Mind War

Episode 7 “Mind War” (Season 1, Episode 6)

Synopsis: In which a powerful telepath is pursued by other powerful telepaths, and decides the station is a great place to hide.  We learn more than we bargained for about how telepaths operate in the B5 universe. And G’Kar demonstrates his skill at the long game.

Thanks to special guest Bill Lynch!

[Chris] Okay, time to get nerdy here (says the man with a Babylon 5 podcast) - I’ve been doing tabletop roleplaying games for about 37 years now. Bill and Jon are two of the best story tellers and world-builders I’ve ever known. They excel at long-term stories with a slow build and lots of deep character development. So of course Bill was a natural to invite in as a guest host at some point. But I had no idea he was also a huge B5 fan until we started this project! Great to have you on, Bill!

Jason Ironheart was played by William Allen Young, and while he may not be a character actor with credits stretching back to the 60s, he was on an episode of Renegade in the 90s and that’s just as good. He’s currently on the CBS show Code Black.

Watchmen was a 12 issue comic book series written by Alan Moore, released in 1986-1987. It was later made into an acceptable movie by Zach Snyder. In it one of the characters, Jon Osterman/Doctor Manhattan, is in an accident with an “Intrinsic Field Subtractor” which gives him godlike powers, including being able to manipulate matter at the atomic level, while distancing him from his humanity. At the end of the story he leaves Earth to explore the universe and perhaps create new life. Am I crazy here?

Psychic abilities in media: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PsychicPowers. What Jason has developed may be closer to the Reality Warper level (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RealityWarper), which was in fact pretty prevalent before 1993. How did I forget Charlie X!

My “elbow sex” joke didn’t get nearly the laughs it deserved. https://m.popkey.co/6ea98a/pJbav.gif

The Psi Corps were definitely inspired by the novel The Demolished Man by (wait for it) Alfred Bester.

The Zhodani from Traveller: http://wiki.travellerrpg.com/Zhodani

The episode Bill references where technology is used to mind probe Sinclair is “And the Sky Full of Stars,” two episodes from now. Stay tuned!

The aliens of SIgma-957, who are completely NOT Shadows. In related news, I am an idiot. http://babylon5.wikia.com/wiki/Walkers_of_Sigma-957

The NSA’s PRISM project, intercepting and collecting internet data. Note the ominous eye logo (“Be seeing you!”) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRISM_(surveillance_program)

Can’t go a week without referring to the Lurker’s Guide: http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/countries/us/guide/006.html This was where I read that JMS wanted Patrick MacGoohan for “And the Sky Full of Stars.”