Sunday 6 December 2009

1838 The Truth is out there Babylon 5 The X Files and 4400

I am in a sci fi dilemma between wanting to get on with the project which has dominated my life over the past five years in terms of tackling one of the major components which could take the greater part of year to complete, my immediate objective of completing the 4400 before Christmas and with beginning a similar treatment of Babylon 5, the most important and satisfying of all the sci fi series including Star Trek, Star Wars and the X Files. The X files has a special place because it went on for nine season and some 200 episodes, and satisfied my belief that governments cover up to protect themselves and to protect the general public, and that the human mind body has paranormal potential which can tap into forces which exist and which we do not yet understand. When it comes to 101.75 I do not like to compromise but compromise is necessary because of the unknown-how much time I have left to complete the set task as originally intended and as it has evolved.

I watched the first four episodes of the final season 4 of the 4400 on my first evening in London and look forward to watching the remainder over the coming days. But it is with Babylon 5 I begin

Babylon 5 was created by Michael Stracznaski a seasoned science fiction writer for TV with only limited success until he decided on the overall formula for the new series which he largely wrote influenced by other series which had a core building such as a hospital or police station and the grand designs of works such as The Lord of the Rings.

It was the dawn of the third age of mankind – ten years after the Earth-Minbari War. The Babylon Project was a dream, given form. Its goal: to prevent another war, by creating a place where humans and aliens can work out their differences peacefully. It's a port of call – home away from home – for diplomats, hustlers, entrepreneurs, and wanderers. Humans and aliens, wrapped in two million, five hundred thousand tons of spinning metal… all alone in the night. It can be a dangerous place, but it's our last best hope for peace. This is the story of the last of the Babylon stations. The year is 2258. The name of the place is Babylon 5.

These words begin every episode setting the tone so that any sub stories, are part of the grand design which in fact is to cover all the important issues of the day and facing human kind in the future, here on the earth planet and potential in the universe if over the next one or two hundred years we are able travel at the speed of light and begin to explore other galaxies and find the life forms which exist. Only the date year is changed as the seasons of the series unfold.

The core prop of the series is the station which is designed as five miles in length and half a mile across rotating to create gravity and sectioned to enable the different races to exist in their environments. The station is number five with the first three sabotaged or accidentally destroyed and the fourth disappeared soon after it became fully operational with all those then on board..

There are six major civilizations in the series five of whom form the permanent council of the intergalactic assembly. Humans from Earth who run the station, the Minbari who should have destroyed the Earth Alliance in the recent war but amazingly surrendered. the Narns and the Centuri who hate each other going back over time and the Vorlons, a superior race who exist within a metal suit. There are dozens of other races who visit to the station to trade and attend meetings of the assembly including the Deazi, Brakiri, Vree, Makah and Pak’ma’ra.

There is one universally regarded evil specie called The Shadows who have allies but they do not appear until the second season after we have got to know the main characters and themes. One flaw in in the series was the decision to make all the main characters on the station humanlike in their basic form. This was to avoid computer generated characters and puppets. Another device is to simplify language communication although the signs on the station are in three languages and other languages are heard in the background. As with the Hitch Hikers Guide devices for the instant translation and understanding have been created.

In addition to the station commander who changes between season 1 and two but who makes guest appearances in seasons two and three there is a core group who appear in every episode Ambassadors Delenn of the Minbari, thoughtful, spiritual healer, and a member of the most important council in her world and who from the onset appears to be a special one.

Ambassador Londo Mallari, of the Narns, former warrior, past his prime, uncomfortable in his role as a diplomat who helps save the station in the first season and Ambassador G’Kar of the Centauri Machiavellian and wicked and always trying to get one over Londo and the humans. Ambassador Kosh of the Vorlons is restricted to his special quarters except for meetings of the Council which he only attends when it suits his purpose.

There are several characters on the earth team who sometimes feature in episodes as well as having a role in most episodes. There is the Russian number 2 on the station Susan Ivanova whose mother resisted becoming a member of the Psychic Powers corps and whose life ended prematurely as a consequence. There is head of security Michael Garibaldi, an alcoholic with a violent anarchical tendency who is the Commander‘s friend. The head of the medical team Dr Stephen Franklin. There are the others who become constants and are assistants to the three Ambassadors from Mimbari, Narn and Centauri.

For the first season there are several subjects which continue throughout the self contained stories. The first is why did the Minbari surrender and what is the relationship between their decision and the capture and release of the Station Commander Jeffery Sinclair after the rest of his fighter squadron were destroyed and he returned to earth with a memory block about what happened while he was in captivity. Delenn knows the secret and is why someone of her importance is placed on the station as Ambassador.

