Category Archives: Television

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Star Trek: The Next Generation- S1E8 “Justice” – I think it’s good, actually

Riker is living his best life.

I have recently introduced my kids to Star Trek the same way I was introduced to it- by watchin The Next Generation. I remember many nights at my grandparents’ house trying to stay awake while watching an episode as it played around my bedtime, or having family dinner on the couch so we could watch the latest episodes. I also know that Season 1 is… a bit hit-or-miss, so I’ve been selectively picking which episodes to watch. One of those, which remains burned in my memory, is Season 1 Episode 8, “Justice.” I admit I was surprised to see that it is largely critically panned and many fans consider it a terrible episode. I’m here to say I think it’s actually pretty good. It is a thought experiment, and I think it’s a fairly successful one.

A thought experiment in philosophy is just an imagined scenario that is set up to test a theory or argument. It’s a very popular thing in philosophy (and economics, among other fields). One of the most famous thought experiments is the trolley problem, in which someone is asked to imagine a scenario in which there is a trolley track with 5 people tied on it and a trolley barreling towards them. The person is placed in the position of being able to pull a lever that would divert the trolley away from the 5 people on it and instead run over the one person tied upon the side track. Should they do it? This kind of scenario helps test all kinds of theories of ethics, among others.

In “Justice,” the thought experiment is pretty straightforward: what if we could eliminated essentially all law-breaking in society by having the one penalty be death? The premise is that the crew of the Enterprise shows up on the planet of Edo, sees it’s basically a utopic life, and decides to hang out… only to find out there’s one big caveat: any breaking of the law is met with the death penalty. And of course, they find this out only after Wesley has transgressed the rules by chasing a ball only to fall onto some growing planets, disturbing them. The society moves to execute Wesley, as their laws demand, but are stopped from doing so by the crew of the Enterprise.

Talk about this episode with children also made me realize why it had such an impact on me as a child. While adults seeing it for the first time might complain about how simplistic the setup is as an obvious thought experiment that would never work in reality… it is remarkably effective at getting its point across. Is this justice? one might ask unironically. People might roll their eyes at it, but the question really begs to be asked and answered. Would we be willing to live in a society like that of Edo if we could have that kind of life? I mean, it sure looks pretty good from here. And the episode seems quite effective to me in its question of what we might be willing to sacrifice for an easy life. Would we stand on justice or not? Is justice even a plausibly objective quality such that it could be used to rule on this case?

Picard has one of his early great one-liners in this episode, too: “There can be no justice so long as laws are absolute. Even life itself is an exercise in exceptions.” It’s interesting because this is set alongside the juxtaposition with whether to breach the Prime Directive or not–something viewers can see clearly happens.

Of course this hints at one of the other main themes of the episode. It’s not just abstractly about whether it might be just to have a society operate the way it does on Edo. It’s also about whether laws themselves might be unjust and what that might mean. Is it responsible to violate or break or change unjust laws? It seems so: but if one just accepts laws for what they are, there cannot be justice. If laws are absolute, there can be no justice.

One thing I haven’t mentioned yet is the wrinkle the episode introduces to the rather simplistic setup of the law above. Namely, there are “enforcement zones” that cycle by some unknown means such that, if you break a rule (like transgressing a boundary around growing flowers) in a non-enforcement zone, you’re left alone. At least, that’s what I think the episode is implying by these rolling zones. Only some areas are actively monitored and punished. The philosophical side of me asks: how might this impact the scenarios explored already? Would people desperately be attempting to find out whether they’re in an enforcement area (or not)? Would there be some kind of black market of information about which zones are in enforcement? Underground “rule breaking” areas where people get their thrills by transgressing simple boundaries? None of this is explored in the episode, of course, but it leaves fertile ground for the imagination. Maybe the people of Edo only present their beatific, perfect society to outsiders. Maybe the crew of the Enterprise wasn’t around long enough to see this dark side of the rules.

