{"id":7018,"date":"2018-10-08T13:00:59","date_gmt":"2018-10-08T20:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=7018"},"modified":"2018-09-30T17:26:43","modified_gmt":"2018-10-01T00:26:43","slug":"mark-watches-babylon-5-s01e12-by-any-means-necessary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2018\/10\/mark-watches-babylon-5-s01e12-by-any-means-necessary\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Babylon 5’: S01E12 – By Any Means Necessary"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the twelfth episode of the first season of Babylon 5<\/i>, Sinclair must deal with a religious spat and the threat of a worker\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s strike all at the same time. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Babylon 5<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Trigger Warning: For discussion of riots, strikes, imperialism<\/b><\/p>\n

Holy shit, this was spectacular<\/i>. I said this on video and am 100% fine repeating it, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m so used to stories about striking and protesting to be handled\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 well, a lot more poorly than what \u00e2\u20ac\u0153By Any Means Necessary\u00e2\u20ac\u009d gave us. This is a scathing episode that firmly sympathizes with the plight of the workers without treading in a lot of the negative tropes normally associated with this kind of story. And the same goes for the fight that G\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Kar and Londo have!<\/p>\n

Actually, let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s start there, because it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clear to me that while some elements of their conflict are played for humor, this is still a deeply serious issue, and the script treats it as such. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no attempt to portray G\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Kar\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s religious belief as silly or superficial, and indeed, by the time that final ceremony plays out onscreen, it was clear that the show wanted us to know what a huge deal this was. But I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t forget the historical context that hangs over this episode: the Centauri were once an imperial force, and they stole<\/i> the very plant that G\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Kar sought out. And while these two characters have a bitter rivalry, I couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ignore this. Londo was one of the people who participated in subjugating the Narn and ransacking their world. So his spiteful behavior isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really funny; it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pretty horrifying<\/i>. For what it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s worth, I felt as if we were supposed to interpret things that way. Katsulas plays G\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Kar not only with a sense of unending frustration and panic, but with a sadness<\/i>. This man was part of the terror visited upon his world, and now, years after that war has ended, he is still tormenting him. He insults G\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Kar\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s faith, views the Narn as nothing more than pagans, and wants to use this spiritual plant to GET DRUNKER. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so callous in comparison with what the plant means to G\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Kar, you know?\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I know I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll say it again, but I did enjoy that Sinclair found a way to bend the rules to bring some<\/i> justice to G\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Kar. The man is a lot more flexible than I initially thought, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been a treat to see him adapt to conditions on the station.<\/p>\n

The Strike<\/b><\/p>\n

I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know if we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll see Neeoma Connally again, but I really hope so. This episode manages to capture so many parts of the struggle for workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 rights without ever stooping to condescension or building straw men. Even Orin Zento, who is the over-the-top, almost comically villainous negotiator, still works perfectly within the story because of how he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s connected to the larger arc of Earth\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s humans feeling like Babylon 5<\/i> is too progressive in its politics. Indeed, this episode is both a standalone and<\/i> another addition to that theme since it furthers the complicated politics around alien life.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also a very<\/i> personal story because of Eduardo Delvientos, and I was so thrilled to see a prominently placed Latinx character in this episode. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a little on-the-nose in terms of our community, since workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 rights are so intimately tied to the Latinx community and history, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not like this story is wrong<\/i>. Plenty of workers from Latin America immigrate to work in jobs where they are underpaid, undervalued, and thrust into dangerous conditions because corporations and governments want to cut costs. Truly, that was the moment I knew this episode wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t fucking around: when Zento honestly thought the workers would understand that the government had to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153cut the fat\u00e2\u20ac\u009d on the workforce.<\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so telling, isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it? That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the whole problem, demonstrated in the horror of the opening scene. To those who don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t actually work on the docks, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a formula that can guarantee \u00e2\u20ac\u0153efficient\u00e2\u20ac\u009d work. Those experts that Senator Hidoshi and Zento spoke of are nothing more than bullshit peddlers; they have no real idea what the mental cost of that work is. They don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know how back-breaking it is. And after Alberto Delvientos dies due to understaffing and poorly-made equipment, that cost is spelled out in grim detail.<\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s human life.<\/p>\n

So Connally works here to unabashedly defend the rights of these workers to have safe working conditions, despite that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s uncomfortable, annoying, and possibly SUPER illegal. Does that matter? Yes, actually, and thankfully, the show didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t also<\/i> portray Connally as reckless, uninformed, or incompetent, and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 really rare. EXCEEDINGLY RARE. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s usually how these characters are written, but that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not the case here. She is fierce and dedicated, and it genuinely pays off in the end. Oh, I am certain<\/i> that Senator Hidoshi\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s warning will come to fruition, but for now, I just want to praise the fact that this show actually had it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s central protagonist TAKE MONEY FROM THE MILITARY AND GIVE IT TO IGNORED WORKERS. Sinclair\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s solution is a bending of the rules, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one that grants these workers what they need and what they deserve. Oh my god, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m still blown away by this. How the fuck did this air in 1994???<\/i> WHEN WILL YOUR FAVE EVER.<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153By Any Means Necessary\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be downloaded here for $0.99<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n

– My YA contemporary debut, ANGER IS A GIFT<\/a>, is now out in the world!\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong>If you’d like to stay up-to-date on all announcements regarding my books, sign up for my newsletter<\/a>! DO IT.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"