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

Overview

Dr. Franklin's father arrives, leading 25,000 ground pounding soldiers on the station. The troops' arrival elicits fear from both humans and non-humans that the troops may be going on a secret mission that will involve the station becoming an armed camp. Paul Winfield as Gen. Richard Franklin.

Sub-genre: Drama
P5 Rating: 7.49

Production number:  210
Original air date:  February 8, 1995

Written by Larry DiTillio
Directed by Jim Johnston

Backplot

• Dr. Franklin's father is an Earth Alliance military hero, a veteran of the Dilgar war and several internal conflicts on Earth. He was rarely around for his children when they were growing up; when he was around, he tried to run the family like a boot camp.
• With the advent of the Narn-Centauri war, the Earth Alliance is trying to solidify its hold on several strategic sectors near both, in anticipation of the day when Earth will have to choose sides.
• Sheridan served a tour of duty on the planet Akdor, in a system bordering on both Narn and Centauri space.
• Garibaldi's father, Alfredo, served under General Franklin in the Dilgar war, and was a well-regarded soldier.

Unanswered Questions

Analysis

• Babylon 5 is now heavily armed, ready to take on a warship. Which raises the question: why wasn't it before? Mere shortsightedness on the part of the designers -- a station like Babylon 5 seems a natural target -- or something else? Even if there originally didn't seem any need to heavily arm the station, the attacks on the station in "Signs and Portents" and "A Voice in the Wilderness, part 2" should have demonstrated that B5 will come under attack from time to time.

  On the other hand, Franklin did say that the station was being upgraded with the latest from Earth Force R&D, so maybe its previous weapons were simply the best the previous generation of technology had to offer. Budget constraints may have also played a role.

• The tail end of the news broadcast mentions that more divisions of Earth troops will join the 356th on Akdor. That implies some sort of permanent presence on the planet itself, as opposed to just "in the system" as General Franklin mentioned.

• Delenn's transformation doesn't appear to be getting the widespread publicity one might expect; the troops didn't seem to recognize her at all. Perhaps they simply don't follow the news.

Notes

• "GROPOS" stands for "ground pounders" and refers to the Earth Alliance's equivalent of the U.S. Marines. In fact, the term "Earth Force Marine Corps" was contained in the Gropos' marching song.

jms speaks

• As for GROPOS, that one episode was so far over budget that I had to write 2 smaller ones to make up for it, and the many people you saw were really just one small group that took forever to digitally composite into looking like a much bigger group.
• Who was the woman Garibaldi referred to, the one he doesn't normally have a chance with?
  That would be Talia.
• Everything in the battle sequence at the end of Gropos is CGI; no models, despite the shadows. Real fire was sampled for the flames, though.

Last update: October 29, 1996