1881 A day of struggle with The Queen of Sheba and Babylon 5

Thursday morning commenced with Melvyn Bragg discussing the Indian Mutiny with Faisal Vervji, Shruti Kapila and Chandrika Kaul and how an issue about Indian army gun cartridges oiled by animal rather than vegetable fat appears to have precipitated the uprising. I could not generate enthusiasm for the rest of the programme or a ludicrous film styled as comedy with Bette Davis playing a bank robber to raise money for her two adult children. The night has been full of a dreams and the dawn damp and murky. A cereal started the day followed by two pieces of bacon in two small rolls and a double helping of coffee. MI was flagging by lunchtime and despite the good food start I was no in the mood for salad so indulged with an instant meal of two sausages in gravy with a few chips and beans followed by a banana.

While I attempted to work I watched what I thought was the previous missing original 1921 version of the Queen of Sheba. However this and subsequent versions, including the 1952 remake in colour centres on the relationship between the sons of King Solomon, sons of Kind David, of Jerusalem and the Queen of Shea and her slave maid. The two sons go to Sheba pretending to be the two envoys from the state of Gad who have strayed into their territory and been captured revealing their mission to establish a truce with Sheba and her other allies. The two men first encounter the Queen, then the Princess and her slave, without knowing who they are, at an oasis outside the city walls and when they learn there is a secret underground passage under the city. While the Princess is immediately attracted to the youngest son and the eldest to the slave, despite the latter being engaged to a Princess from a state with whom his father is seeking an alliance. Apart from their deception the two complications are first the son of the states leading other family who also trains and commands the army, and then tradition, when the King dies, Sheba becomes Queen and has to dedicate her life to the state and its Gods. She is committed to war against Sheba with her allies. I was so tired that I missed the final moments of the film after the brothers manage to escape after their cover is blown when the two actual envoys also escape from Jerusalem and arrive in Sheba and the younger son of Solomon fights the Sheba champion outside the gates of the city with both armies poised, only to find that the champion is none other than the Queen, who he overcomes and takes into the city when he discovers who he has been fighting. She is told by his father she can leave the city and he hopes she will do so with her army. I had to leave the room and missed the last moments of the film so missed the ending and credits. Fortunately after a later search I found out that the film was made in 1952, also in Black and White, as the Italian La Regina de Saba and my impression that the Queen would marry the Solomon’s son with the blessing of his father and her advisers was thus confirmed

By early afternoon I was so tired that I could just about keep awake watching a familiar episode of Bergerac so I took to my bed again and slept for close on two hours, feeling even worse when I woke again and struggled downstairs.

Having written of the first three episodes of the 4th season of Babylon 5 and planning not to write again until the season had reached the half way or a significant point, I quickly discovered that within three further episodes the second age of Earth and come to and end with persuading the Shadows and the Vorlons to depart this area of the universe by retreating to beyond the Outer Rim. To understand these three episodes it is helpful to reprise the first three of the season.

As previously written at the end of the first episode of the fourth season The Hour of the Wolf 401 we learn that Sheridan has survived somewhere deep inside the planet Z’ha’dum, used by the Shadows as their home planet and where he has lit a fire and is confronted by an old man who asks to share the fire and has a devil like appearance! Because, rather than in spite of, the retreat of the Shadow craft from around the space station, the other worlds and races start to relax and allow their warcraft to return home thus preventing Ivanova and Delenn leading an all out attack on the now vulnerable Z’ha’dum after the reported Thermo nuclear explosion.

In his message to Delenn, before departing for the planet, Sheridan explains that in his flip to the future when engaging with Babylon 4, he had been warned by Delenn not to go to Z’ha’dum, as he has also been by Ambassador Kosh, but he suspects the reason for being able to foresee the future is to have the opportunity to try and change it. While confirming his love for Delenn who had became understandably anxious about the arrival of his wife, he adds that he has a duty to try and change what happens and avoid the destruction of Centauri Prime, also witnessed during his time travelling, and of other worlds and their people if he can.

Delenn and deputy Ivanova who is now operational head of the independent space station, together with telepath Lyta who comes to see the replacement of Kosh and who is then asked to stand down, decide to go on a mission to Z’ha’dum in the White Star to find out what happened to Sheridan having received accurate information that there was a thermo nuclear explosion on the planet and that two of the bombs brought to protect the base by G’Kar are missing. Above the planet they become mesmerised by a force from below but fortunately clever Lennier has applied a fail safe device which if he fails to button press, the ship his jump gate moved away and this is what happens thus linking with Lost.

