Column Babylon 5 Rewatch Babylon 5 Rewatch: “Voices of Authority” Ivanova attempts to contact the First Ones on behalf of the newly formed Light War Council… By Keith R.A. DeCandido | Published on April 14, 2025 Credit: Warner Bros. Television Comment 0 Share New Share Credit: Warner Bros. Television “Voices of Authority”Written by J. Michael StraczynskiDirected by Menachem BinetskiSeason 3, Episode 5Production episode 304Original air date: January 29, 1996 It was the dawn of the third age… Garibaldi and Allan are discussing life, the universe, and everything, including that Allan simply cannot get a uniform top that fits him properly no matter how hard he tries. Garibaldi is summoned by Ivanova with a “Code 7R,” a code Allan doesn’t recognize. Garibaldi comes up with a bullshit answer to Allan’s question about it, then sends his deputy off to a meeting without him. Code 7R is a meeting of the Army of Light War Council: Sheridan, Ivanova, Garibaldi, Franklin, Cole, and Delenn. Delenn believes it is time to try to contact some of the First Ones to try to recruit them to help fight the Shadows. Ivanova wants to know why they aren’t here already, since they fought the Shadows before, but Delenn says that, aside from the Vorlons, they seem to have all buggered off, either from exhaustion or progress. Some have gone beyond the galactic rim. Some are sleeping. Some are wandering. Cole cautions against this. When he was training as a Ranger on Minbar, he was taught that the First Ones are old, cranky, powerful, and don’t like to be bothered. Delenn, however, believes that the time for circumspection is past. To that end, she has asked Draal to join the meeting, and his holographic avatar appears in the meeting room. Draal has consulted the Great Machine and notes that pretty much every file on the First Ones boils down to “do not approach.” But they all decide that the need is great, so Sheridan agrees to go down to Epsilon III in a few hours and meet with Draal to work out a game plan. Credit: Warner Bros. Television The Ministry of Peace has sent a representative, Julie Musante, to be B5’s political officer. She meets with Sheridan, and her first comment is that there isn’t enough to represent EarthGov in the office. Sheridan tartly points out that it’s his office, and that’s what it represents. It becomes clear that Musante’s job is to make everything on B5 conform to Clark’s creeping fascism, and Sheridan’s attempt to point out that this is a military post gets the response that the military serves the civilian government. She invites him to dinner, and at first he refuses—because he has to go meet with Draal on Epsilon—but that’s not on his official calendar, obviously, so he is forced to accept and send Ivanova in his place. G’Kar approaches Delenn, expressing his surprise at all the closed-door meetings going on, which Delenn insists are all related to her diplomatic duties. He also mentions having heard rumors of a group called the Rangers, and does Delenn know anything about that? Delenn lies through her teeth and says no. Allan escorts Musante to her quarters. She asks him to report to her whatever the captain doesn’t tell her. This makes Allan uncomfortable, which prompts Musante to remind him that he also works for NightWatch. Ivanova heads down to Epsilon. Draal is cranky at first, as he was expecting Sheridan, but then Ivanova lets loose with some impressive word vomit, which somehow pleases Draal. They get to work, putting Ivanova into the Great Machine. Credit: Warner Bros. Television Sheridan and Musante have dinner, where it becomes clear that Musante’s title should be propaganda officer rather than political officer. When Sheridan mentions the Lurkers, Musante proudly declares that there are no homeless people on Earth and very few criminals, and she dismisses both as the purview of the mentally ill. Musante then admits that all they’re doing is redefining words to fit a goal, but she also believes it’s the first step toward putting Earth back on the right track. Sheridan, in contrast, thinks they’re just ignoring the problems and hoping they’ll go away. Musante says that Sheridan’s candor can get him in trouble, which is why her job is so important. Ivanova finds some First Ones at Sigma 957, but also encounters something nasty, which she barely gets away from. She also sees the destruction of Earth Force One, but also sees a conversation between then-Vice President Clark and someone unseen (it’s Morden’s voice, though Ivanova wouldn’t necessarily recognize it) making it clear that Clark (a) wanted Santiago dead, and (b) knew that EF1 would go boom. Ivanova urges Draal to make a recording of it, which he does. Musante has apparently been locked out of her quarters, so Sheridan takes her to his cabin. She immediately gets undressed and endeavors to seduce him. Ivanova chooses that hilariously inappropriate moment to show up using the Great Machine’s holographic projector, thus making everything even more awkward. Sheridan has to kiss the naked Musante in order to keep her from seeing Ivanova, then goes into the bedroom for a moment of privacy. He and Ivanova have a conversation that somehow