Obviously, I don’t think the episode implies or suggests this is a thing. Instead, we are presented with what appears a sincere notion that this society basically just is perfection (apart from the occasional execution for tripping into a fence). It reminds me of Ursula K. Le Guin’s short story, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas,” in which a society is perfect except for them having to hold a single child in “perpetual filth, darkness, and misery.” Here, on Edo, those who transgress–even by accident–are the Omelas child. They pay the price so society can thrive. Is that such a bad thing?

Again, I’m left wondering about why the episode ranks so low in Star Trek fandom. A look at Wiki shows that it is among the lowest rated episodes of The Next Generation. Yes, it has some cheesy dialogue, cheesy acting, and terrible outfits for the locals. We could argue some of these points. Maybe someone thinks the cheesy lines “Nice planet”- Worf adds, rather than detracts, from the episode (I would find myself in this camp, actually). Maybe others think the campiness is alluring rather than off-putting. But to me, none of those undermine the central strength of the episode, which is to use science fiction as a tool to introduce philosophical concepts to the masses. And it does that rather successfully. Finally, my last words of appeal to say this episode is good (or at least passable), actually: it absolutely made its concepts clear to my kids. They didn’t get the tongue-in-cheek jokes about sex; but they absolutely understood the core concepts. So let’s try to give “Justice” some justice: it might actually have some good points.

Links

Read more of my looks at Star Trek episodes and beyond here (scroll down for more).

SDG.

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“Babylon 5: Final Reckoning- The Fate of Bester” by J. Gregory Keyes

Having finally watched Babylon 5 for the first time (check out my posts for that series at my Babylon 5 Hub), I decided to dive into the novels. I’ll be reading them largely in publication order and reviewing them individually as we go along. Please do not spoil later books for me. There will be SPOILERS for the book reviewed going forward.

Final Reckoning: The Fate of Bester by J. Gregory Keyes

Final Reckoning is the conclusion of the Psi Corps Trilogy, which started with the origins of Telepaths in humankind and the beginnings of the Psi Corps and now, with the third novel, takes us to the end of the Babylon 5 show and beyond into the Telepath War. Babylon 5 fans who are curious about what happened in the Telepath War finally get answers, but the book is good enough that I think even science fiction fans in general would enjoy the trilogy.

The book doesn’t fully detail the Telepath War. Instead, readers delve into the minds of Bester and Garibaldi as the face off across light years of space, the former trying to elude the latter. Each has their own perspective on what happened in the Telepath War, but the long and short of it is that the Psi Corps was ultimately destroyed and Bester was forced into running.

Much of the book follows Bester on the run, with numerous flashbacks to earlier in his life. Bester becomes an even more fleshed out character, and just like the first two books have it, he is more complex than one might think. But, and here’s the real genius of Keyes’s novel, Bester is not a reliable narrator for himself. He has convinced himself that the narrative the Psi Corps told him as a child is correct. For Bester, the Corps truly is Mother and Father. This total self-deception is central to understanding Bester’s perspective and many of his actions not just in this trilogy, but also in the TV series. Bester is not some kind of demonic evil; he is just totally convinced by people whose job it was to manipulate–even telepathically–their charges that he is in the right.

The novel has Bester coming so close to realizing the truth and possibly even having a redemption arc. That would have been an interesting and perhaps satisfying story, but Keyes doesn’t tell us that story. Instead, Bester continually moves himself back away from the light. When confronted by evidence that he might have been wrong, or that his past has been manipulated, he continues to cling to his alternate reality. And he doesn’t even realize he’s doing it. It’s a masterful move for storytelling, and one which makes so much sense for Bester as a character. It’s not a happy story here; instead, it is one that feels more truthful to Bester’s character.

The story ends with Bester rotting away in prison, dying in delight over his belief that he has conned all humans with his superiority by keeping from them the truth of his past. But what he doesn’t understand is that he has made his past into its own construct, a fascinating fact made literal as Keyes writes about Bester writing his memoirs, pleased to make his history into whatever he wants. A final gesture from Garibaldi at the end is a humorous note, one of the few lighter moments in what is an almost relentlessly dark story of Bester.

