1913 Babylon 5 Space Souls

The ability to travel through space visiting beyond our planetary system has fired human imagination since when 100 years ago humans found the way to fly in aero engine planes. We remain limited by the distance which can be travelled unless human life can be placed in abeyance for the journey with the problem that on return everyone and everything known will have changed beyond recognition e.g. Planet of the Apes or the development of the technology to enable space jumping which is the method of travel which Earth was able to use after it made contact with other races in Babylon 5. An even more spectacular form of space and time travel is the subject of the second film shown on Tuesday evening Babylon 5 Thirdspace, originally shown during Season 5 but covers a period during Season 4.

The film is set in the period after the war between the Shadows and the Vorlons and before Sheridan deposed President Clark and formed the new Alliance. His deputy Ivanova is on a mission when she becomes aware of a giant object, apparently drifting through space, and arranges a chain of location and contact points so that the object can be investigated without being lost in space themselves. Seeing that the object is so large and does not respond to external investigation she arranges for it to brought back to Babylon 5 where it immediately attracts the interest of other nations.

The other empires and races involved with the station want to participate in the investigation but Sheridan is anxious to retain control and only agrees to an interplanetary expeditions team investigation on the basis of a willingness to break the earth blockade and reprovision the base as well as make available their findings exclusively to Sheridan so that he can determine what to if there is advanced technology, weaponry or other findings of a commercial significance. This is a weak storyline because needs help he can trust.
After her initial inquiries the head of the unit determines to keep the findings secret until she is sure they will make and her team famous and wealthy. She correctly determines that the object is a different kind of space jump gate, more advanced and able to travel even greater depths into the universe quickly. It was built by the Vorlons over a million years ago.

Lyta, the telepath, enhanced by the Vorlons is able to receive Vorlon communications held within the device but appears to be prevented from revealing the threat by greater force from within device belonging to an race which once threatened everyone else

Although the super jump gate is no activated various people on the station, including Ivanova, Vir and others have come under its power, including the head of the anthropological and archaeology expeditions units, in a way reminiscent of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. This force is disrupting the station working in various way with fights breaking out, individuals endangering the safety of the space station, seeking to reach the device and places which are revealed to them, and pushing those working to uncover its origins and functions to make rapid progress. When the game opens it is evident that craft that appear are hostile and beyond the defences of he station and the device in turn has established a protective force field which makes it immune to attack.

It is only when Sheridan and Delenn break into the quarters of Lyta that she is able to reveal the dreadful truth. The device was created by the Vorlons, one of the First known races, who having advanced beyond present human imagination had attempted to explore beyond their limits. What they managed to do was to open a link with a similar device created by other First ones, but these were even more dark and sinister that the Shadows, in their drive to destroy any beings who were not the same as themselves. While the Vorlons had been successful in defeating the aggressive beings because of their own advanced abilities and technology, hundreds of races and their worlds have destroyed and a group of Vorlons under the telepathic influence had closed down and jettisoned the Vorlon device in hyperspace hoping that one day it would be rediscovered and reawakened, enabling the race to once again set out on their mission to destroy all others different from themselves The Vorlons had continued to search for the device to destroy it, and now one ambitious individualist had enabled all the inhabitants of the Milky Way planetary systems to be destroyed.

The solution, very similar to that in Independence Day, the 1966 released film, is for an individual to secretly enter the device- in Independence day it was the mother ship, with thermo nuclear device and destroy from within, in both cases successfully managing to escape although narrowly doing so.

The film does not resolve gaps in the main storyline. It is said to have been based on a story of that original science fiction writer master mind H P Lovecraft. The film made major use of special effects although not of an order to have enabled the film a stand alone theatre release. But it was a breakthrough in TV film making.