Musante doesn’t overhear through the partition. Ivanova says they need to go to Sigma 957 right now this minute or they’ll miss their shot at this batch of First Ones. Sheridan can’t get away from Musante (in more ways than one), so he sends Ivanova, reminding her to make sure there’s someone on board who can speak both English and Minbari. G’Kar tries to find out what’s going on from Garibaldi, but he stonewalls even better than Delenn does. Sheridan managed to avoid sleeping with Musante, er, somehow, as Allan finds her the next morning all peevish that she wasn’t able to seal the deal with the captain. She deflects Allan’s attempts to hit on her and tells him to be there for the NightWatch meeting in three hours. (She also points out that his uniform top doesn’t fit right.) At that meeting, Musante makes it clear that military personnel are no longer permitted to say anything negative about EarthGov, and that civilians who do so should be monitored. Rules of evidence and procedure are also more broad-ranging now, though Musante assures them that this is temporary until the crisis is past. What the crisis actually is remains unclear… Musante also mentions purges of disloyal government officials and other fun stuff. The White Star disembarks. Ivanova is surprised to see, not Lennier, but Cole serving as liaison with the crew. Cole says that he spent a year training on Minbar, and picked up the language while there. They arrive at Sigma 957, and a funky ship shows up, with an alien whose face resembles a wooden mask appears on the flight deck. Ivanova tries to communicate with them, though they do not respond in English or Minbari. They get particularly cranky at the mention of the Vorlons. After Ivanova makes her request, they disappear. Cole opines that they’re thinking it over. Garibaldi shows Sheridan the recording that Draal provided of Clark and Morden. Sheridan wants it sent to General Hague, who will be able to release it in a way that won’t tie back to B5. The Sigma 957 First Ones return, say the word, “Zog” and then disappear. Ivanova is frustrated, though it appears they’ve rejected them. Ivanova refuses to take Zog for an answer, and tries to figure out a way to talk them into it. Cole jokingly says he can put a lampshade on his head and pretend to be the Vorlon god Booji. That gives Ivanova an idea, and she sends a message to the First Ones saying that the Vorlons said that these guys would be useless and approaching them was a waste of time, and further that the Vorlons said they totally carried the Sigma 957 dudes last time. Amazingly, this works, and the First Ones say, in English, to call on them here at the appropriate time and they will come. Credit: Warner Bros. Television The footage of Clark gleefully talking about how much he wanted Santiago dead hits the news, which causes a shitstorm of epic proportions. Musante is recalled to Earth, though she tells Allan that she will be back once this nonsense is dealt with. Garibaldi tells his security people that, if anyone asks, they’re just waiting for the truth to come out. Allan hangs back after the meeting. The two of them have an unpleasant chat, with Garibaldi not happy about Allan’s continued work for NightWatch, especially given that he has tons of trust issues given what happened with his last deputy. For his part, Allan doesn’t feel like he’s being trusted even a little bit—he still has no idea what a Code 7R is. G’Kar shows up at Garibaldi’s quarters in the middle of the night, waking him up, and hands him a copy of the Book of G’Quan, telling him to read it. Garibaldi points out that he can’t read Narn, to which G’Kar says, “Learn!” Get the hell out of our galaxy! Sheridan has to play verbal hockey with Musante, countering her propaganda with rationality—which never works—and also tonsil hockey with her to keep her from seeing Ivanova. However, he manages to avoid sleeping with her, despite her best efforts. Ivanova is God. Busy episode for Ivanova, as she gets to be plugged into the Great Machine, command the White Star, negotiate successfully with a First One despite not understanding hardly anything they say, and peek on her captain being seduced. Also Draal is surprised at how well Ivanova is able to work with the Great Machine. The household god of frustration. Garibaldi says to G’Kar that he sees no way that the two of them can help each other. Part of this is Garibaldi compartmentalizing his duties as security chief from his duties as part of the Army of Light, of course. However, G’Kar doesn’t give up that easily… If you value your lives, be somewhere else. Delenn lies directly to G’Kar’s face. It’s not an evasion, and there’s no face-saving involved. She just lies like a cheap rug in order to keep the existence of the Rangers a secret. That’s a pretty big faux pas on her part… Though it take a thousand years, we will be free. G’Kar, not being an idiot, knows there’s important stuff happening on the station. He very obviously isn’t going to give up until he gets a straight answer, and he also knows full well that neither Delenn nor Garibaldi gave him one. Credit: Warner Bros. Television We live for the one, we die