With Mother’s Day approaching, I began to muse on fictional mothers, and the roles they played in our heroes’ lives. Aside from a few notable examples, such as
Lady Jessica in Frank Herbert’s novel Dune, I had a difficult time recalling
strong mother-characters. So I pulled
out my reading log for 2013, and surveyed the books I read this year. Two of my favorite novels were literary
tie-in books for the TV series Babylon 5, created by J. Michael Straczynski. Both feature strong female protagonists, such
as Psi Corps telepath Talia Winters, and Commander Susan Ivanova, neither of whom enjoys a mother’s love and
support.
The show takes its name from the space station on which
humans and aliens live and work side-by-side.
The major characters tend to have important positions, serving as
representatives of their organizations, in Earth’s military, and as ambassadors
for their respective governments. But
regardless of how important they are, space travel is expensive, which means none
of them have enough frequent spacer miles to bring their mothers along. Of course, that assumes that they have mothers
to begin with.
John Vornholt’s novel Voices primarily concerns Talia
Winters, who is accused of setting off a bomb during a Psi Corps Convention. When she demonstrated telepathic abilities at
five years of age, she was taken away from her family to be trained by Psi Corps. As we all know, the organization strips away all
other loyalties, and indoctrinates its members with the oft-repeated phrase: “The
Corps is Mother, the Corps is Father.” Talia
is a likeable person, but only enjoys a few brief romances, all of which end
badly. Talia herself enjoys but a few
happy years on Babylon 5, before her life takes a tragic turn. We can only speculate what her mother was
like, and how Talia’s life might have been better, had her mother played a
stronger role in her life.
Due to his fixation on Commander Susan Ivanova, Harriman
Gray decides to hold the ill-fated Psi Corps Convention on Babylon 5. He uses the opportunity to pursue her, but
she spurns all his advances. Despite
numerous declarations of love, she cannot get past the fact that he is a member
of Psi Corps. Susan was born in St.
Petersburg, Russia. Her mother had
telepathic abilities, but chose to take drugs that inhibited her abilities
rather than join Psi Corps. Over time,
those drugs depressed her spirits and drained away any love for life until she
eventually committed suicide. Her
mother’s experience led Susan to hate Psi Corps, and fractured relationships
with the rest of her family (particularly her father). Despite Harriman Gray’s optimism, this makes
any sort of close relationship with her impossible.
Susan Ivanova takes center stage in Lois Tilton’s
novel Accusations, in which she is linked to a conspiracy against Earth,
labeled a terrorist, and stripped of her duties in Command and Control. While Security Chief Michael Garibaldi worked
hard in Voices to clear Talia's name, this time he faces the even more difficult
task of clearing Susan’s. Eventually, he
does so, and Susan goes on to serve several more years aboard the space
station. Yet due to her experiences
growing up, Susan finds it difficult to draw close to anyone, even when Psi
Corps doesn’t stand in the way. Despite
the wall she has surrounded herself with, the ranger Marcus Cole never stops
trying. After his death, she finds it
difficult to forgive herself for not letting him in, and abandons her post on
the space station. As with Talia, we can
only wonder how Susan might have developed, had her mother not been blessed with telepathic abilities.
Based on these two examples, I think it's safe to say that a mother's love and support is crucial to a child's development, wouldn't you?
Dragon Dave
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