Back in real time Babylon 5 Learning Curve 506 covers three story lines one of which is designed to flesh out live within the life of the space station. Because the station was never fill equipped to provide residential and community provision for everyone there are areas, described as down below, and with 5 miles in length it is perhaps not surprising that there are not a couple of hundred thousand people coming and going with overnight stays even in the expanding universe of races and planetary systems within reach. This has enabled a subterranean criminal community to develop as in any city, using force to provide protection, in unregistered gambling, prostitution, supplying illicit substances and other black market goods and supplying false entry and exit papers.

A new young crime boss arrives having been displaced elsewhere and determine to become the head man through a mixture of bribery and force. In order to make his mark he kills someone who is refusing to pay up, against the advice of one of the existing gang leaders who warns that Security Chief Garibaldi will not tolerate such a threat to his authority. The approach of the new man is set a trap to kill Garibaldi if he refuses to cooperate.

The second storyline involves the development of the Rangers with their training the Anla’shok and the arrival on the station of two recent recruits who are left to explore station on their own. The crime boss has used a woman to provide Garibaldi with information about the killing and when she finds out the intention is to kill the security chief she back out and find herself the next victim only prevented by the intervention of the two trainee Rangers. One of the two rush to help and is badly injured and left for dead. When visiting the young recruit in hospital Delenn explains that this is now a matter for them to deal with, and she has already gained the approval of Sheridan which Captain Lochley expresses surprise given her knowledge of him. This is in turn surprise Delenn and leads to the revelation that Lochley was Sheridan’s first wife. The young man who was beaten gains in strength and faces the crime boss who he defeats and the man is then handed over to the authorities.

Sub stories include Garibaldi’s questions about the choice of station captain, asking Lochley which side was she on under the Clark regime and had she ever questioned or challenged authority in her life.
The Rangers have been open to all races but those from one race have created a problem with everyone else refusing to work with them because of their habits. Delenn’s solution is for them go deep undercover. Lennier is reported as pushing himself too far in his training, with her suspicion he is trying to impress Delenn.

In Strange Relations 507 an attempt is made on the life of Londo Mollari after he is appointed to be the next Emperor after the death of the ailing Regent. Because of this and the need for Londo to visit his home world to attend national functions, Sheridan asks G’Kar to act as the personal body for his former enemy and he agrees in order to see the look on the faces of the Narn’s on his position. This quirky decision explains how G’Kar is on Centauri Prime for the events forecast in World Without End.

The rebellious Telepaths led by Byron are confronted by Bester, who insists in cooperation from Lochley now that Earth has joined the alliance so he can end their independence. Lochley is not unsympathetic to Bester‘s mission as she was stationed on one outpost where a rogue telepath murdered two crew members. Dr Franklin is offered an important job on Earth which he finds it very attractive and with Sheridan planning to leave Babylon with Delenn, he decides to accept.

In Secrets of the Soul there is no major story development. Dr Franklin discovers the secret of one of the minor races who visit Babylon 5, the Hyach who have heath problems and are dying out. They refuse to pass on their historical medical records. Dr Franklin eventually discovers that in the past the Hyach systematically slaughtered the other race on their planet the Hyach-doh because they wanted to preserve their racial purity and had become concerned at the extent of intermarriage and breeding. However was they did not realise is that it was the interbreeding which was progressing the survival of both races and that in the absence of the Hyach-doh they would begin to die out.

The telepaths led by Bryon work out a means to persuade the authorities to find them an uninhabited planet to make their home. Lyta has resolved her situation with Bester by become a special member of the Psi corps and has a relationship with Byron whose authority is being challenged by some of the other independent telepaths who have come to Babylon 5 as a refuge.

Day of the Dead is something of a diversion. Two highly regarded comedians on Earth arrive on Babylon 5. There are those who find them exceptionally funny and those like new station captain and some of the Ambassadors who do not. This is simply device for the main subject of the episode which is the day of the dead, a religious festival for one the races with the power to brings back people lost for one night where there was unfinished business of different kinds. The night when the souls rise only occurs once every 200 years when a comet approaches the homeworld of the race, the Brakiri.

