Introduction

Welcome to the first segment of “Dre fixes it with a Nerd Solution,” a piece where I find a nitpick in a piece of fiction – often a nitpick created by myself – and find a way to fix it narratively.

In a weird twist of fate, Evynne is the mastermind behind the first fix! Evynne is a musician, artist, and comic writer, and the most recent guest on “You Gotta Check This Out with Mike and Dre”. Evynne has a great YouTube channel — @EvynnexEvynne— where she provides insightful analysis on anime, among other topics.

We are currently in the middle of discussing Babylon 5 season 1, and Evynne was an amazing guest on the final episode of season 1: Chrysalis. And as an unexpected bonus, Evynne fixed not just one, but two of my nits!

Fixer!

The Nitpick

“The Down Below lurkers all look like they’re in theater costumes. And wait, that one down below guy is supposed to be a powerful telepath, what gives?”

Newsie Lurkers

Show Context - The United Nations Airport

Babylon 5 is a TV show about a giant space station that houses the future equivalent of a United Nations, but for alien species.

Council Room

Additionally, Babylon 5 serves as both a port for transport and cargo, requiring housing for its staff and travelers. It is, essentially, a giant intergalactic airport and motel.

Babylon 5 is supposed to be more grounded than, say, Star Trek, so budget and logistical concerns are regular topics. It follows that any space station would need to serve multiple purposes to justify the expense.

Show Context - Down Below

Babylon 5 introduces “Down Below,” which is essentially a giant homeless section of the station. The premise is that many might have traveled to Babylon 5 expecting to find work elsewhere or a means to travel elsewhere. But then, for whatever reason, they ran out of money and had to stay on Babylon 5 and couldn’t afford lodging. So they live in a section of the station with no value, and over time, it has been named “Down Below.” And the inhabitants are referred to as “lurkers.”

Show Context - The Informant

Informer!

As part of this episode, a lurker, named in the credits as “Lurker #2,” reveals that many lurkers take on work to survive. It can sometimes be unsavory and criminal. And as such, a character named Deverauex is killed early in the episode, and while dying says - “They’re going to kill the …” and dies without revealing who. “Lurker #2” has a lot of needed information, but, as I’ll discuss below, due to casting, it feels that his backstory is a bit questionable. But don’t worry, Evynne fixes that!

External Context - Fiction matches Reality!

Before we get into the “in-universe” explanation, let’s take a step back. Babylon 5 was the brainchild of J. Michael Straczynski. He pitched it to multiple places, including Paramount. Paramount took the idea and made Deep Space 9, without JMS—a major bummer.

However, JMS convinced Warner Bros. with the new (at the time) and now defunct PTEN network to greenlight the show. However, the show had a much smaller budget. As such, B5 had to do many creative things. It was filmed in an area that was previously a hot tub warehouse. Individual rooms could be redressed to serve multiple purposes. Captain’s chamber? Sure. Council room? Why not! A random interrogation room, if the plot needed it? Go for it! The process for making B5 was theatrical in nature but necessary!

Reusing actors even within the same scene was another technique. In one episode, many people are arriving from a transport. JMS has 10 people in intricate makeup for the scene. So, after 10 people got off the transport? Well, the same 10 people kept getting off the transport by walking around the perimeter of the set. Again, cost-cutting by necessity. And spoiler alert for the YGCTO show, we may talk about that episode in the future!

So, noticing that specific costumes might look as if they are from a stage production? Or noticing certain actors are used multiple times? It’s honestly just me being a nerd! The slight defense is in researching for the podcast and listening to the director’s commentaries from JMS; he will notice many of the same issues. And as he’ll admit, they take very little away from a fantastic work of science fiction.

But, thanks to Evynne, we can have our cake and eat it too! The required theatrical shortcuts to afford the show also make sense in the show’s universe. Here we go!

The Fix Part 1 - Lurkers are Theater Kids

Alright, as a running joke on a podcast, I made fun of the costumes in “Down Below,” saying they didn’t look like those of homeless people, but rather like those of people in a stage production portraying homeless individuals.

But wait, what if they are? Evynne quickly noted on the podcast, “Oh, the people down below probably are theater kids!” and she’s right! The story we’re given for “Down Below” is of travelers who run out of money. In the modern world, aspiring actors travel to New York and Los Angeles in search of work, only to be turned down repeatedly and end up in subpar housing, taking on other jobs to make ends meet. Of course, the same would be true in the future!

And it gets better, it is expensive to transport things, both in the real world and as the B5 Universe tells us, in space. An aspiring actor wouldn’t have a lot of room for “real” clothes; they’d bring their costumes and outfits that they’d expect to wear for gigs and auditions. And if they got stuck on B5 with no shows and limited money? Well, their stage clothes would become their laundry clothes. And, for folks lucky enough to leave, we’d imagine their hand-me-down stage clothes would stay on B5.

So, trying to insult the stellar costume department of Babylon 5, even as a joke on a podcast? Nope, it makes complete sense in lore. Thanks, Evynne!

Evynne’s not done!

The Fix Part 2 - Lurker #2 is Dr. Strange

Gianin Loffler plays “Lurker #2”, who stars as “the guy unloading boxes who knows way too much information”… for those that get the John Mulaney reference.

He tells Garibaldi all about Petrov and why Devereaux was shot. And that’s fine, except he returns a season later – as “Lurker”, a promotion! – and plays a super-powerful telepath that was experimented on by the Psi-Corps and is now laying low on Babylon 5! Wait a minute, I said in a nitpick. Wouldn’t he know even more information than he gave?

This “plothole” doesn’t need much of a fix. As noted, B5 frequently reused actors. Often it was in different makeup or costumes, but that doesn’t matter. Additionally on the podcast, Mike gave a very sensible note - as a telepath on the run, he’d want to keep a low profile. So he’d like to avoid using any mental powers to keep from alerting other telepaths on the station. In the future episode he appears in, he’s even training telepaths on how to block out thoughts. So, case closed, we can move on.

Wrong! Evynne has a fix that blows Mike’s “logical but boring” point out of the water!

In Babylon 5, we have both the concept of prophets and of the multiverse. Primarily, with the Centauri, we have characters who can see the future, but caveat it with “this is a possible future.”

We don’t see much of this with humans, but Loffler’s story is that he was experimented on. And maybe he becomes a prophet. And, what if, much like Dr. Strange, he realizes that Garibaldi failing to stop the plot going on in this episode and getting shot is the only way we get “the correct outcome?”

The prior Centauri prophets I mentioned saw visions of Babylon 5 being destroyed. And thanks to cinematic liberties, we even have scenes in the show of Commander Ivanova, Babylon 5’s second in command, pleading for help in fiery wreckage.

A bad future!

Of course this is a future our heroes want to avoid, and maybe just maybe Lurker #2 is trying to help.

In regards to fortune telling, typically humans don’t come up. But other races like the Centauri and – redacted to avoid spoilers for future seasons – do! Lurker #2’s story in the upcoming episode is he was experimented on and became a super powerful telepath. Maybe he also got future vision abilities too! And yeah, a psychic character realizing the only way to win after analyzing lots of multiverses is to let the bad guy win? Well? Spoiler!

Dr. Strange's got one shot and a lot of spaghetti

Ok, we’re at the end! Thanks, Evynne, for fixing the nitpicks of an overly analytical nerd! And rest assured, I have more nitpicks, more fixes, and more podcast guests that do all the hard work for me!

-Dre