Londo Mollari has been recalled home to become an adviser to the new Emperor who he quickly finds out has become more vain and psychopathically mad than he remembers of him, believing that he is destined to become a God even if this means his planet and half the universe are killed and destroyed at the behest of the Shadows. Mollari then learns that the Emperor has agreed to a request from the Shadows to make the planet their home and they arrive in force, Mollari summons Vir to return home to help him kill the Emperor. Vir is reluctant.

During a period when the remaining members of the Babylon 5 War council are in mourning over the loss of Sheridan, Lyta visits Ivanova and Ivanova asks Have you ever heard of the Hour of the Wolf ? “My father told me about it. It’s the time between 3.00 and 4.00 in the morning. You can’t sleep, and all you can see is the troubles and problems and the way your life should have gone, but didn’t. All you can hear is the sound of your own heart. I’ve been living in the hour of the wolf for seven days, Lyta, seven days. The wolf and I are now on a first name basis. In times like this my father used to take one large glass of Vodka before bed. To keep the wolf away, he said. And then he would take three very small drinks of vodka, Just in case she had cubs while she was waiting outside. It does not work.”

For me the Hour of the Wolf in the terms stated by Ivanova remains an important aspect of my life which I welcome as it reminds of who I have been so that I can write effectively about the previous experience of my life for public and private interest. I use whisky, not to fend off the wolf but occasionally to fend off the cold, cold of the head and cold of the environment. Some years I invest in a bottle of single malt. This is for pleasure. This remind of one of the great songs of Billy Holiday, Set em up Joe, its three o’clock in the morning. For me the Hour of the Wolf can happen at any time. The night is creative time when the unconscious filters into the semi conscious of waking and where as a child I was terrified but since early adulthood I have slowly learnt to make the beast into a pet.

In the Search for Garibaldi (402) G’Kar comes across evidence of the Starfury which Garibaldi used when he joined the fighters defending the space station from the expected second Shadow attack. G’Kar investigates and is helped out in a fight by Marcus and they discuss their motives before Marcus gains more information, and G’Kar insists on investigating further alone. Marcus reluctantly agrees. Before he can leave, G’Kar is captured by those who recognise who he is and return him as a prisoner to Centauri Prime for the bounty.

Delenn has been undertaking a fast purification ceremony as part of her mourning for the loss of Sheridan, and Franklin, of all people, warns her of the course she is taking, given that she has become more human than Minbari and needs energy for the fight ahead. His words have influence.

Londo talks with the captured G’Kar and explains to him how he will die at the hands of the Emperor in a long torturing death but offers him a way out if he helps him to get rid of President. G’Kar agrees on the understanding that his people will be free from Centauri rule. London agrees to this. London appears genuinely concerned at the plight of G’Kar

Commander Sheridan has talked with his companion, Lorien, trying to work where he is, alive or dead or as the old man suggests in between. The old man then discloses that he is not just one of the Old One‘s but the original One and says that Sheridan has a piece of a Vorlon, Kosh, inside him. He explains that Vorlons can break off pieces of their consciences and put these into other organisms. He tells Sheridan that he needs to stop questioning, being afraid of death and uncertain of his role and just being and that is the way out an forward. He then emphasises that dying for something is easier that living for something and Sheridan completes the jump into the void calling our for Delenn. He is that seen at the feet of the old man, presumed dead, but is he?

In the third episode The Summoning (403) there are partial answers to the what happened to Sheridan and to Garibaldi, as Ivanova and Delenn organise their remaining forces for an all out attack on Z’ah’dum, against the mounting concern of the other planetary systems.

G’Kar is tortured twice to the point of death because he will not scream out in pain and Londo persuades him to do so otherwise he be killed and his developing plans to use G’Kar to help kill the President will fail. Londo is whipped by an electronic whip of increasing intensity where no one survives forty lashes. Londo reaches 39 before he cries out and the President satisfied honours his agreement to give G’Kar to London for his previous good works. The reluctant Vir, pleading that their must be another way to rid the country of the President, now agrees with London that he must be assassinated.

The deputy security chief follows up news of the whereabouts of Garibaldi’s craft and he attacks the freighter on which it has been located which unexpectedly blows up after a life pod breaks free. This contains the body of Garibaldi which appears to be brought to life just when it is retrieved by the Space Station recovery team. There is the implication that something has happened to Garibaldi who back on the station is unaware that he has been missing for two weeks, that Sheridan is missing presumed dead and the alliance has broken up with the departure of the Shadows from outside the station.

Ivanova has been giving herself a good talking to and learning Minbari. Delenn and Marcus hide their amusement at her incomprehensible efforts and she agrees to Marcus accompanying her on a mission to investigate what appears to be report of one of the First Ones is on the move. During their expedition they discover a time right in which thousands of Shadow craft have assembled.

