122: Eyes

Two representatives of Earthforce Internal Affairs, Colonel Ari Ben Zayn and telepath Harriman Gray, arrive on Babylon 5 to determine the loyalty of the command staff, in particular Sinclair.  Zayn requests that each member of staff subject themselves to a mind scan, but Ivanova objects to the point of submitting her resignation.  Garibaldi is trying to reconstruct a 1992-vintage motorcycle in his quarters but is facing difficulties - until Lennier offers to help.

Sinclair discovers a legal loophole that prevents the mindscan, to Zayn's annoyance, and it appears that he is willing to go to any lengths to get what he wants - until his real motives are discovered: he was Earth's favoured officer to command Babylon 5 until the Minbari insisted on Sinclair's selection.  When he discovers that Lennier has put a less pollutive Minbari power source on the motorbike, Garibaldi is upset at first but soon takes the despondent Lennier for a spin through the station corridors.

Notes: Factions within EarthGov are unhappy with Sinclair's work on Babylon 5 and want him removed - foreshadowing Clark's presidential policies (see Chrysalis).  The reason for Ivanova's fear of Psi Corps (apart from the treatment of her mother - see Midnight on the Firing Line) and telepaths in general are revealed in Divided Loyalties.  Here we get another hint of a relationship between Ivanova and Talia Winters, also explored in Divided Loyalties.

Harriman Gray is seen again in the first Babylon 5 novel, Voices.  "Eyes" is the slang term for Internal Investigations.

Guest Cast: Jeffrey Coombs (Harriman Gray) played both the Vorta Weyoun and the Ferengi Brunt in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, has more recently appeared as an Andorian in Enterprise, and has also appeared in the films The Frighteners, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer and House on Haunted Hill.  Gregory Martin (Colonel Ari Ben Zayn); Marie Chambers (Sophie Ivanova).  Macaulay Bruton plays one of the Psi Corps agents injecting Ivanova's mother with the telepathy-suppressing drug - he also plays Garibaldi's aide; it is a deliberate piece of casting (see Chrysalis).