The first of the grand themes is Order versus Chaos, and the use of diplomacy, compromise and reason to overcome unbridled power and force and related to the theme is the issue of free will. The Earth Psi Corps has the ability to read minds and they have become a force on their own, at times challenging the democratic authority or associating with factions seeking to overthrow the legitimate government. Fundamental to the series is the rights of individuals and yet there has to be team work, leadership and a chain of command. Underpinning the series is the support for democracy and the difficulties that arise especially when colonies such as that on Mars seek self determination. There is also respect and understanding of different religions as each of the main civilizations holds religious ceremonies to educate the others, with earth introducing representatives of the dozens of different religions which exist on the planet. The Centaur, not surprising, have Bacchanalian type faiths of which there are said to be seventy while the Mimbari and Narns are more pantheistic and there are many situations where science versus faith arise. Everyone also is of human frailty with alcoholism, gambling and substance addition occurring. What binds everyone together is the common enemy, the threat, and survival and while the station is threatened during the first season all the civilizations are threatened by the Shadows.
In contrast to Babylon Five, The X Files is all about whether different sentient life to human beings exist as well as exploring the possibilities of paranormal conditions within human kind. The series is built around science versus conviction and belief. Although I rejoined viewing in season five of the nine it was at a fortunate point because the main issue was finally resolved, or was it, during the season?

For the previous four years there was Fox Mulder (pronounced Moulder) who believed his sister had been abducted by aliens and whose entire work as an FBI agent was devoted to establishing that earth had been visited by alien life forms which for some reason the USA government wished to cover up, possibly because it was using some of the technology for military purposes.

Dana (pronounced Dayna) Sculley, a medical doctor and scientist had been appointed his partner in order to constantly check the validity of his findings and her scepticism survived despite finding she too had been abducted by someone and an implant was placed in her neck.

Now in a two part fifth season programme Patient X and the Red and the Black the roles appeared reversed with Mulder convinced that what had taken place was an elaborate government plot to use the idea of aliens cover up its own activities and that his own recollections were none other than false memory syndrome. This approach appeared to be supported by another FBI agent whose mother had contacted Dana saying she had been abducted and also had an implant. The son argues that his subsequent testimony of being a witness to her abduction was also false memory syndrome created by his mother who had become mentally unbalance where her husband left her when he was still a child.

At the beginning of the Red and the Black the audience is shown the first of three situations in which groups of assembled individuals are burnt to death (the Red) and where governments in Russia and the USA explain the event as mass suicide of a cult mass. At the last of these Dana accompanied the mother of the fellow FBI agent to the assembly location but escape when a second of what appears to be space craft arrives and attacks those doing the killing. Throughout the series Moulder has been confronted by a mystery man who appears to be within government and who constantly smokes. He appears to take special interest in the activities of the agent and his involvement appears to be protective. At the beginning of my present viewing Mulder had been put into contact which his sister who had been adopted by the smoking man who in turn has been assassinated, or so it appeared to be by the group he worked for.

In the recent episodes it is revealed that the group have been doing deals with an alien race as a means of surviving their colonization of the earth and the elimination of the majority of humankind by something described as the black oil (The Black). However it appears that an antidote to the oil has been created by Russian interests but its value is still being tested and therefore it remains necessary for those in the know to continue to deal with the alien race. Having watched the series before and remembered aspect of the recent programmes I ought to know what happens next and the great unravelling of the series. I do not because having carried forward the master scheme a little the two main characters then continue with there work on the X files, difficult to explain situations, usually deaths or extreme behaviour which cannot eb rationally explained.

This brings me to the first four episodes of what became the last season of the 4400. The first episode, The Wrath of Graham has one main story and attempts to follow all the ongoing. The main story is the emergence of a rival Messiah to Jordan who is in hiding as the allocation of Promicin, the drug created from Isabelle which gives users a fifty fifty chance of gaining paranormal powers or quickly dying is declared illegal, but continues to make available by the dispersed 4400 and others. The young student is unaware of the aura he emanates at first and then attempts to take over the Seattle before taking over the world. Jordan comes out of hiding to stop the young man by using his power to neutralise the Promicin created by Isabelle which the young man has taken.

Tom continues to search for Alana and discovered a portrait of her in the gallery showing that she existed 100 years before. His son Kyle returns home also having taken the illegal Promicin and discovers he is being shadowed by an attractive young woman who tells him what to do, and this includes giving Shawn who is a coma a shot of Isabelle‘s Promicin and this works.

