Plot Synopsis:
Deathwalker: When Jha'dur, the last of the Dilgar and a notorious war criminal, arrives on Babylon 5, controversy immediately erupts.
Na'Toth, for her part, beats the living daylights out of Jha'dur in the docking bay upon the Dilgar's arrival; this she does to satisfy the blood oath she and her family members swore after Jha'dur experimented on Na'Toth's grandfather. Garibaldi's forces apprehend Na'Toth, but on Sinclair's order, Na'Toth is ultimately placed under house arrest in G'Kar's quarters. There, G'Kar counsels Na'Toth to hold off on fulfilling her oath for a time. As it turns out, Jha'dur has made an important discovery that has piqued the interest of the Narn government.
And the Narn are not the only people who want access to Jha'dur's scientific knowledge. Shortly after Na'Toth's attack on Jha'dur, Senator Hidoshi of the Earth Alliance contacts Sinclair and orders the commander to send Jha'dur to Earth as soon as she is well enough to travel. Sinclair protests, pointing out the evidence that their guest is none other than the infamous "Deathwalker," a criminal responsible for the deaths of millions during the Dilgar invasions of the Non-Aligned Worlds thirty years ago, but Hidoshi will hear nothing of it -- his order is final.
Sinclair goes to visit Jha'dur in the Med Lab, and it is here that we discover the reason for the EA's interest: Jha'dur has apparently developed a serum that combats the aging process and fights disease -- a ticket to virtual immortality. It pains him to do it, but on the faint hope that Jha'dur's discovery will make up for the lives she took, Sinclair decides to follow his orders from Earth Central (over Garibaldi's strenuous objections) and prepares to release Jha'dur.
G'Kar gets wind of this plan, however, and throws up a road block: he contacts Ambassador Kalika, a spokeswoman for the League of Non-Aligned Worlds, and informs her of "Deathwalker's" presence on the station. Kalika and the other representatives of the League subsequently confront Sinclair before he can successfully escort Jha'dur to her ship and demand that a meeting of the Babylon 5 Council be called immediately to vote on whether or not Jha'dur should be tried for war crimes. Kalika informs Sinclair that the League will not let him pass until he agrees to this arrangement ("You will have to kill us all first.").
At the Council, the vote does not go in the League's favor. The Centauri vote "No" (likely because the Dilgar served as mercenaries for the Centauri). G'Kar votes "Yes" on the condition that Jha'dur be tried on Narn (that tricky bastard!), but when Kalika declares this proposal unacceptable (because the Narn also had - and have - ties with the Dilgar), he switches his vote to "No". Sinclair votes "Yes." At this point, the deciding vote falls to Lennier, who is acting in Delenn's stead; Lennier reluctantly votes "No." When the members of the League leave in disgust, Lennier admits to Sinclair that Jha'dur has indeed been shielded by the Wind Swords, a military faction of the Minbari warrior caste, for many years.
The situation deteriorates rapidly. Battleships from the member worlds of the League start arriving in force, all of them threatening to attack the station if Jha'dur is not extradited immediately. To resolve matters, Sinclair tells Kalika of Jha'dur's anti-aging serum and suggests a compromise: a coalition of League scientists will be allowed to work with Jha'dur and the EA scientists on mass production of the serum, after which the League will be given custody of Jha'dur. Kalika agrees to this proposal.
Jha'dur is escorted to her ship -- but before she leaves, she informs Sinclair that her serum depends on an ingredient that can only be taken from a living person. The upshot: in order for one person to live forever, another must die. Sinclair refuses to believe this and sends Jha'dur on her way. But before Jha'dur's ship can make it to the jumpgate, it is destroyed by the Vorlons. "You are not ready for immortality," Kosh intones.
And Speaking of Kosh: There is also a side plot in which Kosh uses a "Vicker" - a being who is half-man and half machine - to record Talia's thoughts and feelings. The reason for this remains unexplained.
Overall: 6.8 - This episode is eerily relevant in this day and age -- but it is a little lacking when it comes to historical awareness.