For Londo it is the dancer mistress murdered on her way to stay with him on Babylon 5.

Garibaldi sees again the young fights who stayed with him the night before she went into battle and died.

She recites a poem
Because I could not stop for death
He kindly stopped for me
The carriage held but just Ourselves
And Immortality.

Followed by the rest of A few Figs from Thistles by Edna St Vincent Millay.

The closing lines appear to be a mixture

My life closed twice before its close
It remains to see
If Immorality unveil
A third event to me

So huge, so hopeless to conceive
AS these that twice befell
Parting is all we know of heaven,
And all we need of hell,

With the last two lines from an Emily Dickson poem.

Lennier spends the night with Morden of the Shadows. Morden tells Lennier he will betray the Rangers and die soon. Modern also appears to make reference of Dante’s Inferno from which I select

When things draw near or happen, we perceive
Nothing of them, Except of what others bring us we have no news of those who are alive

So may you understand that all we know
Will be dead forever from that day and hour
When the portal of the Future is swung to.

Captain Lochley is visited by a friends for whose death she had felt responsible and former Ambassador Kosh also visit Lochley with a message for Sheridan.

The message is, “When the long night comes, return to the end of the beginning.”

This is the right moment to insert the film The River of Souls which has two first class TV and cinema actors in major roles, Ian McShane and Martin Sheen.

Garibaldi now living on Mars and heading the corporation previously run by Edgars, having married his widow and the love of Garibaldi life, summons Ian McShane to Babylon 5 playing, an archaeologist who for the previous three years has received £2 million credits for unspecified research. McShane explains that he has been working on a search for immortality. While the average lifespan of humans has increased to 140 years, some races have a normal body life of two to three hundred, while other have evolved into creatures without a defined physical form, and such higher states characters appeared before in episodes of Star Trek, the original and the subsequent.

At the beginning of the film the character is seen taking one of a number of colourful globes from and dark vault like place, pursued and narrowly escaping. He brings the globe with him to Babylon 5. He asks Garibaldi to give him a few days more as he anticipates a breakthrough but Garibaldi insists that he produces a summary of his work over the past three years by the following morning. Instead of working on these McShane establishes communication with the Globe and we begin to learn what it is.

The soul collectors were covered in a previous episode, Soul Hunter. There are a dedicated race who capture the soul at the moment of death and give it immortality living in a globe full of the good memories and experiences and able to communicate with one another. McShane has removed such a globe, one of the great works of the Soul Hunters in that they were able to capture an entire race, one billion souls, the population of China. The people of the planet Ralga just before they became simultaneously extinct. A representative of the soul collectors, Martin Sheen, arrives to demand return of the globe, only to find that McShane having established communication with a soul within the globe has been alerted and makes off to where they are able to hide and counteract. Sheen explains that the souls appear angry and as such can develop their own power if not under the direct control of the Soul’s collectors, and in the form of a lightening bolt they attempt to strike him down but Lochley intervenes and appears to be struck down with death imminent. Her heart stops for a few seconds during which time she is transported in the Globe and their world, with she beings addressed by a spokesperson in the form of Dr Franklin, you only see others you want to see. The representatives explain that far from dying they were at the point of evolving into bodiless beings who would have been able to roam the universe free but have been imprisoned for 10000 years, many going mad with the rest experiencing a great sense of injustice, frustration, sense of loss, sadness and hopelessness.

Lochley lives to report her experience but finds that a fleet of Soul hunters have arrived, and having obtained information as who to stole the globe, capturing and killing McShane’s associates, they demand its return or they will invade the station and take it by force. The Ralga aided by McShane have attached themselves to the station’s core energy threatening to blow themselves and everyone up rather than be returned to their confinement by the Soul collectors.

Lochley persuades Sheen to explain the situation to his colleagues who cannot accept that they made such a significant mistake and give 20 minutes before coming on to the station. Sheen then offers his life and soul to enter the Globe as a means of preventing catastrophe and buying time in which to be able to communicate further with his colleagues and persuade them that it has not been a trick, that they have made a mistake and must find somehow to free those imprisoned to continue their evolution in some form.