At the space station Lyta is asked by Delenn to try and find out from Kosh’s replacement what the Vorlons are up to. Lyta is reluctant because her connection with the Vorlon has become Sadomasochistic and at one point he appears to have killed her for complaining about his behaviour and attempting to read his mind. She informs Delenn that it is they have become expendable in the battle between the Vorlons and the Shadows. Ivanova returns from her expedition to find there is a secret open gathering of protect against the proposed attack on Z’ah’dum led by two Ambassadors from the non aligned worlds. Just as it looks as if they have won, Sheridan appears with Lorien from a mystery craft which has over ridden normal entry procedures and driven straight into a landing bay. Sheridan is able to change opinion proving that those who believe Z’ha’dum is invincible and a planet from which no outsider returns is wrong. He gives a stirring speech about uniting to rid the universe of the Shadows for the sake of the people and their children’s children.

It is confirmed that the Shadows have abandoned their previous commitment to protect the younger worlds from the Shadows and that as a consequence of all out war between the two ancient races a whole planet of three million beings has been disintegrated with echoes of the Hitchhikers Guide and the obliteration of earth to create a new space highway.

I was right in my assumption that the first three episodes of the 4th season of Babylon 5 heralded the major development of the whole series to-date.

In Falling towards Apotheosis (404) Commander Sheridan devises a plans to try and prevent the next Vorlon target being obliterated, a planet of 6 billion sentient beings on which the Shadows have forced an outpost. He is able to assemble a war fleet of thousands upon thousands of craft from almost every planet system in the know universe, with the exceptions of the Narns who are still licking their wounds and the Centauri who also in line for a Vorlon planet break up because of providing a base for the Shadows.

The first task is to get rid of the Vorlon Ambassador from the station and this is why he has kept Garibaldi away from the meetings of the War Council. He wants Garibaldi to take a small security and invite the Vorlon to depart, knowing that the Vorlon will use his powers to find out what the Security chief and the station is planning if he refuses. This is preliminary for Lyta to disclose that there is part of Kosh transferred to Commander Sheridan which he decides to free to removal all opposition on the station and enable the full Kosh spirit to return to his people. She successfully persuades the Ambassador to leave his quarters where he is ambushed, and with help from the spirit of Kosh, is forced out of the station. Sheridan is also helped by Lorien the first One who discloses to Delenn that he is using his remaining life force to protect Sheridan and was how he was able to revive him after he jumped into the chasm. He discloses that he is able to repair Sheridan but the Commander has only a remaining lifespan of twenty years. This is a shock to Delenn who had expected he would live to the 100 or more years which earth beings had become accustomed. Sheridan is positive that the issue is the quality of their lives and relationship and not their duration, which is evidently the right approach, given their position in the middle of the war between the Vorlons and the Shadows in which they are not expected to survive.

Londo put his own plan into action how to remove the Shadows from his home world. He suggests to the President that he should hold the trial and execution of G’Kar on the Narn planet. Before they depart the President decides to remove one of G’Kar’s eyes because he dislikes the way he looks at him

In the Long Night (405) the scene is set for confrontation between the Vorlon and the Shadows. Sheridan received information on how planets are being . Missiles are driven into the core of the planet and then detonated causing disintegration from within. He furthers the plan for an all or nothing defence of the next planet in line for destruction by the Vorlons and sends Ivanova with Lorien to collect the remaining other First ones, promising she will be part of the final defence of the worlds in the known universe, when she has completed the mission.

On Narn Vir has secured a device which will kill the President giving the impression he has a heart attack. G’Kar is paraded through the streets of the capital of his d in chains to bring home the superiority of the President over the people. The scene is obviously modelled on the Way of the Cross.

In order to deliver the device to his body Londo has arranged for the chains of G’Kar to become loose but this part of the plan fails as the President has replaced with stronger metal. However G’Kar has the mental strength to overcome the physical and breaks free distracting everyone’s attention away from the assassination of the President by Vir. Londo is made the new Prime Minister while a decision is taken about a new President. He is able to carry out his commitment to G’Kar to leave the Narn world. G’Kar is hailed a hero but only in so far as the clamour is for revenge and to attack Centauri Prime in retaliation for what they and the Shadows have done to their planet.

London finds Vir drunk in reaction to having participated in the assassination and delivered the fatal blow because he was the least likely person to be suspected of doing so.

The Shadows have also launched their planet destructor and Sheridan put into place his final ploy to bring the Vorlons and Shadows in the same area of battle.

The great confrontation between the three forces occurs in Into the Fire (406).

