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

Overview

Marcus and Dr. Franklin combat an invasion by parasitic aliens that attach themselves to humans. Ivanova investigates the possibility of bringing a new member into the conspiracy. Joshua Cox as Corwin. Aubrey Morris as Duncan. James Warwick as Matthew Duffin.

P5 Rating: 7.34

Production number: 307
Original air week: February 12, 1996

Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Kevin Cremin

Watch For

• Signs on the wall in the Brown Sector marketplace.

Backplot

• A race of symbiotes, the Vindrizi, has existed for half a million years. They were created as recorders, observing events all over the galaxy so that others can learn about the past when all the books and records have been swallowed by the next dark age. They survive by passing from host to host, always seeking volunteers who have nothing left to live for and want to live out their lives participating in a grand endeavor.
• The Shadows have been building up forces in sector 800, near the border of Centauri space.

Unanswered Questions

• What is the "package" from Mars that Marcus is waiting for?
• Why are the Shadows building up their forces in sector 800?
• Will Corwin prove problematic for the conspiracy of light?
• Who created the Vindrizi half a million years ago, and what made them think such living histories would become necessary?

Analysis

• It's never made clear how much time has passed before the Vindrizi's departure, but it's odd that Sheridan and company didn't jump at the chance to get all the information they could about the Shadows and the previous wars while the Vindrizi were still aboard. Of course, it's possible such discussions took place, but they're never mentioned.
• Now that Sheridan and his people know about the Vindrizi, perhaps they'll call upon them in the future.
• What came in on the ship at the beginning of the episode? The two people waiting for the ship were quite happy to see it arrive. Were they not yet joined with the Vindrizi, or did the ship simply carry more of their kind?
• Marcus seems a good deal less concerned with secrecy than his coconspirators; he was talking to Garibaldi openly, and loudly, about his network of contacts in a public place. By contrast, Ivanova and Sheridan didn't even want to be seen with him at the Earhart's party for fear of raising questions.
• Why is Ivanova so hostile toward Marcus? Have her last few romantic experiences made her want to discourage any new developments in that area? (For example, "The War Prayer" and "Divided Loyalties.")
• During the medical staff meeting, Franklin mentions that there's a need for Drazi blood. Is the station being flooded with Drazi refugees, much like it was with Narn refugees while the Narn-Centauri War was at its peak? If so, is Babylon 5 becoming a sort of haven for refugees of all stripes?

Notes

• Duncan's line, "I don't like being poked by doctors," is also spoken by the main character Alex in Stanley Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange."

• The ship carrying the Vindrizi is called the Dyson, most likely named for physicist Freeman Dyson.

• Marcus quotes from Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" to Garibaldi, and from Shakespeare's "Macbeth" when he wakes Duncan up. Note that Marcus refers to Macbeth as "the Scottish play," and replaces "Macbeth" with "Marcus" in his quote -- there is a superstition among actors that referring to Macbeth by name is bad luck. (See jms speaks)

  The particular Macbeth quotes are from Act II, scene 2:

  Methought I heard a voice cry "Sleep no more!
  Macbeth does murder sleep" -- the innocent sleep,
  Sleep that knits up the raveled sleave of care,
  The death of each day's life, sore labor's bath,
  Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course,
  Chief nourisher in life's feast.

  Then, a moment later:

  Still it cried "Sleep no more!" to all the house.
  "Glamis hath murdered sleep, and therefore Cawdor
  Shall sleep no more. Macbeth shall sleep no more."

  Glamis and Cawdor are two earl titles that Macbeth holds.

• Marcus refers to his fighting staff as a "Copeland J5000" while trying to convince the Vindrizi it's a medical instrument. That's most likely a reference to producer John Copeland.

• The Vindrizi's musing about what they've experienced is reminiscent of Batty's dying words at the end of the movie "Blade Runner."

jms speaks

• "Exogenesis," which we just started filming this week, is probably our most "ordinary" story of the batch, though it puts a new spin on several traditional story elements.

• Sometimes I do like to take stories that have always been done one way, and turn them on their heads to see what new possibilities tumble out. It's fun....

• "Exogenesis" - The last non-arc episode for some time. Puts Dr. Franklin and Marcus together investigating some odd happenings in DownBelow that may indicate some kind of alien influence. Does, however, introduce a thread that will play out over time.

• Another "oh, yeah, I nearly forgot"...for those out there who have young kids, or if you're a bit on the squeamish side yourself...there's one EFX shot at the end of the teaser for "Exogenesis" that you may want to avoid. When it was finished, John Copeland brought it into my office, fired it up on my TV, and looked away, saying, "You look, it creeps me out too much to look at it again." It's...pretty strong. So you'll miss the minimum possible, here's the sequence: first there's the Screaming Man (a), then a cutaway to two people (b), then back at the Man for the first part of the shot (c), the two people again (d), the man (e), and finally the two people. What you want to avoid, if there are real young kids in the room, are shots c and e. That's it for the whole episode. For non-netted folks, it'll go by pretty fast, but I figured it'd be worth mentioning as an added piece of info for the netted amongst us.