Tom’s partner Diana with Maia and her husband are enjoying life in Spain during his work assignment there but Diana who is on the verge of accepting a post as 4400 adviser to Europe is contacted by Marco her former lover and 4400 unit geek that he has seen a video where her sister has accepted the offer of Promicin. Diana therefore decided to go to Europe to find her sister and Maia who she leaves behind tells Ben that his wife will not be back. Dr Kevin and Tess are also in hiding with Tess having major problems because of all those who have died having taken the distributed Promicin. Richard Isabelle’s father, distressed at what has happened has gone missing as the 4400 centre remains closed by the authorities. In addition the 4400 has a new Director, its third, and the least likely individual to be appointed to such a position complete with a large poster for the film La Dolce Vita

The second episode of the final season, Fear Itself was comparatively low key but which provided important story development. The single story feature is an ability to bring out the fears which people have. Diana unable to find her sister is taken back by the unit but on probation. Shaun’s recovery leads him to re-establishing the healing foundation and talk of reopening the centre Isabelle is offered the opportunity to be transferred to a less restrictive prison if tests show the Promicin has been removed. In fact the tests show that she would die if the Promicin returned or was given one of the injections .

I had a personal interest in the third episode Audrey Parker’s Come and Gone. The story is one fo the weakest. A an old disabled woman volunteer at a help centre has taken the Promicin injection and is writing and publishing a Blog which attracts the attention of the 4400 monitoring centre who are asked to investigate and stop the writing because it could encourage to undertake the fifty fifty lottery of gaining an ability or dying prematurely. It is this aspect of writing and being officially monitored to ensure one does not stray into forbidden areas which interests.

However I do not understand her ability or its rationality. She appears to be able to project herself as a younger different woman, an artist holding her first important exhibition of contemporary art which coincides with an affair with a boyfriend who Audrey has the ability to know is a con man. She decides to intervene and warn off the young man as her real self and the young man is able to trace who she is and kill her. This technically closes the case for the monitoring unit because the writing has stopped but Diana is contacted astrally by the woman whose soul is within and without that of the young artist snd is in a kind of restless limbo. However when they arrest the boyfriend of the artist they find he has an alibi but further contact leads them to discovering that the death was the accidental action of the son of the woman’s nurse.

Meanwhile Tom’s son Kyle astral type projection has been elading him to read a coded manuscript which contains what his role is to be in relation to Jordan, Shaun, the future of the 4400 and the salvation of human kind. Diana’s husband and Maia have returned tot he USA from Spain which Diana is at sixes and sevens torn between her feeling that she ought to continue with her work, her concern about her sister and her affection for her husband and Maia which admitted appear to have suddenly changed from all consuming to a long way third

Shaun goes to see Tom and the new head of the unit, she of the film poster, whose father is dying and where they could benefit from the Healing power. However they have a duty to warn that he will be arrested when he attempts to reopen the centre, He has enlisted the help of Heather, she who can bring out the special talents of children and at the last moment the authorities relent and they are allowed to return to work. Shaun heals the father. In the final scene the vehicle in which Isabelle is being transported to an easier confinement is involved in a road accident and she finds herself free.

In the Truth and Nothing but the Truth Diana finds her sister April who is leading a great life with boyfriend blackmailing businessmen through her ability to get people to tell the truth. Unfortunately she brings out the truth of a major conspiracy to defraud the USA government. Diana finds her sister

Meanwhile Kyle makes contact with Isabelle he hides and she helps him to interpret the special book. This lists people who must take the Promicin in order to save humanity and this includes his father. His father having suspicions that his son has taken the illegal substance and developed a special ability so he arranges for a secret test which confirms his suspicions. Meanwhile one of the most vociferous Senators against the way Jordan Collier and others have used their special abilities contacts Shaun to explain that he wants to promote his leadership through a political role in local government in the city, as a Councillor. He explains that as a Vietnam Veteran he had gone with his wife to the Communist run Saigon and if he could learn to forgive and accommodate a former enemy and therefore he wants to help build bridges and peace between the 4400 and rest of humanity. Kyle encourages Shaun to stand saying it could lead him to becoming Mayor of the city and Governor of the State. Kyle then accuses Shaun of betraying Jordan and the future Diana advises her husband she is going to stay on with FBI 4400 unit. Her sister is employed by the Government as a special agent to use her powers and is giving the kind of lifestyle and male support she has dreamed about. Noen fo the opening episodes has the kind of impact which will create a new audience or keep existing fans enthusiastic except the most loyal.

I am reminded of George Orwell’s Animal Farm in which it is agreed that everyone is equal but after a time the leadership determine that they are more equal than others and therefore merit special privileges.

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