Final Reckoning absolutely nails the character of Bester, in all his tragic, sometimes self-deluded glory.

All Links to Amazon Are Affiliates

Links

Babylon 5 Hub– Find all my Babylon 5-related posts and content here.

J.W. Wartick- Always Have a Reason– Check out my “main site” which talks about philosophy of religion, theology, and Christian apologetics (among other random topics). I love science fiction so that comes up integrated with theology fairly frequently as well. I’d love to have you follow there, too!

Be sure to follow me on Twitter for discussion of posts, links to other pages of interest, random talk about theology/philosophy/apologetics/movies/scifi/sports and more!

SDG.

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“Babylon 5: Deadly Relations- Bester Ascendant” by J. Gregory Keyes

Having finally watched Babylon 5 for the first time (check out my posts for that series at my Babylon 5 Hub), I decided to dive into the novels. I’ll be reading them largely in publication order and reviewing them individually as we go along. Please do not spoil later books for me. There will be SPOILERS for the book reviewed going forward.

Deadly Relations- Bester Ascendant by J. Gregory Keyes

Deadly Relations continues the fantastic story the first book established. We here see young Bester trying to navigate the indoctrination of the Psi Corps while also trying to determine his own feelings.

Keyes weaves a fascinating story that follows Bester, revealed to have been born from the telepath underground, becoming totally engrossed in the Psi Corps, the enemies of his real family. This creates an insidious situation of the creeping threat of fascism to go along with the overall “bad vibes” Psi Corps gives off anyway. The total indoctrination–“The Corps is mother, the Corps is Father”–is even more chilling with the context of Bester’s family.

But the story goes deeper than that, Bester’s ambition is almost boundless, but he’s still human. He finds love. But when that love forces him to choose between some of his core beliefs, he’s pushed to the absolute limit. While I expected Bester to betray his love, the very humanity with which the decision was made somehow humanizes and demonizes Bester all at once. It’s very well done.

The book is almost entirely a character piece. There’s not much shown to the reader beyond the confines of Bester’s life. That’s not a bad thing, it just demonstrates how fascinating Bester can be as a character.

Deadly Relations is another fantastic read for Babylon 5 fans. While it isn’t quite as standalone as the first book was (the first book, I believe, is just excellent sci-fi even apart from Babylon 5), it remains a satisfying read for those interested in the series.

All Links to Amazon Are Affiliates

Links

Babylon 5 Hub– Find all my Babylon 5-related posts and content here.

J.W. Wartick- Always Have a Reason– Check out my “main site” which talks about philosophy of religion, theology, and Christian apologetics (among other random topics). I love science fiction so that comes up integrated with theology fairly frequently as well. I’d love to have you follow there, too!

Be sure to follow me on Twitter for discussion of posts, links to other pages of interest, random talk about theology/philosophy/apologetics/movies/scifi/sports and more!

SDG.

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“Babylon 5- Dark Genesis: The Birth of the Psi Corps” by J. Gregory Keyes

Having finally watched Babylon 5 for the first time (check out my posts for that series at my Babylon 5 Hub), I decided to dive into the novels. I’ll be reading them largely in publication order and reviewing them individually as we go along. Please do not spoil later books for me. There will be SPOILERS for the book reviewed going forward.

Dark Genesis: The Birth of the Psi Corps by J. Gregory Keyes

I’m tempted to just yell “Let’s go!” at the to of my lungs here. Dark Genesis is finally what I was hoping for in a Babylon 5 novel. It’s doesn’t totally rely upon the TV series. It provides a bunch of relevant background for the show. Most importantly, it’s a good read. Let’s dive in.

Rewind time to before humans made first contact. The beginning of the book shows readers the emergence of telepaths in humanity. It starts with a disbelieving professor looking at a paper that appears to show telepathic powers are real. Then, the novel moves forward in time through societal upheaval from that discovery, centering on the story of Senator Lee Crawford. Crawford is a political Machiavelli, determined to control things from his seat of power–at one point noting he doesn’t want to run for President because he already has all the power he wants. A big chunk of the book follows Crawford’s manipulation of the emergence of telepathy for his own ends. Finally, the last part shows the earliest stages of the Psi Corps in conflict with rogue telepaths while also showing a few looks at humanity’s first contact with the Centauri.

