1.11 "Survivors" & 1.12 "By Any Means Necessary"

The common denominator for this pair of first season episodes from "Babylon 5" is that the government back on Earth is run by fascist idiots. Episode 11, "Survivors" (Written by Mark Scott Zicree, Aired May 4, 1994) has Babylon 5 getting ready for a visit by President Santiago. The stated reason is to present a new fighter wing to the station, several years late, but the popular suspicion is that he is trying to drum up support for his new alien trade and immigration policies. The station will have a lot to do to get ready for the visit but almost immediately there is an explosion in a cargo bay that needs renovation. The next thing we know Major Lianna Kemmer (Elaine Thomas), head of the president's security staff, arrives and is doing a heavy handed storm trooper routine, ramming her authority down everyone's throat at every opportunity. It also turns out that she and Garibaldi (Jerry Doyle) have an ugly history having to do with the death of her father seventeen years earlier. She has never forgiven Garibaldi for his part in her father's death and when the security chief is implicated in the sabotage on Babylon 5 she is ready to haul him away in chains.

Since we know that Garibaldi is innocent it is pretty easy to figure out who the real culprit is in this one. Apparently the whole point of the episode is to give Garibaldi a reason to start drinking again. Apparently when the going gets tough, Garibaldi gets drunk, which really does nothing to strengthen the character in our eyes. But then early on in the episode Garibaldi starts to come off the rails, picking fights with pickpockets for example. He spends a couple of minutes trying to figure out how to prove his innocence before sitting in a bar and getting drunk. Still, that will not stop him from being the hero at the end of this one. All of this character "depth" just rings hollow, and since the mystery is not that hard to crack this episode does not have that working for it either.

Episode 12, "By Any Means Necessary" (Written by Kathryn Drennan, Aired May 11, 1994) starts with an accident in the docking area causing the death of one of the workers. Apparently working conditions on the docks at Babylon 5 are deteriorating and the workers are prepared to launch an illegal strike. For Neeoma Connoly (Katy Boyer), the labor leader for the workers, the decision of the Earth government to not provide any of the budgetary increases needed for B5 is the last straw and the illegal strike is on. Earth sends its best negotiator, Orin Zento (John Synder) to resolve the dispute, but he is empowered to invoke the Rush Act and use military force to crush the workers. Meanwhile, just to give Commander Sinclair (Michael O'Hare) another headache, G'Kar (Andreas Katsulas) needs a G'Quan Eth for a religious ceremony important to his family and the only one on the station belongs to Londo (Peter Jurasik), who has a long list of grievances needing payback.

This episode reminds me of the alien in "Plan 9 From Outer Space" who declares "You Earth people are all idiots," because that is what I feel about the Earth government. The negotiator they send is a model of arrogance, with no semblance of diplomatic skills. How this clown is successful at settling anything is beyond me. Fortunately Sinclair has so much experience keeping alien species from killing each other on his station that he is able to take advantage of Zento's arrogance and a provision in the Rush Act that empowers him to end the strike "by any means necessary" to save the day. He is equally adept at resolving the G'Quan Eth dispute. If Sinclair was President of Earth the planet might have a chance, but I will not be holding by breath on that score.