Meanwhile on Centauri Prime Londo requests Mr Morden to remove his Shadows from the Planet. To ensure there are no tricks Londo arranges for the accompanying Shadows to be killed. Morden still refuses to ensure the Shadow fleet departs saying that the vessels will react to any attack. However Londo is ready for this and explains and pressed a remote control with blows up the whole island all the Shadow craft within it. He had arranged for the majority of the island population to escape, leaving behind a skeleton number. Morden is taken prisoner and Londo then fulfils London wish of seeing his head on a stake so that he can wave at his lifeless eyes. Londo has been advised that it was Modern and not Lord Refa who had murdered his mistress.

Trying to avert bloodshed and with the Shadows advancing Sheridan attempts to establish communication with the Vorlons and they get into communication with both Sheridan and Delenn. The two advise the Vorlons that there is no longer need for them to treat the younger races as children and defend them their way from the Shadows. They have united and capable of standing on their own feet and defending themselves. It is at this point that that the First One orders both the Vorlons and Shadows to return to their lives beyond the rim of the human form sentient world and to make their situation more palatable the and other others remains First Ones will accompany them. They obey and the threat from both advancing fleets ends.

Sheridan tells the Vorlons and the Shadows : to live on as we have is to leave behind joy, and love, and companionship, because we know it to be transitory, of the moment, We know it will turn to ash, Only those whose lives are brief can imagine that love is eternal. You should embrace that remarkable illusion. It may be the greatest gift your race has ever received.

However when the series was first screened we knew this was not the end of the story, particularly the relationship between the earth world and Babylon 5. We now know there were in fact 40 more episodes stretching of a 5th season, another eight weeks of back to back episodes. The end of any battle is only a stage in a war and the end of any war is only the beginning of a peace and that peace will only come with forgiveness and the establishment of peaceful relationships between all the warring parties.

1876 The Hour of the Wolf and me Babylon 5

Tuesday February 9th 2010 and the third season of Babylon 5 ended with a reappearance of the wife of Commander Sheridan, his apparent death and that of security chief Garibaldi, together with a lull in war with the Shadows, and an understanding of what they are up to and role of the Vorlons. I have been looking forward to these episodes as I could not remember what happened from memory of when the series was first televised in the UK or from watch an episode here and there when it has been run consecutively on other channels before.

The second part of the season commenced with Ceremonies of Light and Dark (311) preparing for the dramas to come. Delenn suggests a clearing of the emotional and psychological decks with a ceremony in which you confess to a participant something which has not been admitted to before. This includes Dr Franklin who admits that he has a problem with stimulants.

There are two sub stories where the long term significance is not immediately appreciated. After returning on line after breaking with Earth the Babylon 5 computer system in secret. The process, however, also brings to life an experimental computer personality with echoes of Hall in 2001 but where the significance in this series is to prove very dark, even horrific. The other story concerns Londo Mollari who having broken with the Shadows via Morden has discovered that Morden has done a deal direct with Lord Refa, London’s former mentor on the Home World

To signal the separation of the station from the Earth alliance as it has become, Delenn has arranged for the Station officers to have their own smart and stylish uniform, not too far removed from their original. Sheridan has admitted his love of Delenn while her assistant Lennier almost admits to Marcus, the leading Ranger, that he loves Delenn in the Minbari way and that this involves serving her to the end of his days.

A late delivery from Avalon (312) is a divertissement with special guest Michael York who appears on the station as Arthur and given the appearance of Jack the Ripper as the Vorlon Inquisitor the possibility that this is another test cannot be dismissed. Although under guard because of his insistence to carry with him a sword, Excalibur, and his ye olde English language and behaviour, he manages to escape and go on walkabout to the dodgy levels of the station where he encounters an old widowed woman who has been mugged and the picture of husband taken because of the valuable frame. He tracks down the culprits and takes them on with the help of G’Kar coming to his assistance. Afterwards they both get drunk and Arthur creates him as Sir G’Kar the Red Knight. Dr Franklin has undertaken research and discovers that the man is in fact a gunnery officer who fired the shot which started the Earth Minbari War an although this was not his fault he remains troubled, rather similar to the pilots who dropped the A Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. With the help of Delenn, Arthur is assuaged of his inappropriate guilt and G’Kar arranges for him to go to his home world to help organise the resistance.