The book delivers success after success. The early stages of the book are great. I loved the juxtaposition of intellectual skepticism with stubborn determination to follow facts where they lead. The absolute bonkers losing-their-minds reaction from most of humanity to the existence of telepaths reads as spot on what would likely happen, while it still serves the purpose of the plot. Crawford emerges as a great pseudo-villain/pseudo-hero of the story, and I found myself rooting for him even when I questioned his moral compass. The double- and triple-crosses that happen throughout the book are great. Keyes balances the number of characters well with revelations of plot.

Even the rogue telepath section is a solid read. It provides an action-intense scene every time the novel might have bogged down a bit in political machinations. Truly, this is a great read. Honestly, it’s one of those tie in novels that would do just as well as a standalone. It’s just that good.

Dark Genesis is a simply fantastic read. It’s certainly the best of the Babylon 5 novels I’ve read. I highly recommend it to readers looking to dive into more of the Babylon 5 universe.

All Links to Amazon Are Affiliates

Links

Babylon 5 Hub– Find all my Babylon 5-related posts and content here.

J.W. Wartick- Always Have a Reason– Check out my “main site” which talks about philosophy of religion, theology, and Christian apologetics (among other random topics). I love science fiction so that comes up integrated with theology fairly frequently as well. I’d love to have you follow there, too!

Be sure to follow me on Twitter for discussion of posts, links to other pages of interest, random talk about theology/philosophy/apologetics/movies/scifi/sports and more!

SDG.

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Reading the Babylon 5 Novels: “Personal Agendas” by Al Sarrantonio

Having finally watched Babylon 5 for the first time (check out my posts for that series at my Babylon 5 Hub), I decided to dive into the novels. I’ll be reading them largely in publication order and reviewing them individually as we go along. Please do not spoil later books for me. There will be SPOILERS for the book reviewed going forward.

Personal Agendas by Al Sarrantonio

Personal Agendas takes place just before the story of “Falling Toward Apotheosis” from the TV series (Season 4, Episode 4). The placement here on the timeline means that it has a somewhat stronger connection to the show than some of the other novels so far.

The story centers around 5 main threads. The first is a group of Narn lead by L’Kan trying to infiltrate the Centauri homeworld to liberate G’Kar. The second features G’Kar and Londo Mollari plotting to save Narn and Centauri together. Third, Sheridan and Delenn attempt to thwart some arms dealers. Fourth, a group from Babylon 5 are also attempting to rescue G’Kar. Finally, fifth, Vir is fending off an upcoming wedding with a Centauri woman who hates the Narn.

There’s a lot going on in this 212 page novel, in other words. And, the good news is that most of it works pretty well. The Sheridan/Delenn plot is, in my opinion, the weakest by far part of the novel. It has almost no connection to anything else going on and doesn’t really do much for the characters, either. It seems to have been thrown in so two more main characters could make an appearance. Vir’s interactions with Lyndisty are a nice diversion thrown in between what otherwise amounts to a bunch of action and nefarious plotting. G’Kar and Mollari’s voices show up loud and clear throughout the novel; I found their interactions entirely believable.

The main problem with the story is that it doesn’t make a lot of sense as a tag on to the episode it’s supposed to precede. Almost none of the plot points tie into that episode, and if pushed too far, the book would seem to undermine some of the dramatic tension we get in the TV series. That said, if one reads it as what it largely is: a fun romp featuring the main characters that could have happened even if it wouldn’t make much sense for it to have happened (there’s a mouthful), it is pretty enjoyable. Several characters are depicted spot on. Even Garibaldi gets some classic one-liners. It’s a well-paced novel, so even though readers know basically none of it matters to the series it maintains interest all the way through.

Personal Agendas is one of the stronger Babylon 5 novels in the original Warner Brothers run. The characters actually feel like they do in the show and the plot, while essentially a throw-away, ties in to the series in believable ways. Recommended for Babylon 5 fans.

