Whoo boy, this is episode two in the three episode arc of “usually skip” episodes we are in right now.  Re-watching it, I am surprised. Dr. Franklin is a character I like, and this is a big episode for him. The episode takes a nuanced and even handed look at medical ethics as they relate to religious beliefs and I think that is probably where it loses me.  Though the episode and the other characters bend over backwards to try and make the parent’s motivations real, and understandable, my own background makes me view them as outright villains. This makes the other characters’ kid-glove treatment of them irksome.  On the other hand we also get an Ivanova plot that is some fun action so the episode is not a total loss.

The episode really hits you with both barrels less than thirty seconds in.  An alien child played by Jonathan C. Kaplan is lying in Medlab and turns to ask Franklin if he is going to die.  The boy’s mother, played by Tricia O’Neil of Yesterday’s Enterprise fame, basically tells the kid that it’s in the hands of fate now.  Franklin tries to give the kid a little pep talk about pulling through, and the mother promptly shuts him down.

The parents talk with Franklin privately, and explain that whatever passes for doctors on their planet have told them that their son is weak and will die, so they have come to Babylon 5 to see if there is anything else that can be done.  Franklin compliments them on their love of their son and we get another great sign for their society when the father informs him that on their world it would be a sign of weakness for him to acknowledge that he has feelings.  Yet these are the people we are supposed to try to sympathize with. 

Franklin and a guest doctor named Hernandez, played by Silvana Gallardo, explain that they know what is causing Shon’s difficulty breathing and recommend a simple operation to correct the problem. This is where the wheels fall off and the parents reject the idea of their son undergoing surgery.  They explain that only food animals are allowed to be cut open, whereas they, the chosen of God, may not be cut open without losing their souls. 

Hernandez tries in vain to explain the process of the surgery to the parents.  They reject it again, and Franklin jumps in with an alternative treatment that has as much success as most “alternative” treatments do in real life.  The two doctors debate the ethics of the alternative and Franklin insists that if they string the family along with some false hope eventually they will come around on the surgery.  Franklin very strongly chastizes Hernandez for criticizing the parents’ belief.  It is interesting that they have Franklin defending the parents even though he also acknowledges that the parent’s beliefs will most likely kill their own child. 

In another moment that will sound familiar to most people, the religious parents forbid their son from watching entertainment channels while in bed, and insist that all he is allowed to do is read scrolls. Franklin gives the kid a toy pet to look after, and even the zealot parents relent on that one. The two doctors have another quick debate about medicine and faith, and Franklin rather crassly bets a steak dinner that he will manage to save the boy. 

Garibaldi, Sinclair and Franklin have a meeting to discuss imports, and the boys case gets brought up.  Sinclair is uncomfortable with the idea of ordering Franklin to perform the surgery, citing the mission of the station as a competing issue.  

Franklin runs out of patience with the parent’s and he begins to browbeat them and then threaten them with doing the surgery without their consent. This leads to my favorite bunch of quick scenes with the parents and the ambassadors.  Each scene cuts to the heart of each of the characters and showcases their different personalities as they respond to the request.  Sinclair laments that there is no guidance available, and takes the responsibility that Franklin thrust on him seriously.  G’Kar goes full realpolitik pointing out that there is no advantage for the Narn Regime in advocating for the parents. Londo basically tries to shake down the family for some money in exchange, which fits with how the Centauri approach bureaucracy.  His question of “Just how much justice can you afford?” is one of my favorite Londo lines, and it really drives home the point that at the end of the day Londo is a conservative through and through. Kosh gives them some weird Vorlon nonsense.  Delenn is empathetic but points out that the Minbari view faith as personal and private, and this precludes them from interfering. 

Sinclair and Garibaldi discuss the matter again, and Sinclair is still unsure of what to do, pointing out that every other decision maker has passed on even getting involved.  He decides to go and speak with the boy.  The boy himself tells Sinclair that he doesn’t want the operation which is good enough for him. Franklin of course reacts poorly.  Sinclair argues that the station has to stay out of it and he as the parent’s advocate has to block the surgery.  

