History Recap / BabylonFiveS01E04Infection

'''Season 1, Episode 4''':

'''Season 1, Episode 4''':
!Infection

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: At one point Franklin indicates he's never heard of Interplanetary expeditions and can find no records. In later seasons the company's habit of poking around alien ruins (and activating things) became a recurrent pain in the neck for the command staff and it was well known enough that ads were common on InUniverse TV. Interplanetary Expeditions is described here as a front for a bio-weapons division of Earthforce New Technologies. All subsequent appearances portray it as a legitimate corporation, albeit not always making wise decisions, and even Captain Sheridan's late wife Anna, who was a person of principle, worked with them.

* TakeThat: Private corporations paying a shitload of money to get their hands on new technology to come front in a weapons race? And Earth Central confiscating all evidence at the end of the episode for the same goal? Doesn´t happen at all, does it?

* LostTechnology: The Ikarrans organic technology.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: At one point Franklin indicates he's never heard of Interplanetary expeditions and can find no records. In later seasons the company's habit of poking around alien ruins (and activating things) became a recurrent pain in the neck for the command staff and it was well known enough that ads were common on inUniverse TV. Interplanetary Expeditions is described here as a front for a bio-weapons division of Earthforce New Technologies. All subsequent appearances portray it as a legitimate corporation, albeit not always making wise decisions, and even Captain Sheridan's late wife Anna, who was a person of principle, worked with them.

What Franklin does not know is that the devices are being smuggled onto the station, and that some of them are beginning to activate. The man doing the smuggling, Nelson Drake, who has already killed a dockworker for trying to inspect his cargo is beginning to be affected by the devices.

It is the second anniversary since Babylon 5 became operational despite the doubts and the naysayers. A young reporter has come to the station to cover the event. Meanwhile, Doctor Franklin gets a visit from His old professor, Dr. Hendricks, who comes with an interesting offer. Via a company called Interplanetary Expeditions, he has acquired some old technology from a planet called Ikarra VII that he asks Franklin to scan, which reveals veins, capillaries, and traces of DNA. It is an [[OrganicTechnology organic device]], a level of technology only dreamed of by Earth scientists. He offers to bring Franklin in on the project which will surely put him in the history books.

Franklin examines the devices and finds a data cache. The information reveals that the battle suit that is controlling Nelson was created to protect the Ikarrans from foreign threats, so they programmed them to only accept commands from a "pure Ikarran". Unfortunately, the parameters of a "pure Ikarran" were defined by the coalition of {{General Ripper}}s and religious fanatics who ran Ikarra, with no input from anyone actually familiar with Ikarran biology, and as such were only fit for an ideal Ikarran that didn't even exist. As a result, the weapon would not accept commands from ''anyone'' and wound up destroying the entire population. In addition to the hardwired programming, the battle suit was also infused with the personality of its creator, Tu'lar.

Franklin examines the devices and finds a data cache. The information reveals that the battle suit that is controlling Nelson was created to protect the Ikarrans from foreign threats, so they programmed them to only accept commands from a "pure Ikarran". Unfortunately, the parameters of a "pure Ikarran" were defined by a coalition of {{General Ripper}}s and religious fanatics, and as such were only fit for an ideal Ikarran that didn't even exist. As a result, the weapon would not accept commands from ''anyone'' and wound up destroying the entire population. In addition to the hardwired programming, the battle suit was also infused with the personality of its creator, Tu'lar.

Franklin examines the devices and finds a data cache. The information reveals that the battle suit that is controlling Nelson was created to protect the Ikarrans from foreign threats, so they programmed them to only accept commands from a "pure Ikarran". Unfortunately, the parameters of a "pure Ikarran" were defined by religious fanatics, and were only fit for an ideal Ikarran that didn't even exist. As a result, the weapon would not accept commands from ''anyone'' and wound up destroying the entire population. In addition to the hardwired programming, the battle suit was also infused with the personality of its creator, Tu'lar.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness:
* At one point Franklin indicates he's never heard of Interplanetary expeditions and can find no records. In later seasons the company's habit of poking around alien ruins (and activating things) became a recurrent pain in the neck for the command staff and it was well known enough that ads were common on inUniverse TV. Interplanetary Expeditions is described here as a front for a bio-weapons division of Earthforce New Technologies. All subsequent appearances portray it as a legitimate corporation, albeit not always making wise decisions, and even Captain Sheridan's late wife Anna, who was a person of principle, worked with them.

