Written by D.C. Fontana
Directed by Richard Compton
GUEST STARS
Tristan Rogers - Malcolm Biggs
Nancy Lee Grahn - Shaal Mayan
Micheal Paul Chan - Roberts
Rodney Eastman - Kiron Maray
Danica McKellar - Aria Tensus
WATCH OUT FOR
* The photographs of Londo's wives. At least two of the images of the women he refers to as "Pestilence, Famine and Death" are not those of the actresses who will subsequently fill these roles in the episode "Soul Mates".
ANALYSIS
J. Michael Straczynski understands that movements like the pro-Earth Home Guard succeed because they have the right pitch man. For all the power exerted by rabid zealots with bad comb-overs and a talent for cultivating the worst instincts of the species, it is people like Malcolm Biggs who deal the direct damage. They are the ones who put a pretty face on hate.
Why should hate be any different than any other commodity? If we rush to consume the "right" sneaker, soft drink or sport utility vehicle because the right (read: attractive) person tells us it will make us part of the right crowd, why wouldn't we respond in the same way (he asked at the height of election season) when the commodity in question is ideological rather than material?
You don't need any special equipment to hate. As the character Roberts demonstrates in this episode, all you really need is dissatisfaction with the course of your own life and a willingness to lay the blame for your lack of fulfillment at the feet of an easily identifiable person or group.
That's why haters are so hard to identify. When they step out from behind their white sheets or technologically-generated shadows they usually have the benefit of the most impenetrable camouflage of all: the look of absolute normalcy.
The enemy of my enemy
If it's possible for something good to come out of hate, then it is this: almost nothing brings people together better than a common enemy.
The pro-Earth violence of "The War Prayer" unites Babylon 5's disparate alien populations for the first time. In the context of the episode, this is a minor plot point. In terms of the larger story, this quiet union paves the way for the cooperation between the races during the Shadow War and beyond.
Who wrote the book of love? Not Londo
For all that he appears to have forgotten what it's like to be young, it's still surprising that Londo would be so unsympathetic to Kiron and Aria's love for one another. He should have more romantic sentiment in the wake of his encounter with Adira in "Born to the Purple".
Perhaps his tryst in that prior episode lies at the root of his protestations about tradition and the individual's duty in Centauri society. It may be that having tasted and - for the time being at least - deferred true love, he is reluctant to see anyone else enjoying that degree of happiness.
After all, misery loves company, even if misery has to create that company by sheer mule headedness.
COMING UP NEXT
"Twinkle, twinkle Jeff Sinclair
War hero beyond compare
There's a hole within your mind
About what happened on the Line."
Questions get answers, which in turn beg fresh questions in "And the Sky Full of Stars"'
advertisement