Sic Transit Vir (313) Vir has a beautiful wife arrive at the station arranged by the respective families and Londo, who sees the match as helping his own position. At first Vir is besides himself in wonder and disbelief. However before the happy day takes place Vir is caught up in what appears to be an assassination plot against him. At first it looks as if he has been responsible for killing off a number of Narns but closer examination reveals that while they have been listed as dead he has been resettling them in secret and that the target is his wife because of her father who is a racist mass murderer. At one point Vir finds his bride has disarmed another attacker and held on o him so Vir can make the kill. She reveals herself to be just as avid a racist murderer as her father. Vir is horrified and fortunately the marriage is called off when it is realised he has been helping the enemy to survive. A side story is the growing relationship between Sheridan and Delenn. He cooks an inedible meal of her homeworld food. Second in command Ivana is also unsettled and takes over the Vir underground escape route for Narn’s. The episode could have been called- All that glitters.

Ship of Tears (314) sees an amazing turn of events when Bester the head of the Psi Corp visits and offers a joint operation to intercept a mysterious cargo of weapons destined for the Shadows. He does not tell all that he knows. It emerges that Bester has fallen in love with a renegade member of the corps while she was forcibly participating in the reorientation programme. She has been capture among a shipload of other telepaths. The woman creates mayhem by entangling herself into a web of circuitry to ease the pain she is feeling. From earlier episodes we have learnt that the Shadow war craft appear to be living creatures and now it is established that they are using human telepaths who are in effect welded into the instrumentation of the warplanes to prevent other telepaths for being able to affect the operations. The information is vital in planning to defend against the Shadows who have invaded one of the non aligned worlds.

Interludes and Examinations (315) The war beings in earnest as the Shadows appear to be attacking and starting wars and Delenn works out that they appear to be following the same approach adopted when they became a deadly force 1000 years before. Sheridan efforts to establish an alliance against the Shadows fails at the first attempt as the different races are scared to give support in case they are next in line for a Shadow attack and so far no one appears able to prevent the massacres and devastation that follows.

In desperation Commander Sheridan bullies Ambassador Kosh to do more than give advice and moral support. Kosh tries to warn that if he intervenes now he will not be available to help out later. Kosh then participates in a defence of the latest planet to be attacked and this is successful although there are many casualties among the space craft fighters of both sides. Back on Babylon 5 Morden and his Shadows kill Kosh.

Ambassador Londo Mollari becomes excited when he learns that his favoured mistress is coming to visit and gets Vir to arranges some expensive presents and accommodation for her. When her ship arrives she is found to have died on the journey. In a previously episode London has blackmailed Lord Refa into breaking with the Shadows by placing a poison into his system which needs to be activated and which he promises not to do, as long as the break is made with the Shadows. Now Londo believes Lord Refa is behind the death of the mistress and seeks out Morden to say he has changed his mind and wants to use the connection to gain revenge. This will have profound implications for him and the Centauri nation. Londo also fails to appreciate that the murderer was Morden.

Meanwhile Dr Franklin is becoming more stressed and dependent on stimulants and decides to leave his post and go walkabout. Sheridan realises that Kosh has been communicating with him during his sleep through dreams

War without End (316) and (317) Jeffery Sinclair, the former Commander of Babylon has been out posted as special Ambassador on Minbar where the time ahs arrived for him to be given a casket sealed for 900 years but designated for him personally. On reading the information in the casket he immediately sets off for Babylon 5.

The station then receives a distress call which upon examination is identified as coming from deputy Commander Ivanova seeking help as Babylon 5 is about to be destroyed. The message comes from the future. Garibaldi goes off to investigate and he finds a time instability caused by a beam from the Great Machine within the bowels of Epsilon 3, the planet above which Babylon 5 orbits and where the Minbar mentor of Delenn works at the heart of the organise machine which encompasses all time past and can project into time future, thus from the malfunctioning Hal of 2001, to the Shadows vessels with their humanoid cores we have the ultimate humanoid technologically orientated artificial being. Garibaldi establishes that the message is from Babylon 5 before it is destroyed by a Shadows attack eight days into the future. There is time to prevent this happening.

Towards the end of the first season, Babylon 4, Babylon Squared, the space station which was completed but disappeared with its skeleton crew, reappears and has been held in a time warp in the crew are oblivious to what is happening in the world outside their existence. Sinclair and Garibaldi go to the Babylon 4 to take off the crew and where they meet a character called Zathras.

When Sinclair arrives back at Babylon 5 in the present episode who helps to stable the vessel which the crew is cleared but insists on remaining as the role of station in the great scheme of things remains to be fulfilled.

In the present episode Sinclair has no time for his visit to be a social one and he, Delenn, Lennier and Marcus Sheridan and, Ivanova set off in the White Star, the special Minbari warcraft to the area of the distress signal where they encounter Zathras. It now becomes evident that they are being provided with glimpses into the future as well as well the past. Delenn has also been entrusted with information from the past in that during the war with the Shadows 900 year before, a stalemate was reached because of the appearance of Babylon 4 and that with the help of the Great Machine on Epsilon 3, it was the intervention of Sheridan, Garibaldi and Zathras which saved Babylon 4 and which in turn the White Star craft saved the station from a Shadow attack 6 years before the present.

