"BABYLON 5" RETROSPECT: (1.11) "Survivors"

"BABYLON 5" RETROSPECT: (1.11) "Survivors"

For the first time during its five-season run, the award-winning science-fiction series, "BABYLON 5", focused on the major supporting character of Security Chief Michael Garibaldi. The name of the episode was Season One's (1.11) "Survivors". And I never realized until now, how much it foreshadowed future events in the series' major story arc, until recently. 

"Survivors" begins with the news network, ISN, announcing President Luis Santiago's intention to pay a visit to Babylon 5 during his tour of Earth Alliance outposts. The president also intends to present a new wing of starfuries (fighter planes) to the station. While Garibaldi and Babylon 5's second-in-command, Lieutenant-Commander Susan Ivanova, discuss Santiago's upcoming visit, the station is rocked by an explosion inside its Cobra landing bay. An injured crewman named Nolan is tended in Medlab by medical officer, Dr. Stephen Franklin; while Garibaldi, Ivanova and Commander Jeffrey Sinclair (the station's commanding officer) discuss the possibility of sabotage. Santiago's security detail, led by one Major Lianna Kemmer, arrives on Babylon 5. Kemmer, who knew Garibaldi when she was a child, treats him coldly and demands that her detail investigate the Cobra Bay explosion. She and her aide Cutter, interrogate the badly wounded Nolan against Dr. Franklin's wishes and manages to extract one name from him - Garibaldi's - before his death. Kemmer demands that Sinclair put Garibaldi on suspension. And when Cutter finds the Cobra Bays blueprints and a bag of Centauri ducats inside Garibaldi's quarters, Kemmer tries to arrest the security chief. But the latter makes his escape and tries to learn who had framed him.

Judging from the episode's initial plot, one might be led to wonder what the title had to do with it. I mean . . . "Survivors" . . . in a tale about a political assassination plot? Once the episode moved into the details of Garibaldi's history with Lianna Kemmer, I understood . . . completely. Babylon 5's security chief had been a twenty-something Earthforce security guard at the ice-mining station on Europa, when he first met a shuttle pilot named Frank Kemmer and his family. Garibaldi had also developed a drinking problem to deal with the strains of working at the station. Garibaldi managed to make a few enemies on Europa, who decided to retaliate by rigging his friend's shuttle pod to explode. Frank Kemmer was killed, Garibaldi was blamed and retreated further into the bottle. He eventually became estranged from Frank's wife and daughter, Lianna, when he left Europa without any further word to them. Lianna grew resentful and angry over Garibaldi's disappearance from the Kemmers' lives. This continuing resentment spilled over into her willingness to quickly assume his guilt on the word of a dying terrorist. The presence of Lianna brought back painful memories of Europa for Garibaldi. His situation grew even worse after being named as a collaborator in the bombing and stripped of his position on the station. Once viewers became of Garibaldi's history with Lianna, it became easy for me to see that the episode's title referred to both characters.

I read a few reviews of "Survivors" online and noticed that most critics seemed to regard this episode as either a filler or an opportunity to flesh out the Michael Garibaldi character. On a certain level, they might be correct. The events of "Survivors" were never referred to again in the few episodes that followed, aside from a brief mention of the Cobra Bay bombing and President Santiago's visit. And yet . . . I noticed something else. This episode also featured some major foreshadowing that not only played out by the end of this first season, but also as late as Season Five. One of the episode's foreshadows featured Garibaldi's alcoholism, which will rear its ugly head in future episodes. Many fans have never been able to deal with it. They were barely able to tolerate his alcoholism, as long as he was able to overcome it by the end of this episode. But when he succumbed to it again, they complained. Loudly. Apparently, they could not deal with him succumbing to it . . . again. And I never understood their attitude. Surely, they understood the struggles for any addict not to succumb again. But it seemed as if they could not deal with a guy like Garibaldi possessing such a major problem in the first place.

I must admit that it was interesting to watch someone like Garibaldi, an authority figure who knew more about the in and outs of Babylon 5 than anyone else, find himself stripped of his authority, neutralized from his friends and hunted down by an authority higher than the station's commander, Sinclair. What made it even more interesting is that Garibaldi's situation led him back to the bottle and at his lowest, before he could climb out of the gutter. It was also interesting to watch both Sinclair and Ivanova try their best to help Garibaldi. The commander came to Garibaldi's rescue in a brief, yet rousing fight; while the latter was being beaten down by bounty hunters. And I found Ivanova's subtle, yet brief threat to Lianna, when the latter tried to enforce her authority in the station's Command and Control Center rather amusing. But in reality, there was very little they could do. It was Garibaldi who had to climb out of the bottle, do his own investigation and convince Lianna that he was an innocent man.

"Survivors" featured solid performances from the likes of Michael O'Hare, Claudia Christian, Richard Biggs, Tom Donaldson, David L. Crowley, Andreas Katsulas and Peter Jurasik. But the real stars of this episode were Jerry Doyle as Garibaldi and Elaine Thomas as Lianna Kemmer. At first, I was not that sure about Thomas. She seemed stiff and a little uncomfortable in her early scenes. But once her character's determination to hunt down Garibaldi became prominent, Thomas really grew into the role. And she did a marvelous job in her final scene. Jerry Doyle gave an outstanding performance as the increasingly besieged Garibaldi. Not only was he very effective in portraying his character's growing desperation to escape the situation he found himself in, Doyle was surprising effective in portraying Garibaldi's alcoholism. And I have noticed that portraying a drunken character does not seemed to be an easy thing to do.

I would never count "Survivors" as one of my favorite "BABYLON 5" episodes. I would not count it as one of my favorite Michael Garibaldi episodes. But I must admit that I have always managed to enjoy myself, while watching it. Unlike many other "BABYLON 5", I have never been put off or outraged over the show's portrayal of Garibaldi's alcoholism. It gave Jerry Doyle an opportunity to really strut his stuff. And show runner J. Michael Straczynski managed to reap narrative gold out of this character trait - not only in this episode but also in future ones.