Babylon 5 Beeline: Mind War
Jason Ironheart (get it? His heart is iron. It means he’s strong!) is on the run from Black Omega, also known as the Psi Cops, and their top guy, Bester (get it? He’s Psi Corps at its best. He’ll best you in a fight! Yeah!), played by Walter Koenig, who is trying his hardest to look threatening and get past that whole Pavel Chekov thing. He’s really good at playing a scumbag. That surprised me.
Jason Ironheart is a Psi Corps experiment who has developed the ability to telekinetically control things at the molecular level, but he’s losing control and winds up disintegrating his own body until his consciousness shoots off into space in a beam of light.
That whole storyline was pretty lame. Also, I could have done without Talia Winters describing telepath sex. Not that I’m a prude; it was just very soap opera-y and reminded me of the sex scene between Swamp Thing and Abby in “Rights of Spring”. I don’t know why – it’s not like there were any tubers involved in Talia’s monologue.
If you watch “Mind War”, fast forward through all the Psi Corps stuff and watch the other storyline with Commander Sinclair’s girlfriend, Catherine Sakai, as she goes on a survey mission to Sigma-957, a planet under Narn jurisdiction. G’Kar insists that Sigma-957 is not a “healthy place” and she should stand down.
Sakai flies to the planet, despite G’Kar’s objections and she immediately encounters a giant, jellyfish looking ship that drains her little ship’s power and sends her hurtling toward the surface. Luckily, G’Kar proves he isn’t a totally self-serving putz and dispatched the Narn military to pick her up shortly after she left Babylon 5.
It’s the last few minutes with G’Kar and Sakai in the Zocolo that are the best. For the first time, G’Kar falls into his “philosophical leader” zone, using a nearby ant on a sunflower to illustrate Sakai’s experience at Sigma-957. He says:
“There are things in the universe billions of years older than either of our races. They are vast, timeless… They are a mystery, and I am both terrified and reassured to know that there are still wonders in the universe.”
He is, of course, referring to the First Ones: alien species who are among the first lifeforms in the universe and who have advanced to such a state of existence that they have no interest in playing with the likes of us. Except for the Vorlons, who are just hanging out until Michael O’Hare’s reign of acting terror ends and things pick up in Season Two.
Much like me, at this point. I want to get through Season One as quickly as possible.
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