Links

Babylon 5 Hub– Find all my Babylon 5-related posts and content here.

J.W. Wartick- Always Have a Reason– Check out my “main site” which talks about philosophy of religion, theology, and Christian apologetics (among other random topics). I love science fiction so that comes up integrated with theology fairly frequently as well. I’d love to have you follow there, too!

Be sure to follow me on Twitter for discussion of posts, links to other pages of interest, random talk about theology/philosophy/apologetics/movies/scifi/sports and more!

SDG.

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Reading the Babylon 5 Novels: “In the Beginning” by Peter David

Having finally watched Babylon 5 for the first time (check out my posts for that series at my Babylon 5 Hub), I decided to dive into the novels. I’ll be reading them largely in publication order and reviewing them individually as we go along. Please do not spoil later books for me. There will be SPOILERS for the book reviewed going forward.

In the Beginning by Peter David

Novelizations of movies aren’t often great. They’re often just cash grabs for the novelty of having a book in hand to tell the story. Peter David, however, is no hack. He’s written a number of Star Trek novels I quite enjoyed, and I was excited to see what his take on this Babylon 5 film would be. In the Beginning is largely a 1-to-1 retelling of the movie, but David adds in a bunch of detail and asides that make it feel very much like a Babylon 5 story is being told. Honestly, I enjoyed it even more than the film.

The story of In the Beginning is that of Mollari as Emperor telling some children what happened in the Earth-Minbari war, which would of course set up numerous later events and lead to many of his own self-inflicted problems. Like the movie, it’s all told from his perspective. Because this is a novel, however, David is able to keep the entire story in the voice of Mollari. Yes, the movie does much of this as well, but David adds more comments from Mollari, along with internal rationalizations of what he’s saying. All of this adds depth of character to the story that already has plenty going for it.

There’s no question that Mollari is among the most interesting characters in a cast of greats on Babylon 5. This book reads just as though you, the reader, are having the whole story being told from his perspective. Again, the film attempts this (and largely succeeds), but the novel turns it up a few notches. I can’t tell you the number of times I chuckled appreciatively at something that was absolutely on point for Mollari as a character. Chapter after chapter revealed additional insights not only into the main characters of the show, but into Mollari himself. I found myself looking forward to seeing what comments David might put into Mollari’s mind or mouth as he continued the story. It’s just a fabulous way to read about Babylon 5. Honestly, I’d love to have more novels written like this–just Mollari (or another character) retelling various events with commentary.

In the Beginning is definitely the best of the Babylon 5 novels I’ve read so far. It not only retells the story of the movie, but it expands upon it and fills in background in numerous delightful ways. Peter David’s novel absolutely captures the feel of Babylon 5 the whole time, and it is worth the read for any fan of the series.

Links

Babylon 5 Hub– Find all my Babylon 5-related posts and content here.

J.W. Wartick- Always Have a Reason– Check out my “main site” which talks about philosophy of religion, theology, and Christian apologetics (among other random topics). I love science fiction so that comes up integrated with theology fairly frequently as well. I’d love to have you follow there, too!

Be sure to follow me on Twitter for discussion of posts, links to other pages of interest, random talk about theology/philosophy/apologetics/movies/scifi/sports and more!

SDG.

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Reading the Babylon 5 Novels: “The Shadow Within” by Jeanne Cavelos

Having finally watched Babylon 5 for the first time (check out my posts for that series at my Babylon 5 Hub), I decided to dive into the novels. I’ll be reading them largely in publication order and reviewing them individually as we go along. Please do not spoil later books for me. There will be SPOILERS for the book reviewed going forward.

The Shadow Within by Jeanne Cavelos

The blurb for this one promises some insight into the series that can’t really be found anywhere else. The novel follows the story of John Sheridan and his wife, Anna, before the TV series begins. Thus, we are to see scenes of John on the Agamemnon and his wife exploring archaeological finds that we know will lead to the shadows. Mr. Morden also looms large, as he’s on the expedition with Anna.

