Contents: Overview - Backplot - Questions - Analysis - Notes - JMS

Overview

Talia's old Psi Corps instructor, the victim of a secret experiment, is the target of a manhunt involving the Psi-Cops. Catherine wants to survey a promising planet for possible mining, but G'Kar warns her to stay away. Walter Koenig as Bester. Felicity Waterman as Kelsey. William Allen Young as Jason Ironheart.

P5 Rating: 8.44

Production number:  110
Original air date:  March 2, 1994

Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Bruce Seth Green

Watch For:

• A peculiar salute.

Backplot

• Jason Ironheart was Talia's instructor and lover at the Psi Corps Training Academy. After she graduated and went into commercial telepathy, they kept in touch by letter - until a year ago when his letters stopped. As Ironheart recounts, he volunteered to undergo genetic and biochemical modification he thought was intended to make him a stronger telepath. The experiment turned out to be an attempt to make him a stable telekinetic, and it after many months and hundreds of injections it worked - stunningly! Ironheart became able to see through any mind like glass, and manipulate matter and energy both. He discovered then that those in charge were after offensive military applications for TK, like secret assassination. So, he killed the head researcher (the only person who could duplicate the work) and fled to Babylon 5, still undergoing changes to his mind and body.
• What is it like to be a telepath?
  Talia: "It's like staying in a hotel room where you can just hear the people talking next door. You can try and shut it out, but it's always there. The key is not to eavesdrop unless you're invited... casual thoughts are very easy to block, but strong emotions have a way of slipping through."
  "Do you know what it's like when telepaths make love, commander? You drop every defense, and it's all mirrors, reflecting each others' feelings, deeper and deeper, until somewhere along the line your souls mix, and it's a feeling so profound it makes you hurt. It's the only moment in a telepath's life when you no longer hear the voices."
• Ironheart: "We all thought Psi Corps was controlled by the government, but that's changing. The Corps is starting to pull the strings behind the scenes; they're more powerful than you could begin to imagine. Telepaths make the ultimate blackmailers..."
  "The Psi Corps is dedicated to one thing: control. Control over telepaths, the economy, the courts, over matter, over thought itself."
  A transcript of Ironheart's meeting with Sinclair is available.

Unanswered Questions

• How much of what Ironheart said was true? He was mentally unstable, to say the least. He was also very motivated to gather fast allies.
• G'Kar (to Catherine): "Let me pass on to you the one thing I've learned about this place. No-one here is exactly what he appears. Not Mollari, not Delenn, not Sinclair. And not me." What does G'Kar know that we don't? (cf "And The Sky Full Of Stars" [Delenn, Sinclair], "By Any Means Necessary" [G'Kar])
• Just before he departs, Ironheart says to Talia: "In memory of love, I give you a gift, the only gift I have left to give." The gift, as she soon discovers, was at least the beginnings of telekinesis. What manner of telepath has she become?
• What did Ironheart mean by his final words to Sinclair? "Good-bye commander. I will see you again, in a million years."

Analysis

• If Ironheart's figures are true, and if there are 20 billion human beings in existence, then there should be a thousand people who are (or will become) stable telekinetics. If the Psi Corps' pursuit of a stable TK justified the extreme measures they attempted with Ironheart, then something about naturally occurring TK's must make them unusable. It could be that use of TK invariably drives one insane, or perhaps natural TK is insufficiently fine-controlled enough for their purposes.
• Whatever it was that the Psi Corps scientists did to Ironheart, it wasn't more than physical alterations to his brain and body. Yet those alterations started a process that led to his essentially becoming a demigod. This could represent a latent potential in humanity as a whole, of which iceberg telepathy is merely the tip. Or perhaps not - "This is a power that we were never meant to have," Ironheart tells Sinclair, "we're not ready for it."
• Ivanova hates the Psi Corps with a passion (understandably - cf "Midnight on the Firing Line") "Good ol' Psi Corps. You never cease to amaze me - all the moral fiber of Jack the Ripper. What do you do in your spare time, juggle babies over a fire pit? Oops, there goes another calculated risk!"
• In spite of this, Ivanova gives Talia a glass of water after she comes through the ordeal of being scanned by Bester and Kelsey. Ivanova's hatred is tempered with compassion for individuals. (see "jms speaks")
• By threatening to hold him accountable for endangering the station and causing the death of his partner, Sinclair strong-arms Bester into omitting from his report mention of Ironheart's real fate and Talia's willful collaboration. However, this can only be an agreement about what gets made official. Just as folks on Babylon 5 know full well that Something happened to Ironheart (with the willing help of both Talia and Sinclair) the right folks in the Psi Corps should know the same through Bester's unofficial report.

