J Michael Straczynski & Robert Silverberg: Lend a Helping Hand

Gray says:
Maybe I should start my own version of PsiCorps.
You know, to help my fellow Daleks.

In J. Michael Straczynski's TV series Babylon 5, Psi Corps monitors and controls everyone with telepathic abilities. Its members regard Psi Corps as their true mother and father, because of the mentors who educated and trained them in their youth. As a result, they were able to properly employ their powers build decent lives for themselves, and to also serve others. Unlike Talia, David Selig has no career or job satisfaction, and no friends or anyone to love. David Selig thus serves as an example to us all, of someone who had a tremendous talent, but failed to properly build upon it. But this is a common failing, and only makes him all the more human. Often, the reason we end up off-track and lost, is because we have great talents and abilities, and are seeking to utilize them to fulfill a great dream. 

The biographies of most truly great people testify that, at one point or another, they had to spend a few years in the wilderness, until they found themselves, and discovered a way to get back on course. So if you find yourself wandering and lost, remind yourself that there are no straight paths to success. Practice patience, and refuse to give up. 

Oh, and amid your wanderings, show pity to others. People like David Selig in Robert Silverberg's novel Dying Inside, may be totally confused about what path they should have followed in the first place, and what destination they should have chosen for themselves. If you can, give them a helping hand now and then. After all, we all get a little lost sometimes. 

Yes, even during the holidays.

Dragon Dave

Robert Silverberg on Getting Your Life Back On Course

Eton College has formed and shaped
some of England's greatest leaders. 

What do you do when you realize that you've gotten off-track? Your first inclination is obvious: just get back onto your desired course, right? But what if every effort you make to steer yourself back toward the road leads you down a false path, and you end up back in the wilderness again? How can it be that you've gotten so lost, when the way ahead seemed so clear?

For David Selig, in Robert Silverberg's novel Dying Inside, life seems to have veered wildly off-course. Because he was able to read other peoples' minds, he knew what those around him were feeling and thinking. He could anticipate their reactions, and structure his interactions with them accordingly. Yet he ends up friendless, and earning his living by ghostwriting term papers for students at his old university. You can bet he didn't plan on that happening!

People may not know that he can read minds, but the way he interacts with them usually puts them on edge, at least in the long term. He's had friendships, lovers, and jobs, but none of them lasted. Perhaps it would have been better had he announced to the world that he could read minds: at least then he would have been a celebrity, perhaps a prized talent utilized by the government. But he always feared the other possibility more, that people would revile him for his gift, and that he would end up an experimental lab rat. It's difficult to fault his logic, as his sister Judith, the one person he tells--or at least, the single nontelepath he tells--ends up hating him as a result. So, while he can immerse himself in the lives of everyone around him, he only ends up feeling more alone.

If only he had spent more time developing other abilities, instead of merely exploiting the gift he was born with. 

Dragon Dave

J. Michael Straczynski on Reading People's Minds Part 2

Gray Dalek says:
Give Mr. Garibaldi a chance, Talia.
He likes you.

In J. Michael Straczynski's TV series Babylon 5, we meet a beautiful blonde telepath, Talia Winters, when she reaches the space station. She uses her abilities to oversee business transactions, question criminals, and help others. Her PsiCorps training allows her to selectively shut out all the voices of nearby "normals," nontelepaths who can't help but broadcast their thoughts and emotions. Had she not learned this crucial ability, the constant assault of these radiated thoughts and feelings would have driven her mad. Even with her training, she finds it difficult to enter into any sort of relationship with a nontelepath. Even loving another telepath is problematic and worrying. So she clings to the memory of a psychic she had loved long ago, knowing how the toll of entering into a romantic relationship with another psychic--lowering all her mental defenses, and experiencing all her partner's feelings and emotions--requires a higher than she is willing to pay.

Then an agent from PsiCorps visited Babylon 5, and used his psychic abilities to rip aside all of Talia's defenses. Suddenly Talia Winters hates all the friends she's made on the space station, and despises all nontelepaths. She had always been someone else, it seemed: researchers in PsiCorps had implanted an imaginary consciousness in her mind. The Talia they knew had only been a veneer, an actor playing the role of the ultimate spy, someone who utterly believed her new identity and did not suspect that a darker personality hid behind her, watching and waiting for the right time to cast aside this mental mask and regain mastery of their body.

