####Overview

An archaeologist smuggles ancient artifacts onto the station, unleashing a living weapon.
####Guest Stars

David McCallum as Dr. Vance Hendricks. Marshall Teague as Nelson Drake.
####Lurk

http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/synops/004.html
####Backplot

Ikarra 7, now a dead world, was a thousand years ago home to a highly advanced space-faring society. Their technology was organic: tools and artifacts made of living tissue yet immune to decay. Invaded over a dozen times, they finally built 12 devastating organic warriors to protect them. Programmed to destroy any but “pure Ikarrans”, those warriors repelled the last invasion and went on to kill any Ikarran who deviated from the ideal (ie all of them). A transcript of the scene in which this is discussed is available.

Organic technology is, according to archaeologist Vance Hendricks, “The one trick Earth hasn’t been able to crack. The ability to create living ships that thrive in the vacuum of space, to create weapons that produce their own power through internal generation, like a firefly lights up at night.”

The Vorlons have organic technology, and it’s suspected that the Minbari do as well.

Sinclair: “The last time I gave an interview they told me just to relax and say what I really felt – ten minutes after the broadcast I got transferred to an outpost so far off the star maps you couldn’t find it with a hunting dog and a Ouija board.” It’s not clear whether or not this was a joke.

Garibaldi: (to the reporter) “…and after walking 50 miles, we finally made it out of the desert. Later when he was put in charge of Babylon 5, Commander Sinclair asked if I’d come work security. I said yes – it’s been a great time…”

Garibaldi has been fired from 5 different jobs for “unspecified personal problems”. His assignment on Babylon 5 is probably his last shot in Earth Force.

Garibaldi was in Earth Force during the E/M war, but not on the Line.
####Unanswered Questions

Who invaded Ikarra so many times? What was so valuable about it?

Why is Sinclair so prone to heroism (read: suicidal bravery)? He’s deliberately put his life on the line three times now in the past year (cf [[The Gathering]], [[Soul Hunter]]). Garibaldi suggests an answer: when the war ended it took away the direction it gave his life, as happened to many veterans. So now he’s “looking for something worth dying for because it’s easier than finding something worth living for.” Sinclair’s not entirely satisfied with that answer, and resolves to give it more thought.
####Analysis

A “Bio-weapons” supplier backed Hendricks’ original expedition to Ikarra – they must have had advance information about what was to be found there.

Ivanova has little faith in the ethics of big government organizations (cf [[Mind War]], [[Deathwalker]]).

Franklin appeared to seriously ponder the image of great wealth Hendricks offered, before the guards took him away.

A team from Earth Force Defense, Bio-weapons Division confiscated the Ikarran artifacts just as the dust from the weapon-chase was settling. Earth now has bio-tech of its own to study.
####Notes

Garibaldi: “The commander’s a hands-on kind of guy, he’ll grab any chance he can get to take out a ship – he’s like that.”

This episode occurs right around the 2nd anniversary of Babylon 5 going on-line.

In a poll, 75% of “Interstellar Network News” said B5 wouldn’t last 5 minutes. Lloyd’s of London put the odds at 500 to 1 against it lasting one year.

The “Narn-Centauri negotiations” are to occur in the near future.

Sinclair: “How sharper than a serpent’s tooth.” (His reply to Garibaldi’s joking guess that Sinclair’s interview would get him shipped off the station and himself promoted into Sinclair’s position.) This is a quote from Shakespeare (King Lear.)

Dr. Hendricks says to Franklin, “There’s a Martian war machine outside, and it wants to speak to you about the common cold.” That’s a reference to H. G. Wells’ “The War of the Worlds,” in which the Martian invaders are killed by common microbes.

Sinclair: “When you become obsessed with the enemy, you become the enemy.”

At the last, the Ikarran begs forgiveness from the “Great Maker”.

Franklin: “I’m starting to wonder if what we just saw is a preview of things to come” (re: Pro-earth groups).

Ikarra may be an Australian Aboriginal word.

The Australian DSTO (Defence Sciences and Technology Organisation) developed the anti-submarine weapon “Ikara” in the 1950’s. It is no longer in use in the Australian Navy, having been fired for the last time in 1990. The Brazilian Navy may still use a variation of it.

Since the DSTO has a tradition of naming its products after warlike Aboriginal animals, it’s plausible that the word refers to an animal.

A slight visual gaffe: When the bioweapon self-destructs and falls to the ground, its head is facing to the left (away from the camera.) But when Sinclair watches him turn human again, Nelson’s head is facing to the right (toward the camera.)
####The Interview

Reporter: “After all that you’ve just gone through, I have to ask you the same question a lot of people back home are asking about space these days. Is it worth it? Should we just pull back, forget the whole thing as a bad idea, and take care of our own problems, at home?”

Sinclair: “No. We have to stay here, and there’s a simple reason why. Ask ten different scientists about the environment, population control, genetics – and you’ll get ten different answers. But there’s one thing every scientist on the planet agrees on: whether it happens in a hundred years, or a thousand years, or a million years, eventually our sun will grow cold, and go out. When that happens, it won’t just take us, it’ll take Marilyn Monroe, and Lao-tsu, Einstein, Maruputo, Buddy Holly, Aristophanes – all of this. All of this was for nothing, unless we go to the stars.”