Notes

• Sinclair mentions to Catherine in the morning that he's got a budget meeting with the construction guild that day, in which he'll have to make some cuts to which he's not looking forward. ("By Any Means Necessary")
• Universal Terraform: a mega-corporation that explores and prepares new worlds for colonization or exploitation.
• The procedure for evaluating a newly discovered planet: first, an unmanned sensor probe launched by the exploring ship assesses gross features and composition. If that's promising, a manned survey is undertaken to determine its value for various purposes. Finally, if the corporation wants to continue, a life sciences probe is sent out to determine the legality of exploitation. (If there are sentient species present then the planet is off-limits.) (see "jms speaks")
• Due to an EA shortage of the material "Quantium-40," jumpgate construction is backed up 6 months. Catherine's survey mission to Sigma 957 is largely to determine whether this material is present on the planet.
• The being that appeared at Sigma 957 appeared to enter and leave through its own jumpgate. It may have been there for the Q-40.
• Just as the Narn fighters match up with Catherine's ship, part of it sloughs off as it burns up in the atmosphere. The fighters are unaffected; presumably they are atmosphere-capable ships.
• Rent for a spartan studio on Babylon 5 is 500 credits per week.
• Psi corps ratings:
  P5 - level of commercial telepaths. Can easily detect deception and other surface thoughts at close range. Deeper probing is possible but difficult.
  P10 - level of Psi Corps trainers. Can observe the mental actions of other telepaths, block some scans, cut through some blocks, perform long-range scans, and may have some fringe skills.
  P12 - level of Psi Cops. Can communicate smoothly with normals via telepathy. Two Psi Cops can invasively probe a P5.
• Stronger telepaths have a harder time shutting out "the voices".
• Upon graduation from the Academy all telepaths take a telekinesis test - it's a much sought-after skill. .1% of human beings have some level of telepathic ability, and only .01% of them have TK, half of whom are clinically insane. (see Analysis)
• Most telepaths have fewer human rights than normals. They're forbidden to possess psi abilities unless they're in the Psi Corps or in prison ("Midnight on the Firing Line"). They're required to submit to scans by Psi Cops, and aren't even allowed to have fleeting bodily contact with normals, since that would raise the chance in inadvertent scans. (see "jms speaks")
• Psi Cops are afforded greater latitude than other telepaths, "in the interest of efficiency." For example, they can perform at least surface scans on normals without permission.
• As he leaves, Bester gives Sinclair an odd salute - a circle of thumb and forefinger at the forehead - and says, "Be seeing you, commander." This is tribute paid to one of jms's favorite shows, "The Prisoner," in which the line was identical but the hand-motion framed the eye instead. An appropriate twist for a telepath salute!
• Continuity glitch: After Ironheart arrives in his quarters, he pours some water into a cup. When the cup is knocked over by his mindquake a few seconds later, it's empty.

jms speaks

• In a tip of the cap to an SF writer, the Koenig character in "Mind War" is named Bester.

• The direction and intent and background of the Psi Corps is *very* different from Bester's "The Demolished Man." What may cause some of the confusion is that when I decided to name the Psi Cop we'll be seeing, knowing of Alfie's work in the genre in general, and knowing that he was a close friend of Harlan's, I decided it would be a nice testimony to the man to name the Psi Cop Bester. There's nothing beyond that.

• Re: my favorite thing about this episode...it's that when all is said and done, *nobody knows anything*. Bester doesn't know what Ironheart is turning into; Sinclair doesn't know if Ironheart was really telling the truth or not; nobody knows where Ironheart went; nobody knows what the alien ship is/who they were...the closest I can come to is to compare it to writing a mystery novel, without revealing the killer, but *without* frustrating anyone in the process, because there's *closure*.

• ...it was my intent to imply in the scene with the guard and Bester ("nothing, just a drill") that he DID scan the guard's mind. He found out what he was hiding (which is how he managed to show up to try and cut Ironheart off from his escape), exchanged a glance with Kelsey, and headed away quickly.

• Bester wasn't killed because a) it took a *lot* out of Ironheart to take out Kelsey, and b) Bester *shot him* prior to being taken down, and the pain and trauma of being shot has a tendency to have an adverse effect on one; it took all his strength just to knock Bester down before collapsing to the floor, his energy (as you can see in the film) fading away....