This plot setup is enough to vault the novel into a point of interest, as it allows the author to effectively have free say with the past of characters we care about while possibly explaining some of their motivations and background in ways we’ve not yet seen. Cavelos largely takes advantage of that, providing some believable background into characters we enjoy–or enjoy hating.

John Sheridan’s background, unfortunately, is a bit boring, however. Yes, some things go down on the ship and he even saves a bunch of lives, but it all feels a bit pedestrian while reading it. I found myself wanting to push through the Jon scenes to get to the ones featuring Anna. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but one would think seeing Sheridan as a war hero should be more exciting than it is.

The scenes with Anna largely deliver. Part of that is because we don’t have a great sense of who she was before the show yet, and so Cavelos can play with her character both in development and in what she encounters throughout the novel. I quite enjoyed the portrayal of Anna, and certainly her encounters with Mr. Morden are of interest to any fans of the show. What really sealed it for me was the ending, which basically takes us to where Anna starts in the show. It’s chilling and exciting–something we haven’t really encountered in the other novels to this point. There’s also a look at Ambassador Kosh and, briefly, what he might have been up to as a few major events played out.

The Shadow Within is among the best of the first run of Babylon 5 novels. It provides background for characters of interest on the show and even glimpses of what can explain some later interactions. Unfortunately, a good portion of the book falls flat due to not being engaging. Overall, this one is at least worth the read for fans of the show who’d like to have some additional story about major events that predate the show.

All Links to Amazon are Affiliates

Links

Babylon 5 Hub– Find all my Babylon 5-related posts and content here.

J.W. Wartick- Always Have a Reason– Check out my “main site” which talks about philosophy of religion, theology, and Christian apologetics (among other random topics). I love science fiction so that comes up integrated with theology fairly frequently as well. I’d love to have you follow there, too!

Be sure to follow me on Twitter for discussion of posts, links to other pages of interest, random talk about theology/philosophy/apologetics/movies/scifi/sports and more!

SDG.

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Reading the Babylon 5 Novels: “Betrayals” by S.M. Stirling

Having finally watched Babylon 5 for the first time (check out my posts for that series at my Babylon 5 Hub), I decided to dive into the novels. I’ll be reading them largely in publication order and reviewing them individually as we go along. Please do not spoil later books for me. There will be SPOILERS for the book reviewed going forward.

Betrayals by S.M. Stirling

S.M. Stirling is a well-known name in speculative fiction, largely due to his alternate history Draka novels. I’ve not read those books, as I’ve long been intimidated by finding a random one on a library or bookstore shelf, cracking the cover, and seeing a lengthy list of books I ought to read first. Betrayals shows me Stirling is capable of weaving an intriguing yarn, but it doesn’t really capture the feel of Babylon 5.

The main story centers around two primary points of conflict: the first is a gathering of Centauri and Narn diplomats on Babylon 5; the second is the revelation of a pair of T’ll, apparently long-time enemies of the Narn. The Narn, apparently, are the occupying forces on the planet T’ll, and this leads to a deep and abiding enmity between their peoples. With these stages set for conflict, the novel had a feeling that it should have huge implications, but the plot ultimately plays out at too small a scale for it to fully sell its premise.

One reason I say this is that the T’ll-Narn conflict is, to my knowledge, entirely contained within this novel. I looked up “T’ll” in the Babylon 5 Encyclopedia and came up empty, unless I was looking the wrong places. With that in mind, it makes it difficult to fathom how an apparently generations-spanning hatred and conflict can fit into this novel. That question is made especially difficult when it gets boiled down to such a microcosm of conflict that we’re simultaneously supposed to believe has much wider implications. I like the idea of this as a central conflict. The Narn occupying a planet and on a small scale and being devastated by the Centauri in a broader scale, upscaled conflict that is similar makes for quite the potential for a parable or deeper meaning somewhere. That never seems to happen, and we never really get the payoff that such a premise promises as a possibility.

