Re-Watching DS9

In the opening scene when there's the meeting between Sheridan, Ivanova, and the general population of the station, there are loud complaints about longer inspections and tighter weapons restrictions. One loud-mouth in particular tells Sheridan that he's nothing without his power, without his gun, and guards backing him up. Sheridan walks up to him, switches weapons with the loud-mouth so the loud-mouth is the one with the gun and then tells him that if he dies then everyone else gets a promotion, so maybe they won't stop him.

That moment where Sheridan stands up to that loud-mouth is badass. If that's not my favorite moment in the entire series so far, it's one of my Top 5 Moments for sure. Then that loud-mouth says, "I was just talking, I didn't mean anything by it!" Just like almost every other loud-mouth. I could stop watching the episode right there, see nothing else, the rest of the episode could be total shit, and I'd still be tempted to give the entire episode a 10 just for that one scene alone! That's how good it was.

But continuing on with the rest of the episode, which still lives up to the hot start where they knocked it out of the park.

The Centauri have a new Narn puppet to speak for the Narn. If this were prison, I'd call him the Centauri's Narn Prison Bitch. In fact, that's what I'm going to call him anyway. CNPB for short. CNPB wants Sheridan to hand over G'Kar to them. Sheridan refuses. And why shouldn't he refuse? It's not like CNPB is going to stand up for himself.

Londo has a very punchable face. This another episode where I flat-out don't like him. Since I'm not supposed to like what he's doing, I consider it a job well-done on JMS's part. Anyway, CNPB tells Londo that resistance on Narn has been quelled and he can visit their planet whenever he wants. Londo tells his new punk to get down on his knees while he unzips and... wait a minute, I have to keep this review PG-13! Okay, um... Londo tells CNPB he's done well. Then he sends CNPB to talk to G'Kar directly. And now, after this scene, I've gone from not liking Londo to hating him. In a good way! Just like in "Long Twilight Struggle" at the end of last season.

Afterwards Vir tells Londo, "Isn't it enough that we've beaten them?" But, no. Londo wants to break the Narn of their will. To that, all I have to say is, and I'm not even putting this into the Spoiler Space...

Speaking of "fuck Londo!", he goes to Delenn to see if he can get rid of Vir, he tries to frame it differently, but Delenn can see right through him. Londo just wants to get rid of Vir so he can do what he does without Vir acting like a conscience. Morden (who he thinks is out of the picture) is like the Devil on one shoulder and Vir is like the angel on the other shoulder. He thought he got rid of the Devil (I don't need to know what happens next to figure that one out, it's just common sense), and now he thinks he can get rid of the Angel. Then be completely amoral.

Delenn says she'll see what she can do. Londo doesn't give her much of a choice since he clearly wants him out of the picture anyway. I think Delenn, in her wisdom, thinks Vir should be exposed to others. I also think she thinks that she can give Vir the confidence to eventually be able to stand up to Londo, instead of just silently enduring whatever Londo says.

CNPB, I guess his proper name is Na'Far, tries to convince G'Kar to surrender himself. "We must bide our time." That's a load of nonsense. What is Na'Far doing while he's biding his time? All indications are nothing.

My Own Personal Take: If you can't make peace with the enemy, then you can either resist the enemy or submit. Submitting isn't making peace. In peace there can be an equal relationship, in submission there can never be. With peace off the table, and submission something to be avoided, resistance is the only option. And if you don't resist, then you're part of the problem at best and the enemy at worst. That's my opinion about how to respond to an enemy. And not just on a battlefield. Anywhere in any situation. Resist in your own way, resist in any way, large or small, as long as you resist. Cue the Damar speech.

Na'Far has aligned himself with the enemy. He's not on G'Kar's side. He tells G'Kar that if he surrenders himself, he won't be harmed. No one believes that. Then Na'Far thinks he can get tough and tells G'Kar that if he doesn't surrender himself, they'll go after his family and the families of others.

At first, G'Kar relents. He's willing to reluctantly go back to the Narn homeworld. Garilaldi tells G'Kar that they'll kill him. G'Kar knows. And it's in-line with what I said above about not believing it when Na'Far said he wouldn't be harmed. Forget the Garibaldi/Londo friendship. I'm more interested in seeing the Garibaldi/G'Kar friendship now.

It's hard to watch as Na'Far tells the Narn on the station that they can work from within the system that's been imposed about them. It's pretty sickening. Na'Far is like Broca, from the end of DS9 Season 7, while G'Kar is like Damar. I'm not the only one who doesn't want to listen to Na'Far. Neither do the other Narn on the station. They tell G'Kar they'd all rather die from freedom than live in slavery. So would their families, who also understand. They all convince G'Kar to stay and he does.

The B-Plot: Garibaldi asks Franklin if he's taking stems. He is, but it's not a problem. Oh, no. Definitely not. He has it under control. Sure. The Doctor's on drugs! We'll see how this story develops. I bet at one point he suffers from withdrawal at a critical point and then it become a costly situation that messes up more people than just himself. No, I don't know. But that's also something that's just common sense. No way this doesn't catch up with him.

If B5 were made in the '80s, Franklin would be snorting coke in the Medlab.

Then Franklin goes off on someone who's communicating with, sounds way over the top, a nurse asks if he's okay and he says, "Yeah, I'm fine." No, you're not. And this is only going to get worse. Then he injects again. He was definitely having withdrawal. To quote Nancy Reagan, "Just say no!"

The Sci-Fi Plot: A probe wants to communicate with B5, give them advanced technology, or it'll explode within 24 hours and take the station with it if B5 doesn't give the right answers. I'm not going to lie; this sounds like a rejected pitch for a Star Trek episode. Either for TOS or first season TNG. With all the character stuff going on, it feels like an intrusion, like it belongs in a different episode.

Ivanova wants to know if they should respond or not respond. Sheridan says not to respond. For all they know, the probe could treat them like an enemy no matter what. The probe explodes, nothing happens, the end. What was the point of that? Don't answer. It's inoffensive, but seriously, what was the point of that? The more I think about it, the more absurd it sounds. Imagine if in TMP, the Enterprise is about to get probed by V'Ger and then disintegrated. Spock has a message he can transmit that would save them. Then Kirk says, "Nah, don't transmit!" But anyway...

Sheridan shrugs it off and says now he's not looking forward to the next Transit Meeting. I guess maybe it ties into the whole "Day in the Strife" title. Sheridan deals with an external alien crisis one moment, then it's a "town" meeting the next. Day in the life.

Overall: Despite the Sci-Fi Plot, everything else in the episode was perfection with lots of it so powerful that all the character material is what makes the episode. What I said earlier was correct. I'll still go ahead and give it a 10.

I think maybe you missed the point of the berserker story...a more accurate TMP analogy would be if the Klingons were shown transmitting the message and then being disintegrated, while Kirk held back on sending the message. The berserker was sent by someone...perhaps the Shadows...to find a civilization that could pose a threat to whoever created it (as demonstrated by the knowledge they possessed) and then destroy that civilization. As stated in the episode, Sheridan sends the information after the berserker has moved to a safe distance because he doesn't want the berserker destroying some other civilization that doesn't figure out the true purpose of it.
I think it would be more absurd, or at least awful, if there was an alien civilization that was arrogant enough that it would send out probes to destroy civilizations that couldn't answer questions to its satisfaction.
In fact, scientists on Earth had debated the question of what they should do if they ever received a communication from an alien civilization, and there was a strong sense that the best thing for Earth might be not to respond. because it could be a risk to draw attention to ourselves. So this storyline was inspired by a real-world thought exercise.