B5 Watchthrough: The Quality of Mercy

[ariela]

The Quality of Mercy is actually not a bad episode. It's considerably higher-quality than most of S1, in terms of writing, production, and guest-star acting. It departs from the standard S1 formula of A-story and B-story for a more sophisticated 3-part structure, braiding together plotlines involving a serial killer sentenced to Earthgov's version of the death penalty, a doctor who's discovered an alien machine that can suck life from one living thing in order to heal another, and Londo taking Lennier under his wing to show him the "real" Babylon 5. 

But it still doesn't feel essential in its entirety. The machine will return later, as will the "death of personality" penalty (more poignantly, and it'll be explained again there, so it's not hugely important to learn about it here). There's some good character development for Londo and Lennier, and some more insight into the role of telepaths in Earth society. 

So if you've been enjoying B5 so far, this isn't a bad one to watch in full. I'm not sure I can put my finger on what makes me so lukewarm on it. 

Maybe it's because even though the "death of personality" concept will return and be the basis of a pretty good episode, I find it just... stupid. The conceit is that instead of executing people, the punishment in a capital case is now that a telepath wipes your mind, constructs a new, docile personality, and then this new personality is set to work performing menial labor to serve society. 

The idea that human bodies are basically hardware on which our personality software runs isn't unique to Babylon 5, obviously. The idea that you could erase a personality and implant a new one is the basis of the Joss Whedon series Dollhouse and the scifi noir Altered Carbon, and the idea that memories are what make a person is key to a lot of scifi that posits immortality via upload. There's a lot of science out there that demonstrates that the body-mind/hardware-software comparison is a bad one, but it's easy to understand why the idea of personalities as replaceable is so fascinating, given our military research into brainwashing, our prevalence of cults--and even, perhaps, our epidemic of sudden religious conversions. (As far as I know, the 1978 book Snapping: America's Epidemic of Sudden Personality Changes hasn't been debunked.) But as we've learned, a lot of those sudden personality changes aren't replacements of an old personality with a new one, but a change in emphasis.

In any case, accepting the paradigms B5 puts forward around this, that it is possible (although not foolproof, as we'll see later), it doesn't make any sense. Like, look, I'm not going to defend our judicial system, but at least, on its face, it's designed to punish the person it believes--or at least claims--is guilty.

I'm not sure who the "death of personality" is supposed to benefit. If what's "installed" in the perpetrator's body is actually a new personality, someone who didn't commit the crime, then forcing them to spend their lives "serving society" without autonomy, opportunity, or self-awareness seems deeply unjust and cruel. (It's basically enslavement of an innocent.) It also seems to punish the family of the perpetrator unduly, in that their family member's body is still alive, still around to taunt them, but is occupied by a stranger. Plus, the idea of creating a simple, docile, compliant, and (at least as such people are portrayed) intellectually limited or even disabled personality to serve as an unpaid laborer seems ethically grotesque. It also doesn't seem like it's designed to comfort or appease the victim or family members of the victim, given that the perpetrator isn't exactly gone--someone who was them is still walking around, basically taunting them--but they can't be angry with them because it's no longer the same person. Plus, humanity's gone to space, so it's hard to believe that automation hasn't progressed and menial labor is at such a premium that no body capable of performing it can be spared.

It seems to combine all the worst features of the death penalty with sadism toward both the family of the perpetrator and family of the victim. So it's hard to understand who would possibly push for it, let alone how it would get wide enough support to become law. 

And yet while some characters express unease with it, no one seems to hold what would seem like the rational, ethical position, which is to be like "it's a travesty that this is our legal system working as intended, both in practice AND on its face." 

So that frustration has always made it an episode I skip on watchthroughs, but if that doesn't bother you, it's probably one of the seasons's better episodes.

As a side note, this is the first episode, as far as I've noticed, that discusses "spacing" as a punishment (ironic given that the two scifi shows I'd cite as B5's direct descendants, BSG and The Expanse, both feature it pretty heavily). I'm always appreciative of series that remind you frequently of how dangerous space is, and given that I'm in a middle of a DS9 rewatch, I'm both amused and irritated at how chill they seem to be about toodling around in vacuum. Kira and Dax recently just flew back to DS9 in an ancient Bajoran spacecraft that separates its passengers from the void with a... metal shudder system and grate? Like it's basically a convertible and they just put the cover up, probably open the windows to get that nice space breeze. 

Ironically, while I write this, I'm watching a S2 B5 episode in which Dr. Franklin goes on a rant about people joking about spacing someone, and describes in detail what happens to a body in vacuum. I take it JMS was as irritated as I am by Trek's cavalier attitude to it.

Deep dive:

• Rowan Kaiser's analysis and review at the AV Club.
• The Lurker's Guide episode page.

Main takeaways:

• If a telepath finds something by poking around in your mind, it's inadmissible in court because it violates due process. (I don't remember if that's true for exonerating evidence; I seem to recall that after being convicted criminals are scanned to ensure that they're not innocent, but I might be inserting that because it seems like the minimum of what having telepaths should do to change the legal system.) I love the telepath storylines, but not because they make any sense if you think about them for more than a few minutes. 
• Franklin is using stims to keep up with his duties.
• There's a machine that sucks life from one person to give it to another.
• Earthgov has foregone killing someone physically in capital crimes for killing them mentally.