Centering this planetary conflict in the midst of the wider Centauri-Narn conflict, again, hints at a broader possibility here, but because this is set in the Babylon 5 universe, and not in an abstract, standalone science fiction novel, we have to deal with it not making much sense of how many characters act. There are a few fun moments with Mollari, but G’Kar seems out of sorts the whole time, seeming out of character nearly every time he appears on the page.

All of this is unfortunate, because there are other cool scenes set within this novel, such as the smuggling of the T’llin twins in as statues. It doesn’t make a ton of sense and requires a little more science = magic than we’re used to in Babylon 5, but it’s a great idea nonetheless. Garibaldi has some okay character moments, but they are few and far between. Much of the rest of the main cast seems shadows in the background. Again, this would be a fine decision if the rest of the story managed to maintain a sense of well, making sense in Babylon 5’s established operating grounds.

Betrayals hints at great ideas and broader conflicts than it manages to deliver. It ends up reading more like a Babylon 5-themed plot in a kind of alternate universe. As a standalone novel, it has some good ideas, but it feels displaced in the universe in which it’s set. It’s an okay read, but ultimately frustrating in its delivery.

Links

Babylon 5 Hub– Find all my Babylon 5-related posts and content here.

J.W. Wartick- Always Have a Reason– Check out my “main site” which talks about philosophy of religion, theology, and Christian apologetics (among other random topics). I love science fiction so that comes up integrated with theology fairly frequently as well. I’d love to have you follow there, too!

Be sure to follow me on Twitter for discussion of posts, links to other pages of interest, random talk about theology/philosophy/apologetics/movies/scifi/sports and more!

SDG.

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Reading the Babylon 5 Novels: “The Touch of Your Shadow, the Whisper of Your Name” by Neal Barrett, Jr.

Having finally watched Babylon 5 for the first time (check out my posts for that series at my Babylon 5 Hub), I decided to dive into the novels. I’ll be reading them largely in publication order and reviewing them individually as we go along. Please do not spoil later books for me. There will be SPOILERS for the book reviewed going forward.

The Touch of Your Shadow, the Whisper of Your Name by Neal Barrett, Jr.

The premise of this (so far best-named) Babylon 5 novel is that there’s a big magical space snake thing that causes bad dreams and the people on Babylon 5 have to deal with and/or fix that.

The problem with this book is that so much of it is dreams. I’m sure I’m exaggerating here, but it felt as though a third of this book was just sitting in people’s dreams. I guess that wouldn’t hugely matter, if the dreams had relevance for Babylon 5 more broadly. Technically there’s some character development in these dreams, like a comedic/serious scene with Lennier, but it doesn’t go very far.

A huge amount of this book is focused around those dreams as well. Basically that’s the whole story here:

Everyone on Babylon 5: There’s dreams, let’s deal with them by rioting.

Garibaldi: No, don’t do that.

Everyone: Oh, okay.

Alright, I oversimplified, but that summarizes most of the plot that isn’t dreams. Yeah, they have to deal with the space alien thing, too, but at some point I just stopped caring. The good points here are the title and the occasional flash of seeing a favorite character acting in a just-right way. There’s so little by way of main plot here that it becomes difficult to even want to get into it. The dreams have no real investment on the part of the reader. We know they’re dreams, and that they’re not even building character in most cases. They’re just fluff that serve little purpose other than to pad the length of the novel.

The Touch of Your Shadow, the Whisper of Your Name is another mediocre Babylon 5 novel. Honestly, I think reading it and just skipping over all the dreams in the book may give it the chance to be more enjoyable, but as I think about doing that, I realize how little plot there is apart from them. It’s just an okay read.

Links

Babylon 5 Hub– Find all my Babylon 5-related posts and content here.

J.W. Wartick- Always Have a Reason– Check out my “main site” which talks about philosophy of religion, theology, and Christian apologetics (among other random topics). I love science fiction so that comes up integrated with theology fairly frequently as well. I’d love to have you follow there, too!

Be sure to follow me on Twitter for discussion of posts, links to other pages of interest, random talk about theology/philosophy/apologetics/movies/scifi/sports and more!