The parents get a tearful goodbye scene with their kid who they are killing. They make time to stop by and tell Franklin how glad they are that their kid is dying instead of being operated on, which Franklin takes about as well as you would expect.  It galvanizes him into going ahead with the surgery anyway. The surgery is a success but the parents react with horror and reject their son, as he is now without a spirit. 

Sinclair is rightfully livid that a doctor who is in the military alongside him has disobeyed his direct order. Franklin angrily responds that he was doing his job as a doctor. They get interrupted by being summoned to Medlab.  The parents are still pissed, but they take a conciliatory tone and accept custody of their son.  Franklin smugly asks for an apology from Sinclair who advises him to “check the temperature in hell first”.  Franklin is still smugly strutting around, basking in his victory when he and Hernandez review some information on the alien’s culture that causes him to run from the room.  Turns out the parents took custody of their son in order to kill him themselves.  

Sinclair and Franklin sit in the zen garden.  Franklin is properly chastened by the experience and it seems that is good enough for Sinclair to forgive him.  It is a decent scene, and it is nice to see Franklin being knocked down a peg or two from his previous over confident swagger. 

Meanwhile in the fun plot, Ivanova informs Sinclair that an incoming ship is having navigation problems, and recommends that a fighter wing go out to meet the ship and escort it the rest of the way.  Ivanova then goes on a rant until Sinclair allows her to lead the fighter wing out on the mission.  She takes a fighter and an escort and heads out, hoping to cure her own stir craziness.  Ivanova gets a nice little adventure, bravely keeping the transport safe at the risk of her own life, in violation of her standing orders.  Garibaldi gently confronts Ivanova about her behavior on the mission, but she points out it was an educated risk that worked out. 

Next week we reach the end of our three episode mediocre streak with S1E11 “Survivors”.  The best I can say is that it introduces some backstory for Garibaldi, even if Jerry Doyle is possibly not up to the acting challenge that it represents. 

As always a reminder that you can watch the episodes on Amazon Prime, and on Tubi which has the same amount of ads but is subscription free.

The Good

• Ivanova got to have a big adventure! Her fierceness and bravery is a big part of her character in later seasons, and it is good to see that aspect introduced.
• The show is slowly starting to make better use of CGI, and the stricken transport is at least a cool looking design. 
• As mentioned above I like how concisely each of the ambassadors’ characters is summarized by their interactions with the family.  Probably a good scene to throw in for casual viewers that were watching week to week originally.  

The Bad

• I am just straight up not a fan of the A plot.  I have little sympathy for religious conservatives, so I dont know if there is anything that the plot could do to fix that for me. 
• Franklin comes across as extremely self-interested here, something that thankfully does not continue to define his character.

Arc Points (Spoilers Ahead)

• Once again Sinclair reaches for the wisest decision, trying to see different points of view and strike a balance between them.  Early signs of the kind of guy that will eventually form the Grey Council.
• While Franklin eventually loses a bit of the arrogance, he never really loses the idea that he knows better than anyone else when it comes to medicine. This is something that bites him in the butt with the alien healing machine, the Drafa plague, and the frozen telepaths not to mention his own addiction issues.
• This episode is the first to reveal just how strong a force the raiders have become.  The show is still building them up, showing more and more of their power.  Not a bad way to emphasize that Babylon 5 is essentially on the frontier. Of course JMS couldn’t possibly be building them up for the audience to then use them to show off something even more powerful, could he?
• Its not exactly a spoiler but I mentioned Ivanova’s helmet, and it reminded me about the patches. Despite knowing the audiences would never see them the pilot squadron patches had art and mottos that are too small to make out. My favorite motto, which feels very real life military, is “Ugly But Well Hung” as a reference to how the Starfuries are launched.