• We'll definitely see Bester again, probably twice next season, in one capacity or another. (And we'll *hear* about him once more this season.) ("Eyes")

• Nope, Jason Ironheart will not be seen again, insofar as I know. I don't like beings with that much power running around the plotline....

• Telepaths are the ultimate minority, and when it comes to the use of their talents, and the protection of the rights of the hysterical majority, their rights don't mean a whole hell of a lot.

• Thanks for noticing that. Yes, it *was* very important (to me, at least, whether or not anyone noticed it), that Ivanova was the one who handed Talia the water, and had that brief moment with her. For those who understand their relationship, it adds a tiny layer; for those who don't, because the dialogue keeps on going over it, it's not obtrusive.

• The episode of "Mind War" broadcast henceforth will be the one with slight alteration.

• In the pursuit in the teaser, you could see one of the binary stars THROUGH Ironheart's ship; we deleted that shot and replaced it.

• We discovered, when we went to put in the revised CGI, that the international versions had already been made and transferred, and it would be nearly impossible to recall that part of the process...so it was left alone rather than have multiple versions of the same episode floating around.

• Funny incident today, though, also at lunch. Walter Koenig joined some of the cast members at their table for lunch, and as he came to the table, they all stood up at attention. When asked why, they explained that it's protocol for junior officers to stand when a senior officer comes to the table. It was kind of a nice moment.

• Today, Walter Koenig's 2nd day working in the B5 universe, as a Psi Cop in "Mind War." He's doing well, taking part in some very difficult scenes (fight scenes and the ilke), and it's a very powerful performance, not at ALL what people have seen before. He's a terrific performer when given a role with some meat to it. And the dailies look great. I think this episode will wake up a lot of people who have never seen Walter as anything other than Chekov.

• Walter decided that an interesting character trait for Bester would be if this skilled psi cop had a useless left hand.

• It's a funny thought, but knowing Walter as I do, I can say without fear of contradiction that he was *not* doing Shatner. Given the chance here to do something *utterly* outside ST, which was his hope, and our pleasure to provide, he wouldn't do this, and having spoken with him at some length about his character and his performance, know that he *didn't* do this.

• Chekov is just one character, which was created by another, and played by Walter. Agreed, too many people have seen him as just this one person; but there's a talented actor with a great range behind that character, able to do *many* other things. I'm glad we've been able to let him show that range a little.

• "JMS is on an anti-typecasting crusade."

  That's actually true, in a lot of ways. My sense is that here we have many actors who created enduring works because they were good at what they did; they're *good actors*. But because they were so good at it, they got typecast as only able to play that. How many people snickered, wrongly, when they heard Walter was going to be Bester? "Chekhov in the Psi Corps," was the usual lament.

  Until they *saw* him. And saw what he could do.

  To work against the typecasting is simply payment on a debt to those who created enduring characters. And I'll continue to do it wherever and whenever I can. (Look for Robert Englund in an upcoming episode playing a very different sort of character than he's played elsewhere lately.)

• We'd initially offered Walter the role of Knight Two in "Sky," but when his health prohibited using him, we went to Patrick McGoohan, who loved the script, wanted to do it, but was going to be out of the country at the time of shooting. We then shifted Walter to "Mind War."

• "Commander" wasn't dubbed onto Walter. That was Ironheart speaking with his back to us.

• We'll see more on Talia's additional talents in year two.

• Ironheart was created, as one of many reasons, to exemplify a problem that is growing within Psi Corps. There will be other symptoms, though not as grand as that one.

• The Psi Corps doesn't exist just to help telepaths avoid infringing on the privacy of others. They service the business community, the military, some other governmental agencies...it's important that they control, regulate, and profit from telepaths. You can't just leave the corps.

• "Mind War" is important to the arc because Psi Corps, and certain aspects of it, is important to the arc.

• Some of the events in "Mind War" are significant indeed.

• The ant was paid strictly according to SAG rules (Screen Ants Guild).

• But for the other stuff...no, there's no in-joke in Sigma 957, but ***CONGRATULATIONS!*** You are the FIRST person to pick up on the Native American line that Ironheart quotes when he goes up against Kelsey. (And yes, I believe it is ojibwe in origin.) I've always considered it a very powerful line (a prayer of protection against one's enemies), and wanted to use it. That seemed the perfect opportunity to do so.

• "Who watches the watchmen" is an old Latin phrase, sometimes translated as "who guards the guards?" Given sufficient time I could probably dig up the origin of the phrase; it's fairly common.

• My source on this was the original, classical quotation.