There is a sub story which interacts. In the Star Trek series and follow ups we learned of the development the virtual reality experiences to the extent to which some became nearly trapped in the artificially created world while creations in the world are able to break out, at least for a time.

Zak is sent to investigate the alleged setting up of a holographic brothel in which the love object (hetrosexuals only waiting in reception) can be created to look as you wish from a three dimensional photographs and you put yourself into a special suit which can respond to actions which appear to be initiated by the virtual reality creation. When Zak tells the owner to close down he is first confronted by defiance that the accommodation was contracted for six months as an unspecified entertainment facility and then by a smart lawyer who demands compensation against the Station and against Lochley personally. She gets out of this by arranging for the facility to be destroyed when dealing with the Ralga who have used the virtual reality centre as a conduit to gain access to the station’s core. She also threatens a counter claim having discovered that the owner has created a virtual reality model in her likeness said to be very popular with female members of staff on the station. This provides humour as part of a serious subject.

Would people like to live for thousands of years in such a state? How does the work of Soul Collector square with Christianity, Judaism and the Muslim faiths?

1912 Babylon 5 in the begining and in the begining of its end

On Monday 11th April 2010 I saw again the first of the Babylon 5 films In the Beginning. I say saw again because of the memory of an aging Londo telling two children, he encountered, in the palace the story of Babylon 5 prior to the start of the first series. Much of what he says has already been explained during the first four seasons but we are presented what purports to be an accurate and comprehensive account.

Londo has boarded all the windows of the Palace because he cannot bear to look out on the destruction outside. He is also alone with the being, called the Keeper, who controls him within his body. It is thirty five years since the outbreak of the war between the Minbar and earth and therefore five since the ending of the life of Sheridan, or is it!

We find Delenn acting as a replacement on the Grey Council of nine, three from the Warrior caste representing a third of the population, three from the ordinary people, the second third and from the religious educated and cultural class.

The Council is led by Duhkat, Delenn’s mentor and their primary concern is to strengthen the role of the Rangers who have been kept going to keep an eyes and ears open for evidence of the return of the Shadows who according to the prophecy would challenge their survival again in 1000 years time, about now. There are rumours that they have returned to their original home world of Z’ha’dum and the decision is taken for Duhkat and Delenn to go on a mission to investigate, as the Warrior caste does not believe the prophecy and is reluctant to go on the mission alone.

Meanwhile the earth alliance embolden by defeating the Dilgar have become anxious about the position and intentions of the Minbar, a race with whom they have had no direct contact and only know the basics. They have trading relations with the Narn’s and the Centauri who they approach for advice and are warned to leave well alone as the Minbar do not welcome strangers or those who pry into their world and its defences. Nevertheless earth decided to send a small mission, to observe and report rather than make contact and Sheridan, as an up and coming officer is invited to participate, but rejects the offer out of loyalty to his present captain and because of concern that the person appointed has a reputation as a hot head. This is a new insight and in my judgement a flaw because it is unlikely that any government having decided not to begin contact would send someone likely to do so, and in some way which could create problems, if not as happens, disaster. I would have had no hesitation in those involved being tried for war crimes.

What happened is that they encounter Duhkat and Delenn on their mission to Z’ha’dum on much the same basis as the Earth’s mission to Minbar and unfortunately the expeditions are unable communicate, go to battle stations and the Earth vessel opens fire killing Duhkat, resulting in Delenn behaving out of character, and crying out for vengeance and destroying the Earth expedition without mercy. In my judgment she is even more responsible for what happens than the Earth craft because she knows better and is responsible for giving the Warrior class their head. Thus the two nations go to war although even on Earth to this day individual incidents of themselves do not lead to all out war involving civilian populations. Over the first month earth warships and defensive outposts are destroyed without losses on the part of Minbar. This again is odd because one would have assumed that faced with obliteration earth would have attempted an attack on the Minbar home world.