Writing: 6
Have we as 21st century patients benefited from the crimes of men of ill repute? You bet! The history of medical science is not characterized by virtue. Medical researchers have robbed graves, tortured their research subjects both physically and emotionally, withheld treatment to "see what happens" -- you name it, and I can probably find a physician or researcher who's done it. It is this history that makes this episode thematically interesting - but astonishingly, it is never once discussed. This is just one indication that the writer didn't really do his homework before putting pen to paper.
The other indication, of course, is in the characterization of Jha'dur, who comes across as a simplified version of a pop-culture Nazi -- in other words, someone far too evil to be credible. True Nazis were pretty ordinary. They - like many in the intellectual class of the era - believed in the promise of Science (in particular, race theory and eugenics); they are unique only because they worked to bring about that promise with horrifying industrial efficiency. I don't imagine the Nazis were cackling while executing their Final Solution; I imagine they spent their workdays gassing Jews and Poles and their evenings at home with their wives. The upshot: Jha'dur would've been a far more fascinating figure if she were portrayed as wholly banal.
Acting: 7
This episode features more excellent work from Julie Caitlin Brown, otherwise known as the True Na'Toth. Unfortunately, it is offset by Sarah Douglas' overwrought performance as Jha'dur. Perhaps it's unfair to judge - it is difficult to tell where the writing stops and the acting begins, after all - but the cackling and overweening arrogance Douglas brings to her role are really just too much.
Message: 7.5
I'm giving this episode positive points for its creepy relevance. No doubt the writer was thinking of the work of Nazi physicians in the concentration camps when he originally penned this episode, but watching it tonight, I couldn't help but be reminded of those current-day researchers who are eager to exploit embryonic stem cells to, yes, arrest the aging process and fight disease. This episode is happening now, folks. We may in fact be headed for an era in which some human beings - our tiniest, most vulnerable brothers and sisters - are sacrificed for the benefit of other human beings. "You will become us," indeed.
I suppose the only thing that was missing from this episode - a deficiency that contributes to this episode's less-than-superior score on the message rubric - was at least one voice representing traditional morality. Everyone here seems to be operating on a utilitarian calculus; Sinclair even states that wide distribution of Jha'dur's serum will save more lives than Jha'dur has taken and therefore result in a positive balance. Disappointingly, while many point out that Jha'dur deserves her just punishment, no one actually comes out and says what I was thinking, namely: you can't add or subtract with infinity. If you destroy even one life, saving five, ten, or a million others will not make up for it.
Highlights:
GARIBALDI: This woman made the Durian Massacres look like a church picnic -- and now Earth wants to give her a grant?
IVANOVA: Justice or immortality? An intriguing choice.
GARIBALDI: There is no choice. Jha'dur infected the entire population of Latig 4 with Stafford's Plague just to see how long it'd take them all to die. She wiped out entire races, destroyed whole planets, experimented on living beings -- and now she wants to make everybody immortal?
SINCLAIR: You still haven't explained why you want to help the same people you butchered thirty years ago.
JHA'DUR: My race is gone -- their names cursed in history. Even my homeworld no longer exists. I am the last of the Dilgar -- but my discovery will ensure that the galaxy remembers us with honor. It will be a monument to our vision.
SINCLAIR: A monument? That's what you're after?
JHA'DUR: Delicious irony, don't you think, that those who cursed us will have to thank us for the rest of time?
LENNIER: I am sorry, Commander. I have caused this evil woman to escape her just fate.
SINCLAIR: The Wind Swords did shelter her, didn't they -- and your government knew about it.
LENNIER: No. Not at first. When we went to war with Earth, the Wind Swords came to the Council with weapons - terrible weapons - created by this monster. That's when the Council first learned she was with them. Of course, we could not reveal it then -- and like all secrets long kept, we cannot bear the shame of admitting it now.
JHA'DUR: You and the rest of your kind take comfort in the belief that we are monsters - that you could never do what we did. The key ingredient in the anti-agapic cannot be synthesized; it must be taken from living beings. For one to live forever, another one must die. You will fall upon one another like wolves. It will make what we did pale by comparison. The billions who live forever will be a testimony to my work -- and the billions who will be murdered to buy that immortality will be the continuance of my work. Not like us? You will become us.
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