The purpose of Zathras time jumping into the White Star is to equip them for time travel. Garibaldi is returned to Babylon 5 without being told what the rest are up to. They travel to the point when Shadow fighters are on their way with a fusion bomb intended to destroy the station. They are successful in fighting of the Shadow vessels but as consequence Sheridan’s time stabilizer is damaged and he flits between the present and the future. In the future he is captured, along with Delenn, by Mollari who has reached his position as the Centauri Emperor, but where his planet is ruins from the ongoing Shadow fuelled wars. He is seeking revenge on the two, but they are rescued by Vir who takes over from Mollari as Emperor when he is killed by G’Kar who is also killed by Mollari at the same time. During the time shift Sheridan is told by Delenn as he has been by Kosh, the Vorlon Ambassador, that in no circumstances should he visit the present Shadow base of Z’ha’dum.

During this period and process in which Zathras works hard to stabilise Sheridan’s in time, the position of White Star and Babylon 4, there is one shift which propels Babylon 4 to the point when it reappeared and was visited by Sinclair and Garibaldi. This has echoes in Lost.

During that episode Sinclair meets an older version of himself and Zathras comments that the time was not right. Now the time is right. for the circle to be completed. Sinclair explains, as he changes into the older and fast aging character, that is why Garibaldi was sent away to avoid be caught in the similar aging process. Sinclair stays on board Babylon 4 to pilot it back to the past to save Minbari 900 years before. Zathras explains that in calling Sinclair and Delenn ‘The One’ he is not being confused. Sinclair is The One of the Past, Delenn is the One of the Present and Sheridan is The one of the Future.

One Thousands year in the past, Minbari battle cruisers greet Babylon 4 and two Minbari board and are greeted by Zathras who leds them to two Vorlons in their natural states and Sinclair who appears as a Minbari and he introduces himself as Valen, saying they have great work to do. Sinclair thus becomes the holiest figure in Minbari history and fulfils his destiny ( I great price for being written out of the series by mutual consent during season one)

After all this excitement and mystery solving, Walkabout (318) provides the opportunity for Dr Franklin to continue on his self explore in lower regions of the space station where he encounters a nightclub singer. After spending the night with the young man he finds her unconscious and thinks she had taken an drug overdose but instead finds she was seeking medication of an incurable illness/ She resist his offer to fund her possible recovery on earth preferring to remain on the station to use her voice to bring comfort to the people of the lower levels. There is the suggestion of a continuing relationship with Franklin although this is not pursued.

Meanwhile Sheridan is working on the theory that telepaths can be used to help defeat the Shadow craft by slowing and reducing their effectiveness but this requires a great effort on the part of each individual telepath working in consort with others. The new Vorlon Ambassador arrives as a darker and less friendly figure than Kosh. Garibaldi persuades G’Kar to get the active support of his countryman and of other races in the defence of the station and stopping of the Shadows.

Grey (319) is more of a divertissement in that Garibaldi discovers that an group of beings have taken up residence at a lower thought to be uninhabited level and his escape is prevented by a monster type being which he has to fight. This story appears to have no significance or offer interest. The more important concern is that the Minbari Grey Council has been disbanded by the warlords and one challenges the right of Delenn to be named the official head of the Rangers because she has made herself human like. Neroon is determined to stop the inauguration ceremony but Marcus is warned by Lennier and he engages Neroon in mortal combat. Neroon stops short of killing Marcus impressed by his willingness to die and this also make him reconsider his position in relation to Delenn thus bringing the warrior class behind the fight against the Shadows.

And the rock cried out No Hiding place (320) is a splendid episode in which Lord Refa gets his comeuppance. Londo launches a Machiavellian plot by telling his aide Vir that he plans to get G’Kar to return to the Narn homeworld where he will capture the known head of the resistance and therefore earn great Brownie points with the Centauri government. Londo has first appeared to have attempted peace making with his rival Lord Refa.