for the one. Part of the Ranger training includes learning about the First Ones. For that reason, Cole is initially against the notion of contacting them, as they are scary and mean. The Shadowy Vorlons. Apparently, the Vorlons pissed the Sigma 957 First Ones off at some point in the past. They did so to a sufficient degree that Ivanova is able to use some pretty bog-standard reverse psychology on the Sigma 957 First Ones to get them to play ball. No sex, please, we’re EarthForce. Musante attempts to seduce Sheridan, because of course she does. Just in case there was any doubt that this episode was written by a dude. Welcome aboard. Shari Shattuck gets to be blonde, pretty, and occasionally naked as Musante. We’ve also got recurring regulars John Schuck, making his second and final appearance as Draal following “The Long, Twilight Struggle”; Joshua Cox as Corwin, last seen in “A Day in the Strife,” next to appear in “Exogenesis”; and Gary McGurk as Clark, last seen in “Revelations,” next to appear in “Endgame.” Two other recurring regulars make uncredited voice-only appearances. Ardwight Chamberlain, normally the voice of Kosh, provides the voice of the Sigma 957 First Ones, and Ed Wasser as Morden is heard speaking to Clark in the Great Machine footage found by Ivanova. Trivial matters. The First Ones from Sigma 957 previously appeared in “Mind War” when Sakai encountered them. They’ll return (when summoned, as requested in this episode) in “Into the Fire.” This was not intended to be John Schuck’s final appearance as Draal, but when the character was scripted to return in “Conflicts of Interest” in season four, Schuck was performing on Broadway and unavailable. According to an online posting from J. Michael Straczynski, the Sigma 957 First Ones’ comment of “Vorlons tavutna chog!” loosely translates to, “The Vorlons can kiss my ass!” Following the airing of this episode, Jason Carter was known to, when appearing at conventions, put a lampshade over his head and claim to be the Vorlon god Booji. The echoes of all of our conversations. “Zog.” “Zog? Zog what? Zog yes, zog no? What does it mean?” —The Sigma 957 First Ones failing their saving roll versus communicating with Ivanova. Credit: Warner Bros. Television The name of the place is Babylon 5. “I think you’re about to go where everyone has gone before.” It’s funny, but over on the Lurker’s Guide, there’s a response J. Michael Straczynski had to an online question regarding this episode that just made me shake my head. Someone asked why Sheridan didn’t just kick Musante out of his room and/or off the station after the attempted seduction. Straczynski replied that that may be the right thing to do by TV Logic, but not by Real Logic. Musante was sent by the Senate Oversight Committee, and is part of the political landscape that Sheridan has no access to or control over: EarthGov. He can’t just get rid of her. And he’s right, but what’s really ridiculous about this oh-so-noble assertion is that it’s in defense of a scene that is defined, not by TV Logic or Real Logic, but by Porn Movie Logic. Musante’s attempted seduction of Sheridan had nothing to do with Real Logic and everything to do with Hollywood expectations and the fact that Musante was played by a very attractive woman. If Straczynski wanted to write a realistic example of a powerful official using sex as a tool of asserting authority, it should’ve been a male character forcing himself on a female character who didn’t feel she could refuse, as there are a lot more examples of that in the world governed by Real Logic. Succubi, however, are purely the stuff of stories. On the one hand, I love the idea of putting a political officer on B5, and I wish the assignment was permanent, as that creates all kinds of fun possibilities—particularly the disposition of that character later this season during a particularly big status quo change. On the other hand, this particular political officer outstayed her welcome pretty quickly, and the fact that she won’t return comes as something of a relief. On the third hand, her reasons for being recalled to Earth make no sense. If anything, the release of the Clark-and-Morden footage would make it more imperative for there to be an EarthGov watchdog on B5. The rest of the episode works just fine. I like that G’Kar has wasted no time in figuring out that something is going on and he wants in on it. G’Kar has brains, resources, and a need to help folks who can return the favor and help his oppressed people. It’s always a joy to see John Schuck in anything, and his bombastic portrayal of Draal is particularly entertaining, and it’s a pity this is his swan song. (I especially love his comment to Ivanova that he needs to dust his body off more often.) We get more delightful Ivanova-Cole banter, which will continue to be a fun feature of the show for this and next season, and for all that I don’t entirely buy that the First Ones would fall for a reverse-psychology schoolyard taunt, Ivanova delivered it with such gusto that I am willing to forgive it. Next week: “Dust to Dust.”[end-mark] The post <i>Babylon 5</i> Rewatch: “Voices of Authority” appeared first on Reactor.