Infection (''Babylon 5'')

"Infection" is an episode from the first season of the science fiction television series Babylon 5.

Synopsis

Dr. Vance Hendricks, a former colleague of Dr. Franklin, visits him while he is checking on the cause of recent death of a Babylon 5 customs worker. Hendricks tells Franklin that while excavating the long-dead planet Ikarra VII for the corporation Interplanetary Expeditions, they had come across some artifacts that they determined were organic in nature, and something that humanity has been trying to develop themselves. Hendricks has Nelson, his assistant, bring the artifacts in, but Franklin expresses concern that they have not been properly put through quarantine; Hendricks assures him that they were processed prior to arriving on the station. As Nelson prepares the artifacts for examination, one of them hits him with an energy surge. Over the next several hours, his body starts transforming, and unseen by the others, takes one of the devices and attaches it to himself.

The station staff, still investigating the sudden death of the customs worker, start to detect energy spikes on the station. Franklin and Hendricks realize that the Ikarra artifacts have infected Nelson and are transforming him into a weapon. Franklin studies the remaining artifacts to learn that the Ikarran people had developed these bio-weapons to fend off invaders to their planets, telling them protect the planet from anyone that was not a "pure" Ikarran. While the weapons held off the invaders, this instruction caused the weapons to turn on the Ikarrans since there was no such thing as a "pure" Ikarran. Nelson has now been transformed into one of these weapons, and will rampage through Babylon 5, gaining power over time.

Franklin explains the situation to Sinclair while the station is being put into lockdown. Sinclair decides to face the weapon alone, explaining how they had wiped out their creators because they could not determine was a pure Ikarran was. The weapon pulls off the device from its armor and crushes it before collapsing, returning Nelson back to normal. Back in medbay, Franklin assures Nelson is fine, but confronts Hendricks knowing that he had instructed Nelson to smuggle the Ikarra artifacts aboard; it was Nelson's intent to kill the customs worker that allowed the Ikarran artifacts to take over his body. Hendricks is arrested, while EarthForce arrives to confiscate the weapons for their Bioweapons Division.

Arc significance

• "Infection" marks the first mention of Interplanetary Expeditions, or IPX, an archaeological research corporation with ties to secret government projects and weapons research. The company is featured prominently in the third-season episode "Messages from Earth."
• Franklin, though having gone to medical school to be a xenobiologist and surgeon, showed that he always had a fascination with alien culture and history. This reflects back on his history as an interstellar hitchhiker as well as his interactions in later stories, such as those with his father and the Hyach, to eventually succeeding Dr. Kyle as head of xenobiological research at Earthdome.
• Garibaldi has been fired from 5 different jobs for "unspecified personal problems" (later revealed to be his alcoholism). His assignment on Babylon 5 is probably his last shot in Earth Force.
• The Vorlons have technology based on organic systems, and there is a strong hint that the Minbari do as well.
• Towards the end of the episode, Garibaldi comments on Sinclair's rash bravery, which seemed common among veterans of the Earth-Minbari War. He notes, "I think they're looking for something worth dying for because it's easier than finding something worth living for." This line of thinking is repeated by Lorien in the Season 4 episode Whatever Happened to Mr. Garibaldi?
• Plays into the theme of "purity". This is the first of several instances in the show where people - either a group, a nation, or an entire species - doom themselves and others by embracing and advancing political, social, religious, or even genetic purity (i.e., the Markab, the Hyach, the Homeguard, the Night Watch / Ministry of Peace, et. al.).

Production details

• "Infection" was the first regular episode of Babylon 5 to be filmed. Coincidentally, guest star Marshall R. Teague also appeared in "Objects at Rest", the final episode of the series to be filmed, in which he played Ta'Lon.
• A reference to Star Trek technical consultant Michael Okuda can be seen when a medical scan of the alien artefact shows "Okudazin" as one of the contents. Okuda himself inserted many in jokes into the LCARS computer displays for Star Trek referencing other science fiction franchises.

Notes

• This episode is often cited as the weakest episode of the series.

Memorable quotes

• You forgot the first rule of a fanatic: when you become obsessed with the enemy, you become the enemy. - Michael O'Hare as "Jeffrey Sinclair"

External links

• Infection at The Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5
• Infection at Babylon 5 Episode Guide