Minbari Mondays, Eyes, and Honor as Health

This is the continuation of our fictional letter (reviewing each film and episode of Babylon 5) that I receive each week from Ranger Mayann.

Here is her 18th report:

—

Nih sakh sh’lekk, sleem wa, Greetings from Tuzanor:

In this report, in your Earth year 2258, it is just past the middle of the second year of operation of the station. The Anla’Shok have ‘borrowed’ part of the official EarthForce archives, given the importance of Ivanova to our order, for this report.

An  inspector from someone in your EarthForce arrives on the station with, as you Humans say, an axe to grind.  We find this incident to be especially important to the Anla’Shok due to the way it pushed Lt. Commander Ivanova to grow in her dealings with those able to see into another person’s mind, and with those unable to see the honor of another.  We Minbari take particular pride in her willingness to serve with us, when insulted by your own Human officers, by her own EarthForce.  Commander Sinclair again shows his wisdom in reading the fine print of the regulations and also in showing the liaison telepath that no one is above suspicion.

From the city of  Tuzanor, on Minbar

Earth year 2278,

Anla’Shok Mayann

–

  Addendum to Ranger Mayann’s report, by Shira: Excellent Ivanova quotes!

“Mr. Gray … As for fear, if you enter my mind for any reason I will twist your head off and use it for a chamber pot.   “

Beautiful use of “fear,” Lt. Commander!  Even Mr. Garibaldi fears a fight with her, wanting “to live to see the future!”

And then there is the

“very Russian ending”

of her career, or so, at that point in the episode, Ivanova fears.  Commander Sinclair, obviously, figures out a way around the problem, saving both of their careers.

I also love the use of historical names, like naming the ship the Von Braun, and the allusion to Anne Frank, in the name of the admittedly over-the-top villain of this episode.  I’ve never been comfortable watching most of the scenes with this guy, and it feels vaguely unsettling, in some of the implications, but it is still a good episode.

That was part of Ranger Mayann’s letter on the history of the Babylon Project. It can be seen from another point of view by watching the Babylon 5 Season 1, Episode 16, which I  highly recommend seeing!! 

Neatnik has a more standard type of review of this episode, with summary and all.  Don’t forget to come back and do the Action Items below!

 

See Ranger Mayann’s report from last week on Seeking, and next week on preparing Our Future, kids as our Legacies

To see all of her reports as an on-going PDF version: B5EpsThr10.

-Shira Destinie

Action Items:

1.)  Share your thoughts on the many ideas of Honor.

2.) Share your thoughts on how we Human Beings might start to build a more fully inclusive society for all of us, and how this episode of Babylon 5 could help that process.

3.) Write a story, post or tweet that uses these thoughts.

Dear Readers, ideas on learning, especially multiple #LanguageLearning, on-going education and empathy-building, to #EndPoverty, #EndHomelessness,  #EndMoneyBail & achieve freedom for All HumanKind?

Support our key #PublicDomainInfrastructure  & #StopSmoking for CCOVID-19:
1. #PublicLibraries,
2. #ProBono legal aid and Education,
3. #UniversalHealthCare, and
4. good #publictransport
Read, Write, Vote, Teach and Learn (Lesson Plan Book)! 

Nih sakh sh’lekk, sleem wa.

and my Babylon 5 review posts, if you like Science Fiction,

and

a proposed Vision on Wondering Wednesdays: for a kinder world…

   

Shira Destinie A. Jones, BsC, MAT, MPhil

our year 2021 CE =  12021 HE

(Day 1 … Day 5)

Stayed on Freedom’s Call
(free copies at: https://archive.org/details/StayedOnF…)
includes two ‘imagination-rich’ walking tours, with songs, of Washington, DC. New interviews and research are woven into stories of old struggles shared by both the Jewish and African-American communities in the capital city.

Shared histories are explored from a new perspective of cultural parallels and parallel institution-building which brought the two communities together culturally and historically.

-one can add Stayed on Freedom’s Call for free via this GoodReads link. Please leave a review, if you can make a bit of time, on the GoodReads page.

 

Shira Destinie Jones is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.