119: TKO
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Rabbi Yosef Koslov arrives on Babylon 5 to see Ivanova about her late father, for whom she has yet to sit shiva. Also arriving is discredited boxing champion Walker Smith, an old friend of Garibaldi's, who wishes to enter the Mutai, a deadly one-on-one freestyle martial arts competition open only to selected alien races. Ivanova disappoints Koslov when she refuses to spend time paying her respects to her father, and Smith is frustrated when Garibaldi won't support his bid to join the Mutai. When some of the aliens appear to be attempting to assassinate Smith he is more determined and eventually reaches a draw against the current champion, persuading the organizers to allow humans to fight in future. Ivanova relents and eventually holds shiva for her father.
Notes: Ivanova's father appeared and died in Born to the Purple. Ivanova is seen reading Working Without a Net, autobiography of series consultant Harlan Ellison.
"TKO" is a boxing term for "Technical Knock Out".
Guest Cast: Theodore Bikel appears as Rabbi Koslov. He also appeared in In the Beginning, and played Worf's adoptive human father Sergey Rozhenko in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Don Stroud (Caliban) returns as Boggs in Ceremonies of Light and Dark.