Story: Believers
Written By: David Gerrold
Season: 1
Warning...there be spoilers ahead.
Dr. Franklin is frustrated with the beliefs of a family who shun modern medicine and would prefer to see their son die than to have him tampered with by Medical Science. It goes against the very tapestry of their belief system, but letting the child die goes against Franklin’s belief system, and he causes an uproar with Sinclair to let him operate and save the child’s life. Sinclair refuses to tamper with this family’s beliefs and their own family choices, putting Franklin in a losing situation.
This was a solid morality play that was similar to the kind of things “Star Trek” and “The Twilight Zone” would have done in the 60s, but with the kind of edginess that could have only been done later. It doesn’t have a happy ending, and I can’t help but feel that this kind of story in something of the TNG Trek era would not have taken the risk of ending on such a sour note.
Until this episode I wasn’t feeling like Babylon 5 was anything less than another Space-based Sci-Fi show. I’m not even talking about the DS9 v. B5 thing, that is sort of a silly argument...two different shows that happen to take place on a space station. What I mean is that Trek was the ultimate in Space Based Sci-Fi. The original “Battlestar Galactica” and others couldn’t compare. So far B5 was just another one like “Galactica”, and this episode was finally something that set it apart. It wasn’t trying to have a happy ending, it set up the rules for the events to play out, and this episode stuck to those rules even when they were heartbreaking. Finally B5 actually was something different, which felt very much to be talk before this.
I liked this episode because of the risky ending, and that it finally felt like this show was a different kind of show from the Trek Franchise.
NEXT TIME: Garibaldi Framed
Written By: David Gerrold
Season: 1
Warning...there be spoilers ahead.
This was a solid morality play that was similar to the kind of things “Star Trek” and “The Twilight Zone” would have done in the 60s, but with the kind of edginess that could have only been done later. It doesn’t have a happy ending, and I can’t help but feel that this kind of story in something of the TNG Trek era would not have taken the risk of ending on such a sour note.
Until this episode I wasn’t feeling like Babylon 5 was anything less than another Space-based Sci-Fi show. I’m not even talking about the DS9 v. B5 thing, that is sort of a silly argument...two different shows that happen to take place on a space station. What I mean is that Trek was the ultimate in Space Based Sci-Fi. The original “Battlestar Galactica” and others couldn’t compare. So far B5 was just another one like “Galactica”, and this episode was finally something that set it apart. It wasn’t trying to have a happy ending, it set up the rules for the events to play out, and this episode stuck to those rules even when they were heartbreaking. Finally B5 actually was something different, which felt very much to be talk before this.
I liked this episode because of the risky ending, and that it finally felt like this show was a different kind of show from the Trek Franchise.
NEXT TIME: Garibaldi Framed
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