Discussion post - 1x04 "Infection"

[01d55]

It's Monday afternoon, it must be time for someone to pick up bluefall's slack! This week's offering:

1x04: Infection



A scientist smuggles some mysterious artifacts aboard Babylon 5 that transform his assistant into an inhuman killing machine. Sinclair Garibaldi and Dr. Franklin must destroy the monster before it destroys the entire space station. David McCallum guest stars.

Vital Stats
Production number: 101

Written by J. Michael Straczynski

Directed by Richard Compton



Original air date: A While Back



Arc Notes / Story Points of Interest

- Sinclair's well established "hands on" approach to Station security is consistent with Sci-Fi tropes but inconsistent with real life practice. In this episode Garibaldi questions the trope.

- Earth politics is now plot foreground. Remember that election that looked unimportant?



Trivia

- I'm very sure lightening doesn't work like that.

- Sinclair's concern for Sol's lifespan is overblown. We've got a lot more than millions of years left before we have to worry about that.

Well worn "Ancient technology is highly advanced and dangerous, reckless archaeologists who should have learned this in training learn it the hard way" plot. Equally well worn "purist fanatics kill everything" Very Special Lesson. Did the Doctor really have to spell it out for us at the end?


A reminder: not everyone playing along has seen the series before, so please be considerate about major spoilers. Vagueness, warnings and/or spoiler tags are appreciated.

Comments

[julian]

Because I get twitchy about details even when I /hate the episode with a passion/...

Production number: 101
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Richard Compton

JMS, on Infection: "Sorry; there's no one more critical of my work than me, and when it comes to "Infection," I'd just kinda prefer it if it kinda vanished in the night."

I did, admittedly, like the Garibaldi Talks To Sinclair bits, but other than that, and Sinclair's speech about space travel, hork.

[01d55]

Updated the Vital Stats per this post.

Low-end edit + re-post.

[seawolf10]

Equally well worn "purist fanatics kill everything" Very Special Lesson. Did the Doctor really have to spell it out for us at the end?

Remember that in 1994, the reactionary right-wing lunatics here in America were working themselves up into a communal frothing rage over Clinton being in the White House.

I think this ep might have been JMS trying to make relevant social commentary about the dangers of reactionary fanaticism...and it's easy to be too heavy-handed in doing that, especially for a new writer.

[snugglebitch]

I kept waiting for Sinclair to go all "Return of the Archons" on the weapon and force it to realize it too is impure, destroying itself in the end. Instead, he went all "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" on it.

Either way, Kirk did it better. God, Michael O'Hare is awful.

Really loved the moment between Garibaldi and Sinclair, though. Jerry Doyle's normal smirking comic nature makes his more serious moments that much more effective when they come up, and here it's just fantastic.