Vir is most unhappy about taking a false message to G’Kar which appears to work in that G’Kar does return to his home work in order to attempt a rescue. Refa who has been on his guard and watching G’Kar’s every move since being given the inactivated poison kidnaps Vir and forces him to reveal the plan. He therefore goes to where G’Kar is mounting the rescue taking with him a small guard to arrest him and take the credit away from Londo. Londo is also there and advises Lord Refa that he is the victim of the traditional double bluff in that, the guards with Refa are Londo’s men who walk away as does Londo, leaving his rival to the mercy of G’Kar who as we know, has none in relation to teh Centauri! This is payback for the murder of Londo’s mistress and the death of his closest friend who persuaded Londo to kill him in a duel so that his family could be protected from Lord Refa. To get G’Kar to play his part Londo has arranged for thousands of Narn prisoners to be released and G’Kar is also told that it was Refa rather than himself who organised the destruction of the Narn world. He asks Londo to keep the face of Refa unmarked so he and his treachery will be recognised. Vir is released from Refa’s men and is horrified at the way he was used by Londo . The Centauri government are not convinced that Refa was a traitor but Londo is pleased with his day’s work as is G’Kar.

On the station the resident Catholic monks have organised a meeting of other earth religions whose leaders expresses their opposition to the dictatorial state which the President has created. In this build up to the season’s grand finale Delenn explains why she had pressed Sheridan to keep secret their knowledge of the Shadows until they were ready as she unveils the hundreds of duplicate White Star fighters which have been built in secret on Minbar.

Shadow Dancing (321) Because of the outbreak of inter galactic war civilians are moving in their millions and thousands of refugee ships are gathering in one zone which appears to be trouble free. Sheridan works out that this is Shadow strategy to then attack, destroying the refugee ships and demoralising the Babylon 5 alliance. He decides that attack is best form of defence and orders Ivanova to take the White Star into the sector to scout for indication of the Shadows while the defence fleet is organised into action. Unfortunately they not only detect a Shadow scout craft but it detects them so they have to pursue and destroy after which their power system requires repair and they are sitting target if the rest of the Shadow fleet arrives before their own. Fortunately theirs arrives and in the following battle, the Minbar telepaths are able to slow up the Shadow cruisers so that they able to systematically destroy their opponents although there are major casualties on both sides. The Shadows retreat having failed to penetrate the defence around the refugee ships. When the news reaches Babylon 5 and the planets of the refugees they sign up to form a common front.

Meanwhile back on the station Dr Franklin is nearly killed when he intervenes to save someone else. He is left alone and has to summon all his reserves to get to another part of the station and help. When he sees how stretched medical services are after the great battle although not fully recovered he helps out with the organisation of service and applies to Sheridan to return to duty when fully recovered. Delenn has told Sheridan she wishes to sleep in his room for three nights. This is another Minbari ritual to establish if their relationship will work. One stays awake observing the other and see their true face when sleeping. Just when she is has reached a decision there is someone at the door. It is Sheridan’s wife who he believed was dead.

Z’ha’dum (322) is where the Shadows have made their base for the past 900 years. Sheridan’s wife explains she was captured with Morden on the expedition to recover the Shadow vessel, was injured and when she recovered was converted to the Shadow Mission. She agrees to have extensive medical test to prove she is who she says she is and if this is so Sheridan agrees to accompany her to the planet to hear their side of the story. He agrees although there are sufficient clues to indicate that he does not believe her. He gives Garibaldi detailed instructions to be followed without question and he leaves a timed message for Delenn

On Z’ha’dum he meets Morden who sits in the background while an earth humans explains the situation. It is explained that eh is responsible for the development of telepatyy among the human race.

The Shadows and the Vorlons claim to be two of the oldest races in the universe and both have gained considerable knowledge and abilities over the millennia. The Vorlon approach is to pass on their knowledge to those able to comprehend and make good use of the information. They work with people and alongside other races in the separate stages of development. They let these races develop organically using the chosen thus linking in with the 4400

The Shadows have a different philosophy which is best described as trial by fire and blood. They only believe in the survival of the fittest who are able to use their knowledge in their interests and everyone else, millions of beings, whole planets are expendable, reminding of the express highway buildings in The Hitchhiker’s Guide who demolish earth because it is in the wrong place, although fortunately the planet builders, the mice, have another in the pipeline to locate elsewhere. Pity about all the people though.

Sheridan admits that he was aware all along that his wife had been affected by her life with the Shadows. She had been prepared to become the core of a war plane but this had been stopped when they realised who she was married too and the use she could have the future. However the assimilation process had commenced and was irreversible so she was permanently damaged without understanding the difference between who she had been had who she had become. As he makes a bid to escape the vessel on which they had travelled breaks through the dome covering the city and appears to detonate two thermo nuclear devices creating significant damage to the Shadow’s headquarters. Sheridan has thrown himself off the building into a chasm below which we learn is two miles deep. The Shadows who have surrounded Babylon 5 in the meantime, pause and then beat a quick retreat. It is stalemate again.