• Congratulations. I was wondering when anyone was going to hit on the CSICOP reference. I was looking for a good name for the pit bulls of the Psi Corps, and thought it made for a great play on words, and a very obscure almost-pun, to name them Psi-Cops.

• Talia's stress during Psi Cop scan
  It's because they dig *deep*. And to another telepath, who is sensitive to begin with...it hurts bigtime.

• A Psi-rating comes through training and examination of a person's skills over time. Ivanova's mother never went through the full sequence to get rated. (Although they generally don't bother with P1s through P2s, so she was at least a P3 or above, in terms of raw ability.) A psi rating isn't hereditary.

• Talia is a P5, as Lyta was in the pilot.

• The number of psi's in each category, from 1-12, gets rarer as you get higher. Lots of folks have a minimal tendency, very few have any real talent.

• Yes, the abilities are often discrete; a TK may not be able to scan anyone's thoughts.

• You don't have to read another book to "get it" re: psi's making love. Perhaps her problem was more with the making love part than the psi part. Haven't read Julian May's book. It's just the obvious answer to what happens if and when telepaths make love: if they truly open up, then you're going to get a mirror effect. Have your lady friend stand between two mirrors and look at the effect. This ain't rocket science.

• Scanning only hurts if it's a deep scan, trying to dredge out lost or buried thoughts, or if the other person is resisting. It can be anything from a headache to a migraine in intensity in general..

• There will be no more Ironhearts, and that character will not return.

• The vaporized Starfuries *weren't* from B5, they were a separate wing not attached to this station. Black Omega is a special forces unit.

• Ironheart blew out the Omega starfuries.

• No, this [the alien] isn't the mysterious sixth race.

• And in the case of Sigma 957, one can put in a gate, start to explore that sector of space...and discover to your chagrin that there is one planet where you don't dare go near. It's not like they *knew* that there was a problem on Sigma 957 before they (the Narns) put the gate in; that was discovered only afterward. Sort of like buying a house and then discovering that one room is haunted; you seal off the room and tell the kids not to go near it.

• You don't leave one gate and fly light years to another; you use the same gate for going in and going out. Explorer Ship A comes out of hyperspace; looks around; decides that there are planets in this area that are worth possible colonizing, exploitation, that sort of thing; it's a very quick overview. (Or they go to systems that have been already selected.) They construct a gate, finish the job, and move on. Other ships can now use this gate for entering and leaving this system. Is this clearer?

• The gate was set up in what was believed to be a reasonably fertile and useful sector of space; the explorer craft can't take too long in any one area. They find likely areas for exploitation, take a fast look around, drop a gate, and move on. This allows other ships to come in and scope out the place in detail. That's when they ran into whatever's walking around Sigma 957. (And it's not there all the time, only from time to time.)

• An Explorer-class vessel looks for areas that look like likely prospects for exploitation, or which are good for logistical or other reasons, do a fast survey, drop a gate and move on. Nobody *knew* about the problems in Sigma 957 until well after the gate was in place.

  Generally, the race that builds the gate, owns it.

• Re: the difference as to why Sinclair reacted the way he did...they SPOKE to him in his head, the same way they did to the guard in customs. This is different than just "listening" to someone's thoughts, so to speak.

• The one thing that to me always typified SF was the sense of *wonder*. Of something mysterious out there. And that is the one thing that I feel is so missing from much of TV SF; not to pick on ST, but the reality is that going from world to world seems like going from 7-11 to 7-11. It's all established, there's not much mystery. (Not in all cases, I'm sure that one or two could be found, but in general.) There should be *differences*, and things we don't understand and will *never* fully understand. (For me, one of the best episodes in this regard is "Mind War," specifically the tag of the episode, which still gives me a shiver even though I've now seen it over a dozen times.)

• Actually, no...Catherine Sakai is based more closely on another woman of my acquaintance, with whom I was involved for quite some time. And that's all you'll get out of me on the subject.

• Incidentally..."Mind War" has come out so well that it looks like we're going to move it up in the schedule a bit. It was originally slated to run about episode 10 or so, but the studio is so hot on it that it'll probably run #6, right after "Parliament." And Walter has agreed to be the voice-over and on-camera narrator for the Behind the Scenes/Making of Babylon 5 documentary.

• Re: moving "Mind War" up...no, doesn't affect continuity at all. If it did, it wouldn't have gotten moved. It's what's called in the biz a "moveable piece," able to go *almost* anywhere in the schedule, as long as it's after episode 3 and before episode 15, since stuff in the first few set it up, and 15 pays off part of it.

Last update: October 27, 2000