There are then developments which are post hoc ad hoc with no indication of their existence prior to the film and with evidence to the contrary. The first is that that Molari and G’Kar are official ambassadors/Contacts with Earth over ten years before Babylon 5 is created. Earth recognising inferiority is space craft and weapons approaches Londo and then G’Kar for help. London refuses concerned about the consequences for his people, fully justified in the circumstances while G’Kar sees this as opportunity to get at Centauri by selling at a high price to earth, captured Centauri technology, in the hope that this will lead to the Minbar attacking the Centauri. This again is morally indefensible.

Following the death of Duhkat a shrine is created to him and the head of the Rangers advises Delenn to visit at the earliest opportunity when she finds the Vorlon Kosh, The Vorlons and the Minbari were allies in the previous war against the Shadows and the Minbar Rangers have been looking out for them for information and to re-establish an alliance. Kosh advises Delenn that the war with Earth should be ended quickly because the human race is important in the war to come, but does not explain why, which is puzzling. Again there is no evidence that Delenn had any contact with Kosh prior to his appointment on Babylon 5.

We see the young Ivanova saying goodbye to her brother as he joins the battle knowing that to date there are always losses. Dr Franklin is arrested and imprisoned because he refuses to release the information he gained on his travels meeting up with the Minbar who he was unable to help when those contacts needed attention. He refuses to pass on the information as to do so would be contrary to his ethical standards although it is pointed out the future survival of humanity is at stake. More post hoc ad hoc.

As Earth’s losses mount an attempt is made to broker peace with the head of the Rangers, Lennon is asked by Delenn to meet a deputation from earth which includes Dr Franklin and Sheridan who meet on Narn with G’Kar the meeting broker.

Sheridan is there because he has become an Earth hero. His craft is badly damaged and his captain dead he takes over and rather than await to be destroyed he deliberately sends out a distress signal knowing it will attract the enemy, having placed his remaining three nuclear warheads on nearby asteroids, detonating them as the enemy approach and destroying the Minbar flagship, the Black Star. This is greeted with acclaim on earth and with horror on Minbar who experience their first losses. However there is no previous evidence that Sheridan knew Franklin or G’Kar prior to his arrival on Babylon 5. More post hoc ad hoc.

Moreover the susceptibility of the Minbar to this kind of offence does not appear to be used again.

The peace meeting fails because Molari finds out and concludes that the craft is an arms shipment arranged by G’Kar and arranges an attack in which Lennon is killed and the war escalates with the population of earth facing extinction. Molari as the guilt ridden and controlled President tells the children that he therefore was responsible for the subsequent deaths before the war ended, however he was doing the right thing, given that he had found out about the intention of G‘Kar to cause Minbar to attack the Centauri. The consequences is that the war intensifies although it is surprising that G’Kar who can communicate with the Minbari and has formal relations did not explain that they had been attacked by a third party. What there appears to be a well thought out and coherent back story is in my view significantly flawed

The remaining Earth pilots are asked to volunteers to give their lives while Earth arranges to get as many people as possible of the planet as refugees to other worlds. For every ten minutes the pilots survive another 700 humans escape. It is during self sacrificing gesture that Delenn on impulse arrange to capture a pilot to find out more about a race prepared to go into battle knowing they will lose. This is the famous moment of series when Sinclair is captured as he attempts to ram a Minbar craft and during the investigation it is discovered that he has a Minbari soul and Minbari do not kill Minbari, well at that point they do not. The war is ended to the amazement of Earth and Minbar warrior caste. Earth decides to start to build the Babylon 5 stations as a means to prevent such a situation happening again in future. That Earth has the technology to do is also surprising, as well as the resources to build five such stations in the ten year period. Thus Molari ends is story and then we are given a peek into the situation which we have seen before in World without End Part 2, Sheridan and Delenn are imprisoned on Centauri Prime. He is drinking heavily to get his Keeper drunk and to sleep so he get enable Sheridan and Delenn to escape.