Sheridan had learnt from Dr Franklin that traces of an operation similar to that used on Bester’s female friend to make her the core of a Shadow warcraft had been found on Sheridan‘s wife. I subsequently learnt that Garibaldi in his Starfury fighter had been taken on board a Shadow Cruiser and disappeared.

This brought to an end the third season but the advantage of the back to back showing of a series is that later today, two days after the end of season 3 instead of eight month, it is possible to view Episode 402, called What happened to Garibaldi!

At the end of episode 401 we learn that Sheridan has survived somewhere deep inside the planet where he has lit a fire and is confronted by an old man who asks to share the fire and has a devil like appearance. Because, rather than in spite of the retreat of the Shadow craft, the other worlds and races start to relax and allow their warcraft to return home thus preventing Ivanova and Delenn leading an all out attack on the vulnerable Z’ha’dum.

In his message to Delenn, before departing for Z’ha’dum, Sheridan explains that in his flip to the future when engaging with Babylon 4, he had been warned by Delenn not to go to Z’ha’dum as he had been by Ambassador Kosh, but he suspects the reason for being able to foresee the future is to have the opportunity to try and change it. While confirming his love for Delenn who has became understandably anxious about the arrival of his wife, he adds that he has duty to try and change what happens and avoid the destruction of Centauri Prime and other worlds if he can.

She and deputy Ulanova who is now operational head of the independent space station, together with telepath Lyta who comes to see the replacement of Kosh and who is then asked to stand down, decide to go on a mission to Z’ha’dum in the White Star to find out what happened to Sheridan having received accurate information that there was a thermo nuclear explosion on the planet and that two of the bombs brought to protect the base by G’Kar are missing. Above the planet they become mesmerised by a force from below but fortunately clever Lennier has applied a fail safe device which if he fails to button press, the ship his jump gate moved away and this is what happens thus linking with Lost..

Londo Mollari has been recalled home to become an adviser to the new Emperor who he quickly finds out that the man vain and mad believing that he is destined to become a God even if this means his planet and half the universe are killed and destroyed at the behest of the Shadows. Mollari then learns that the Emperor has agreed to a request from the Shadows to make the planet their home and they arrive in force, Mollari summons Vir to return home to help him kill the Emperor.

During a period when the remaining members of the Babylon 5 War council are in mourning over the loss of Sheridan Lyta visits Ivanova and Ivanova asks Have you ever heard of the Hour of the Wolf ? ( The name of the episode). “My father told me about it. It’s the time between 3.00 and 4.00 in the morning. You can’t sleep, and all you can see is the troubles and problems and the way your life should have gone, but didn’t. All you can hear is the sound of your own heart. I’ve been living in the hour of the wolf for seven days, Lyta, seven days. The wolf and I are now on a first name basis. In times like this my father used to take one large glass of Vodka before bed. To keep the wolf away, he said. And then he would take three very small drinks of vodka, Justin case she had cubs while she was waiting outside. It does not work.”

I write this between 3.00 and 4.00 on Thursday February 10th, 2010 and I have become familiar with the hour of the wolf since 2003, close to 7 years, although over the past two years the number of occasion has reduced. This week I stayed up until just after 3am to watch the Superbowl and forced myself up around 7am in order to be ready for the Gas man who could have arrived from 8 and also to put the bin out and to move the car on to the road way so there was free access in the garage to inspect the gas valve for the heating system. This affected by usual sleep pattern where I go to bed between midnight and 2 am depending on whether I stay up for a late night film or full of mental energy from an earlier activity I wind down playing computer games, or draft some writing. On Tuesday I gained some of the sleep back, but Wednesday was a poor day and I fell asleep watching Prime Minister’s Question Time and again mid afternoon which delayed going for the replacement tube for the light fitting. Then around 10.30 I was so tired that I went to bed and slept well with on interruption until 2.30ish when I came down put the heating on and did the washing up. I feel hungry and would like a drink but was first determined to complete the writing up of the second part of Babylon 5 season three.

For me the Hour of the Wolf in the terms stated by Ivanova remains an important aspect of my life which I welcome as it reminds of who I have been so that I can write effectively about the previous experience of my life for public and private interest. I use whisky, not to fend off the wolf but occasionally to fend off the cold, cold of the head and cold of the environment. Some years I invest in a bottle of single malt. This is for pleasure.
This remind of one of the great songs of Billy Holiday, Set em up Joe, its three o’clock in the morning. For me the Hour of the Wolf can happen at any time. The night is creative time when the unconscious filters into the semi conscious of waking and where as a child I was terrified but since early adulthood I have slowly learnt to make the beast into a pet.