm sure it would have been fantastic. That is not to say the Lyta storyline isn't great too. Just that now you have two super duper powerful telepaths. Because of this storyline buildup, when I first watched I always vaguely expected Talia to make a return somehow. Obviously I wasn't following online discussions back then

I also really like Dr. Franklin's part in all this. He can be quite an ass at times, but if there's one thing you can say about him, it's that he REALLY stands by his principles, no matter the consequences.

List of things:

• Are those military transports Ivanova mentions when she's briefing Sheridan at the start of the episode relevant to the storyline in some way I don't yet understand?
• The telepath with Bester in the interrogation scene checks that man's vitals with some equipment. Can't she sense that he died? What about Bester being in his mind when he died? He doesn't find that as creepy as other telepaths because he's Bester?
• I'm not sure why Talia is explaining to Bester that she wouldn't notice if he surface-scanned her ...
• Why are those people staring at Delenn at the restaurant? I mean, sure, that's a nice dress and she's a half Minbari/half human something, but this is Babylon 5! Surely there is weirder stuff to be seen Also, we see in other episodes that some humans react negatively to Delenn's transformation because of the war and all that, but it doesn't seem to me like it would be immediately obvious to random humans that she is half human, or half Minbari, or whatever. She could be any kind of alien they've never seen before.
• Is that bartender at Earhart's the same bartender who works at the casino? Or at some other bar in the Zocalo?
• I like how Talia keeps us informed on the Ironheart backstory by thinking about it and talking to herself
• Those keycards that open people's doors to their quarters seem unnecessarily large. This is a universe in which data is stored on little crystals and you communicate via a small bit of metal on your hand. Couldn't they have made keys more convenient?
• Ivanova set off the sprinklers trying to get into her quarters? Not the ones inside her quarters, because there doesn't seem to be any water damage when she does get in ... in the hallway? It seems like that would be a bigger incident than we see ... although I guess she doesn't necessarily live anywhere near Sheridan's quarters so we don't see what sort of drama is going on on her hallway.

Excuse my three-years-later double post or reply to myself, but my current B5 watching schedule had a few more episodes I already commented on before I get to the ones where I left off last time, and I just noticed something in "A Race Through Dark Places" I didn't notice before!

This scene, where Bester is in the Captain's office, talking about the attack that just happened:



(As always, please excuse my crappy screenshot )

This is where Bester expresses no interest whatsoever in what happened to Talia. Half the people in this room are in love with Talia! (I mean .. for a certain value of 'in love" anyway) Does he know this and is he being callous on purpose to annoy them, or is he just really so self-important he doesn't actually think about her at all? Both options seem equally likely.