Bester, the telepathic Snidely Whiplash, arrives in pursuit of a fugitive from a Psi Corps experiment.

Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Bruce Seth Green

GUEST STARS

William Allen Young - Jason Ironheart
Felicity Waterman - Kelsey
Julia Nickson - Catherine Sakai
Walter Koenig - Alfred Bester

* Sinclair's mention of a budget meeting with the construction guild. Budget cuts and labor relations will play a central role in the upcoming episode "By Any Means Necessary".

ANALYSIS

This episode neatly encapsulates Babylon 5's place in the universe.

On one side you have the problems back home. On the other are the beings that walk the universe -- the "giants in the playground" -- to whom most sentient life are as insects.

These, then, are the rock and the hard place that will continue to close in on the station as the series unfolds.

A psi is just a psi

First impressions are difficult things. They aren't always accurate, but they tend to be definitive. In the case of the Psi Corps, however, the first impression is right on the mark.

Bester and his ilk start out rotten to the core - arrogant, manipulative and self-righteous -- and they don't get much better from here.

To be fair, Bester isn't given much of a chance. Ivanova's antipathy toward the Corps is not unique; no one in the command structure appears to trust, or even like, psi cops.

If Ironheart is correct -- and future episodes will prove that he is -- the Corps is starting to pull the strings behind EarthGov. From this perspective, a lack of trust isn't simply a response to the psi organization's reputation; it becomes a crucial survival skill.

Genie in a bottle

Jason Ironheart's telepathic ascension prefigures Lyta Alexander's later alteration by the Vorlons. From what we see of her ordeal, the process is neither easy nor terribly gentle.

Without the Vorlon benefit of a million years' experience meddling with lesser species, how much nastier must Ironheart's upgrade have been? Trust Psi Corps to be efficient, so it is doubtful that he was the only test subject. At best, he was probably the only test subject who survived.

COMING UP NEXT

"And the Sky Full of Stars". This one's for the ladies. When the growing unrest on Earth reaches B5, Tristan Rogers, (better known as studmuffin Robert Scorpio to all you General Hospital fans), smarms his way aboard.