• How is your mental image of the arc holding up?
  The overview still holds up pretty well, I think. Toward the end of season two, I think things got just a *tad* too convoluted in places, so that's being cleared up a bit, the dry brush trimmed back, the red herrings cleared away, because we've got to start focusing on the real story, not the misdirections. That's probably the one thing I'd go back and revise, because in general, you can't just bring something up and walk away form (from) it later; it's got to either fit, or be reasonably, logically explained away. So some time has to be spent on that now. But that's been done pretty effectively in this first batch of episodes, and now we're down to really cranking on the shadow war.

  In four more episodes (writing-wise), I'll be at the exact midpoint in the story, which on one level is a little hard to believe; it's gont (gone) by so fast. Seems like yesterday that we just got started. Which is why the overview is very helpful; by constantly reminding me where we should be, it doesn't let me get lost in the neverwhere of TV production.

  All things considered...we've had some bumps on the ride, a detour here and there, the occasional flat tire, but doggone it if the old thing seems to have a mind of its own; I started writing #7 the other day, and I'm well past halfway finished writing it, it's coming out almost as though it already existed, and I've just managed to "tune into" it, like the sculpter who knows that inside a block of wood is a horse, he just has to start chopping and cutting until he finds and relases it.

  So long answer to a short question...we're still on course, and I'm still quite pleased with where we're going, and how we're getting there.

• Thanks. Yeah, Exo is the last non-arc episode for a long time, and the last chance to catch one's breath before the big fall.

  My personal evaluation of the episode is that it's okay. The second half, I think, isn't as strong as the first half. Halfway through writing the episode, we had a problem come up in production that unexpectedly took me away from the script for about a week. (Nothing major, but it had to be dealt with and it took time.) Usually, I write copious notes on a script before I begin writing it. In this case, the story was so crystalline clear in my head that I just dived in, and was blasting away terrific when the hit came midway through. By the time I got back, I'd lost some of the fingerprints of the story, and had to kind of re-find them again. Mainly, I think the expository sequence at the end could've been done better.

  Needless to say, that's the last time I trusted myself without notes, no matter how well I "see" the episode in my head. It'd be a great script for second or first season, but we have to keep raising the bar, every aspect has to be better than the last thing we did, so for my money it's not quite up to that standard. Happily, it's the *only* episode this season that I feel that way about...the rest are all just nifty.

  That said, I think it has some great moments for Marcus, Franklin and others...and yes, there's a lot more planned with Franklin coming up this season, particularly toward the latter third of the season.

• Thanks (I think). Yeah, I've said from the git-go that in my view the second half of Exo isn't up to the first half. It is, in my view, the weakest of this season's 22. On the flip side, that means the other 21 are pretty nifty.

  Agree with you on Marcus. I'm finding I have the same problem with him I have with Londo...getting him to shut up once I wire him up and let him go. He's a lot of fun to write, in that he can do the physical action stuff very well, he can do comedy, more dramatic emotional stuff...the whole range. I can take him places and do things with him that I can't in some ways for the other characters, in that he has only one responsibility, whereas the others have larger responsibilities to more people.

• What did Joshua Cox think of Corwin getting to leave C&C for a change?
  He loved it.

• About the avoidance of the name "Macbeth"
  Just figured I'd use that description of it rather than Macbeth, to make it a bit more obscure, but also some actors do have a problem saying the name Macbeth or being around it when it's said (note: Jason isn't one of them). so it was also a courtesy. (Later on, while shooting "A Late Delivery From Avalon," one of the hair dressers made the error of referring to Macbeth out loud in front of Michael York, and had to go through the whole undo-the-curse routine, walking around the stages three times, etc.)

• I like Marcus quoting literature, Shakespeare included. So it's something I've peppered through his character, though trying to avoid too much of it.

• Yes, Marcus and Ivanova should get along well...assuming one doesn't kill the other first....

• Why doesn't Marcus wear a link?
  I just summoned up Marcus in my head. Here's what he said: "Because I won't wear the bloody thing, that's why. Bad enough you've got those pagers you wear in 1996, no privacy, no chance to get away, always at somebody's beck and call. Why not just put a leash around your neck and get it over with? It'd be faster and a good deal more honest. I'm down in the bar trying to be inconspicuous, dangerous characters on all sides, trying not to be noticed...and the link goes off, and I'm dead. Or at minimum seriously thumped. No, absolutely not. You'll never get me to wear one of those."

  (This is btw the reason why I absolutely *refuse* to wear a pager myself.)

• Was that Sean Connery's voice at the beginning?
  It was a voice in the walla group that basically came out sounding that way.

• Response to the above from producer George Johnsen
  No, it is Doug Cook, one of our Walla people doing a fair Sean imitation which was not his intention.

• Where did Franklin's stim abuse problem go?
  It hasn't come to a head yet. Any abuser of substances has moments when he's up, and moments when he's down, moments when he seems fine, moments when he's not.

Last update: July 22, 1997