SDG.

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Reading the Babylon 5 Novels: “Clark’s Law” by Jim Mortimore

Having finally watched Babylon 5 for the first time (check out my posts for that series at my Babylon 5 Hub), I decided to dive into the novels. I’ll be reading them largely in publication order and reviewing them individually as we go along. Please do not spoil later books for me. There will be SPOILERS for the book reviewed going forward.

Clark’s Law by Jim Mortimore

I haven’t written a tie-in novel, but I’m going to guess that one of the biggest pitfalls of doing so is that you have an idea for a story on one hand, and that you’ve also got the universe in which you’re writing on the other. Sometimes, those two meet nicely, and sometimes, they don’t. Sometimes, you write and it’s like you’re forcing an idea into the universe in which it doesn’t quite fit. At that point, what do you do? I suspect you keep going because there’s a deadline and you don’t want to miss it. Clark’s Law by Jim Mortimore reads like this is exactly what happened. Mortimore had an idea (what if there were some controversy over the death penalty in a sci-fi setting) and a setting (Babylon 5) and then pushed them together. This novel is the result.

It doesn’t work, which is unfortunate because the central ideas are there and the prose is stronger than you might think (see below). You’ve got Clark, an ambitious, ruthless man who wants to make defining decisions for humanity as a nefarious bad guy. It fits well with the rest of the TV show at this point. There’s also an alien race, the Tuchanq, with a twist that makes them more interesting than generic aliens–their Song of Being is tied up in their sense of self, such that interrupting it requires ceremonial resurrection, in a sense. It’s kind of a cool thread. These collide as one of the Tuchanq, D’arc, thinks she’s mad and so kills a human on Babylon 5 to attempt to regain a Song of Being. Clark wants to execute this alien, having one eponymous law for all beings that includes the death penalty in the case of murder. There’s questions about the death penalty, innocence, fascinating discussion of aliens, and more here.

One thing that makes it not work is that none of the characters or even the setting feels very much like Babylon 5 as established in the show. Setting aside the simple factual errors, such as names being wrong between the book and show or Jeffrey Sinclair turning into Geoffrey Sinclair, the characters don’t all act in ways that seem genuine to them. Now, maybe I’m overselling this feeling. I know I’ve mentioned it before in my reviews of the novels. Perhaps I’m the one whose feel for the show is off. I’ve only seen it all the way through once so far, after all. That may be true, but I see on various reviews basically every other fan of B5 is saying the same thing. Something just seems off for just about every major character. Sheridan’s not as forceful or decisive as he should be, though he ultimately finds a creative way out G’Kar and Mollari are at it again, but it reads much more artificially than it should. Garibaldi is, well, he’s there but doesn’t do as much as he probably should be in a novel like this. The payoff of a tie-in novel just isn’t there. It doesn’t read like a Babylon 5 book.

Clark’s Law is almost relentlessly dark. I tend to read tie-in novels hoping for some escapism–a brush with favorite characters that reminds me of whatever medium they came from originally. Here, Mortimore assaults readers with ambiguity and darkness everywhere. From the beginning, a series of lies is told, and at the end a few truths are told. It’s a great framing mechanism and shows a surprising command of prose for a novel that apparently had a deadline of just several weeks to be written and submitted (according to The Babylon File Volume I by Andy Lane). There’s depth here that goes far beyond the pages. That’s a good thing, but it also makes the novel strangely harder to get into because if you’ve seen the show, you know the repercussions that should ripple out from the main thrust of the story just don’t really happen. Yes, Clark is bad, but something like this should have had much wider consequences. It creates a weird sense of both feeling in Babylon 5 while also making it obvious the events can’t really have taken place because they’d have been of much more note than they are.

Clark’s Law is a good enough science fiction novel with a surprising command of structure and prose. However, as a Babylon 5 novel it has to be rated as merely okay–it grasps at things larger than it manages to deliver, while also failing to get into the feel of the show. Recommended if you’re wanting a vaguely Babylon 5-esque sci-fi novel that will make you think.

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SDG.