Superhero movie fans are already looking forward to the release of "Captain America 3: Civil War" in 2016. Comic book fans have often wondered how Tony Stark could side with the government and order all mutants and those with superhuman powers to register with the government. J. Michael Straczynski, who has long written for Marvel Comics, is under no illusions about the dangers of blindly trusting others to right by its citizens. He knows the dangers of blindly trusting others. But then, he constantly had to fight the networks to keep his show on the air. If only he could have read the network executives' minds. Then he would have better known how to appease their desires, and Babylon 5 sequel series and spinoffs might still be on TV.

Oh, and if you've got latent psychic abilities, don't tell me about them. After all, I already know your secrets. 

Oops.

Dragon Dave

Related Dragon Cache entries
Talia Winters' Plight

J. Michael Straczynski on Reading People's Minds Part 1

Gray Dalek says:
Listen. I'm projecting my thoughts to you.
Can you hear me?
Can you hear me now?

Scientists and Science Fiction writers have often speculated on the capabilities of the human mind. They've wondered if abilities like telepathy lay dormant in the brain, just waiting to be unlocked. Wouldn't it be great, they asked, if you knew what people were going to say before they said it? Wouldn't that be a useful skill? 

Most of the time we don't say what we're really thinking. Sometimes, we're just being kind and thoughtful, and repress our reactions because we don't want to hurt our friends. Then again, sometimes "friends" lie to us, and sometimes we don't learn the truth until years later. Wouldn't it be great if you could read other people's minds?

In his TV series Babylon 5, creator J. Michael Straczynski foresees a future in lots of people demonstrate psychic ability. Eventually this number grows so large that Earth's government passes laws to regulate individuals with psychic or telepathic abilities. Anyone identified with such abilities must enlist in a governmental agency called Psi Corps, be properly trained, and agree to abide by a strict code of conduct. These laws protect the privacy of nontelepaths, and prevents those with psychic abilities from preying on "normal" people. But they also help those with psychic or telepathic abilities to perform useful roles in society, and live a somewhat normal existence.

So if you're hearing voices, and you're not sure where they're coming from, you might very well be a telepath. But don't rush down to your government office and join PsiCorps. At least, not until you read tomorrow's post.

Dragon Dave

Related Dragon Cache entries
John Vornholt's Mars Novel

The Role of Mothers in Babylon 5: Part 2

As in the TV series, Security Chief Michael Garibaldi plays an important role in the first two Babylon 5 novels: Voices, by John Vornholt, and Accusations, by Lois Tilton.  He regards Commander Susan Ivanova as a friend, and so he works hard to clear her name in Accusations, despite all the roadblocks the Earth inspectors throw in his path.  While he’s never forgotten Lise Hampton, the woman he left behind on Mars when he took the job aboard Babylon 5, he feels drawn to the telepath Talia Winters.  Although she doesn’t return his interest, he nonetheless cares for her.  When she flees the station in Voices, he follows her to Earth.  He knows he’ll have no official authority there, but it’s his only chance to protect her from the Psi Cops intent upon killing her. 

Michael Garibaldi was raised in the Bronx of New York, but his mother seems to have played no role whatsoever in his life.  His father worked in law enforcement, was an excellent cook, and the life of any party (particularly any dinner party).  Michael followed in his father’s footsteps, pursuing a career in Security.  Yet his life somehow took several wrong turns, giving him a bad name in his chosen career, wrecking promising relationships, and driving him into alcoholism. 

In the episode, “A Distant Star” (written by D. C. Fontana), we learn that Garibaldi always makes the Italian dish Bagna Cauda on his birthday.  “Now Pop was a great cook, and Bagna was his specialty,” Garibaldi tells Dr. Stephen Franklin, who in the episode is trying to force him onto a diet.  

"You know, this dish is loaded with fat!
Wow, hang on, that's good!"

"Too bad, Doc.
You disrespected the Bagna Cauda, so
I'm keepin' the dessert to myself."

Over the course of the series, Garibaldi leaves his job to start his own business, ends up being manipulated by the evil Psi Cop Bester, and reverts to alcoholism.  Because of the stresses he endures, or simply because he ate too many Bagna Caudas (a dish consisting of Olive Oil, Butter, Garlic, Anchovies, and pepper, served up like fondue), Garibaldi grows increasingly overweight.  He never mentions his mother, but tells Franklin that his father, who has been dead for a long time, always made him the dish to show him that he loved him, even if he could never say it.  Perhaps his father might have found it easier to express his feelings, and Garibaldi might have endured fewer hardships, had his mother played a greater role in his life.