** This episode was apparently influenced by the thought that they needed to make the show appeal to ''Franchise/StarTrek'' fans. Fortunately they abandoned that train of thought fairly quickly.
** At one point Franklin indicates he's never heard of Interplanetary expeditions and can find no records. In later seasons the company's habit of poking around alien ruins (and activating things) became a recurrent pain in the neck for the command staff and it was well known enough that ads were common on inUniverse TV. Interplanetary Expeditions is described here as a front for a bio-weapons division of Earthforce New Technologies. All subsequent appearances portray it as a legitimate corporation, albeit not always making wise decisions, and even Captain Sheridan's late wife Anna, who was a person of principle, worked with them.

* AliensSpeakingEnglish: While somewhat justified with the alien artifact due to it having taken over Nelson's body, it still bore the personality of an AbsoluteXenophobe, so it is still somewhat strange that it chose to speak an alien language, even before being directly addressed.

** Franklin says that no one is a "pure human". While no one is indeed "pure" when it comes to ethnic groups within the human species, other animals on Earth already have markers that clearly distinguish them from the humans, so an extraterrestrial species is bound to have some as well.

* AliensSpeakingEnglish: While somewhat justified due to the artifact having taken over Nelson's body, it still bore the personality of an AbsoluteXenophobe, so it is still somewhat strange that it chose to speak an alien language, even before being directly addressed.

* AliensSpeakingEnglish: While somewhat justified due to the artifact having taken over Nelson's body, it still bore the personality of an AbsoluteXenophobe, so it is still somewhat strange that it chose to spoke an alien language, even before being directly addressed.

* StockEpisodeTitles

** EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: This episode was apparently influenced by the thought that they needed to make the show appeal to ''Franchise/StarTrek'' fans. Fortunately they abandoned that train of thought fairly quickly.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness:
** This episode was apparently influenced by the thought that they needed to make the show appeal to ''Franchise/StarTrek'' fans. Fortunately they abandoned that train of thought fairly quickly. At one point Franklin indicates he's never heard of Interplanetary expeditions and can find no records. In later seasons the company's habit of poking around alien ruins (and activating things) became a recurrent pain in the neck for the command staff and it was well known enough that ads were common on inUniverse TV. Interplanetary Expeditions is described as a front for a bio-weapons division of Earthforce New Technologies. All subsequent appearances portray it as a legitimate corporation, albeit not always making wise decisions, and even Captain Sheridan's late wife Anna, who was a person of principle, worked with them.

** This episode was apparently influenced by the thought that they needed to make the show appeal to ''Franchise/StarTrek'' fans. Fortunately they abandoned that train of thought fairly quickly. At one point Franklin indicates he's never heard of Interplanetary expeditions and can find no records. In latter seasons the companies habit of poking around alien ruins (and activating things) became a recurrent pain in the neck for the command staff and it was well known enough that ads were common on inUniverse TV.
** Interplanetary Expeditions is described as a front for a bio-weapons division of Earthforce New Technologies. All subsequent appearances portray it as a legitimate corporation, albeit not always making wise decisions.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: This episode was apparently influenced by the thought that they needed to make the show appeal to ''Franchise/StarTrek'' fans. Fortunately they abandoned that train of thought fairly quickly. At one point Franklin indicates he's never heard of Interplanetary expeditions and can find no records. In latter seasons the companies habit of poking around alien ruins (and activating things) became a recurrent pain in the neck for the command staff and it was well known enough that ads were common on inUniverse TV.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: This episode was apparently influenced by the thought that they needed to make the show appeal to ''Franchise/StarTrek'' fans. Fortunately they abandoned that train of thought fairly quickly.

At one point Franklin indicates he's never heard of Interplanetary expeditions and can find no records. In latter seasons the companies habit of poking around alien ruins (and activating things) became a recurrent pain in the neck for the command staff and it was well known enough that ads were common on inUniverse TV.

* WarIsHell: The Ikarrans were invaded numerous times before they came up with the protectors. Garibaldi also discusses this with Sinclair, specifically the effect the Minbari War had on some people.

<<|Recap/BabylonFive|>>

** WordOfGod confirms that the war machine technology was left behind by the Shadows in the last war and scavenged by the Ikarrans.