Captain John Sheridan, who commands Babylon 5, facilitates Garibaldi’s efforts to protect Talia Winters and Susan Ivanova.  Although he never emerges as a primary character in either novel, he becomes the most important person in the TV series.  After winning two wars, he retires from Earth’s military, marries the Minbari ambassador Delenn, and settles into his new career as President of the Interstellar Alliance.  He frequently tells Delenn stories about growing up on Earth with a mother and father who always did their best to take care of him, and never left him in any doubt as to their love and respect for him. 

While Talia Winters’ life ends in tragedy, Susan Ivanova finishes her Earthforce career as a general.  She never marries, but after she leaves the military, commits her life to serving as the head of the Rangers.  Michael Garibaldi eventually marries Lise Hampton-Edgars, and rules her former husband's corporation Edgars Industries.  However, neither he nor Ivanova end up as powerful and important as John Sheridan, and both have to battle inner demons throughout their lives.  So there you have it, a testimony to the importance of mothers in the space age, courtesy of Babylon 5, writers John Vornholt, Lois Tilton, and D. C. Fontana, and series creator J. Michael Straczynski.  If you want to live a happy life, suffer a minimum of inner turmoil, and end up ruling the universe, a loving, supportive, and nurturing mother is absolutely essential.  I’ve benefitted from my mother’s influence in my life.  How about you?

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers out there who play a strong supportive role in your children’s lives.  (Even if, for some unfathomable reason, you don’t love Babylon 5). 

Dragon Dave

Related Internet Links

Notes on "A Distant Star" and a recipe for Garibaldi's Bagna Cauda 

Another Welcome Return to Babylon 5

In her novel Accusations, Lois Tilton returns us to Babylon 5, a space station built by humans after the Earth-Minbari War.  While Commander Susan Ivanova played a small role in John Vornholt’s novel Voices, Tilton’s story centers on her.  While working in Command & Control (C&C), she gets a call from J. D. Ortega, her former flight instructor.  The man has retired from the military and works on Mars.  He sends her a message, asking to meet with her later in the Alpha Wing ready room.  When he doesn’t show, Ivanova visits Michael Garibaldi, the Chief of Security, who informs her that Ortega is wanted for terrorism and conspiracy back on Mars.  This makes no sense to Ivanova.  As with Talia Winters’ uncle in Voices, Ivanova cannot believe that Ortega is a terrorist.  Garibaldi conducts a search, only to discover that Ortega has been murdered.

Babylon 5 then receives a mayday signal: raiders are attacking a transport ship.  Susan Ivanova leads the Starfuries of Alpha Wing from the station.  Before they reach the ship, the raiders take its cargo, and kill its crew.  Raiders have grown bold of late, and hit a large number of heavy transport vessels.  Ivanova conducts an investigation into inventory records, and discovers that many of these transports were carrying supplies of morbidium, a metal mined on Mars, and important in the manufacturing of military weaponry.  She sends her findings to Earthforce, in the hopes of preventing future attacks. 

Events rapidly escalate on Babylon 5.  After an investigation team arrives from Earth, Ivanova is relieved of her duties in C & C.  Meanwhile Garibaldi discovers another body.  The investigators round up anyone with the slightest ties to Mars, and they order Talia Winters to scan their minds, or even perform deep probes.  As these are conducted without the witnesses’ permission, she protests.  But the inspectors produce orders from Psi Corps: she must accede to the team’s demands, without question.

Mysteries build upon mysteries, and we’re never sure what will happen next, or why.  But Tilton keeps us focused on Garibaldi’s search and Ivanova’s dilemma.  The heavy-handed methods of the inspectors impede Garibaldi’s efforts, and their superior access to computer records make it difficult for him to discover clues before they classify the records or arrest a potential informant.  But he won’t quit, as inspection team has linked Ivanova with a Martian terrorist.  Ivanova also does what she can, knowing that her career is over unless she can uncover the plot involving Ortega, and demonstrate that she was not involved in…whatever it is that Earthforce seems so concerned about.

In Voices, John Vornholt returned us to Babylon 5, showed us Earth in the twenty-third century, and then whisked us off to Mars for a thrilling climax.  Now Lois Tilton returns us to Babylon 5 for an entire novel, and spins such an involving mystery that I tore through the book in a couple days.  I literally couldn’t put Accusations down for the last seventy-five pages.  If you loved the show, seek out these novels.  They’re real treasures, and would have made wonderful TV movies.  Plus, both tantalize us with the possibility of colonizing Mars.  And who doesn’t love stories about Mars?

Dragon Dave

Related Dragon Cache entries

John Vornholt’s Mars Novel

Talia Winters’ Plight

Talia Winters’ Plight

Often, we wish that we possessed superior abilities, without realizing that every gift comes with a price.  Take, for example, the fictional ability of telepathy.  Sure, it could sometimes work to your advantage to know what others are thinking.  But imagine never being able to turn this ability off.  How many people could you draw close to, if you were constantly assaulted by their every dark thought or negative reaction?  Imagine hearing all the things they would never say about you, but cannot help thinking?  Imagine also how they would feel about you, if they knew they could hide nothing from you, if their every thought, reaction, and plan was laid bare in your presence.  Suddenly, it sounds as though the costs of possessing telepathy might outweigh the benefits, doesn’t it?

In the TV series Babylon 5, anyone with telepathic ability is given a choice: they must either take drugs to suppress this ability, or join Psi Corps.  Any drug can induce side effects, sometimes drastic ones, and such was the case with Commander Susan Ivanova’s mother, which is why a relationship between Ivanova and Harriman Gray would prove difficult, if not impossible.  But joining Psi Corps is no treat either, because then you become part of their system, and lose the independence and freedom of choice that most of us value.  Yet Talia Winters seems to have made this system work for her.  In the first two seasons, she’s Babylon 5’s resident commercial telepath, and even though her Psi rating is average, she’s gained unique experience by constantly peering into alien minds on behalf of her clients.  But all her hard work, and her special place on the space station, are ripped away from her in the novel Voices, by John Vornholt.  When a bomb explodes during the Psi Corps conference on Babylon 5, the evidence paints her as the chief suspect.  Suddenly, most normal people demand her arrest, and her fellow telepaths, outraged by her seeming betrayal, want her condemned to death without a trial.  So she finds herself a fugitive, fleeing the space station on her own, and hoping to find evidence to clear her name before the authorities or the Psi Cops can catch her.

Unlike his predecessor Commander Jeffrey Sinclair, in the pilot movie “The Gathering,” Captain John Sheridan doesn’t lock down the space station after the explosion that kills several members of Psi Corps. So Security Chief Michael Garibaldi must return to Earth, alongside Harriman Gray, as the two men try to discover the person responsible for the bombing.  In Garibaldi’s case, he’s got something of a crush on Talia, so he’s got added incentive to clear her name.  But Gray also has something to prove.  He wants to impress Susan Ivanova, to make her look past his Psi Corps badge, and see that he might be someone worthy of her affections.

"The Gathering," can be found on
the five disc Babylon 5 Movie Collection

Talia’s flight will take her across the American Southwest, where she’ll meet a group of outsiders called the Bilagaani, who have forsaken the modern world to celebrate a culture that died out hundreds of years previously. Garibaldi and Gray’s investigations will take them to twenty-third century Boston and Washington D.C.  Eventually, all three, along with the top Psi Cop Mr. Bester, will make their way to Mars, for a showdown with the party responsible for the bombings on Babylon 5 and at the Royal Tharsis Lodge on Mars.  (Remember, I said it was a Mars novel).

By the end of the story, Talia realizes that she had taken her place on Babylon 5 for granted.  Now she longs to return there, “to see the aliens, who were less judgmental and prejudiced than her own species.  Among aliens you could be whoever you were, she realized, but among humans you had to be whoever they wanted you to be.  And no one was what they seemed.”

In many ways, it can be a good thing to break down the walls that separate us. But perhaps it's an equally good thing to preserve our uniqueness, and not to know too much about each other.  For, as John Vornholt writes, we are all aliens to each other.  Maybe that’s a good thing. 

Note: While I've given you a rough outline of the story, I've tried to avoid sharing any real spoilers.  If you're a fan of Babylon 5, I think you'll enjoy returning to that milieu in Vornholt's novel, even if most of the action takes place not on the space station, but on Earth and Mars.

Dragon Dave