Episode 501, The Deconstruction of Falling Stars, the first of the final episodes is a look forward in contrast to the previous look back. 100 years have passed since the founding of the Alliance with Sheridan as the first President, and Earth historians debate his role and that of Delenn, with one arguing that Sheridan had no part in getting rid of Clark and his fascist regime, while another claims he was a megalomaniac It is Delenn who then appears, some 80 years a widow who demonstrates that some of the historians have fabricated facts to fit their interpretation and provides them with information on what happened and why.

500 years later we find earth in turmoil again with a repetition of what happened before and a Fascist anti alien leadership and movement in which the Babylon heroes have become war criminals. Original film is used in holographic form to turn situations inside out but the creations behave as they would in real life reminding of situations in the Star Trek series, and Garibaldi acts in a way which results in the anti fascist movement getting information and carrying out a sneak attack on the military base in which the propaganda creator operates. He is destroyed. However this is not the end of earth divided.

1000 years later the civil war which developed between humans 500 years before has reduced earth to medieval times from which it has only commenced to recover Babylon 5 heroes have become mythological figures written about in illuminated manuscripts by monks. The Rangers at work again, on earth, determined to help create a civilization which is not anti alien or anti technology.

One millions later humans have evolved into First one beings and need Vorlon type suits and with two glowing eyes. The Vorlons have one. They are leaving earth because the sun is to exploded despite our knowledge this will happens only millions of years into the future.

In the Very Long Night of Londo Mollari 503 he has a near fatal heart attack and we are given insight into his dream world. Mollari is at the crossroads between his past misdeeds and the full realization of what has been the outcome. He expresses regret to G’Kar and there is movement forward in their personal relationship thus confirming the bonds which can develop between former political enemies who work in close association. The episode also sees the departure of Lennier as the devoted assistant to Delenn. Whatever he says about trying to find himself, he cannot cope with the love of his life marrying Sheridan. No one with human form characteristics can be that saintly all the time There is an ancient Centauri saying that sometimes an angelic soul can be trapped inside a body that has done great evil and can kill its host in an effort to break free and inhabit another body. Presumably the opposite is also true, although I believe neither in the form presented

In the Paragon of Animals, 504, we begin to see the emergence of G’Kar as a Guru spiritual leader. He has been writing a book which he had allowed Garibaldi and others to see passage in order to understand what was happening with the Shadow based on his study of the past and thinking about the future. He is chosen by Sheridan to write the principles upon which he new Federation is to operate. The title comes from Hamlet What piece of work is a man.... the paragon of animals. An interesting line in its time context before Darwin had published the Origin of the Species.

The programme also sees the development in the role the Telepaths are to have in the series. With the help of Lyta a group of breakaway telepaths led by Byron have been allowed to make Babylon 5 their home. In addition to the Minbari telepaths which are used in an open and carefully controlled way, the Centauri have used them as part of the military for 300 years. G’Kar has attempted to recruit Lyta to provide genetic material to establish telepaths in the Narn world and has also indicated carnal designs on Lyta. Lyta has been realising that her powers are developing since she was altered by the Vorlons through her association with Ambassador Kosh. She has been trying to read into two individuals at the point of death, something which Bester also has attempted in order to try and find out what happens to human consciousness after the body dies. Does human awareness really end when the brain is declared dead?
Garibaldi has persuaded Sheridan to agree to using two of Byron’s telepaths to help finds out what the Drazi race is up to and what is going on in the station in general. The Drazi have been recruiting raiders to attack minor worlds in their planetary system and their behaviour undermines the role of the new federation. The deployment of the two telepaths helps to stop this practice.

In my view the least successful of the Babylon 5 characters is the new head of station Elizabeth Lochley, who it emerges was married to Sheridan during an early period in their military careers. Their relationship appears as unlikely as his with Delenn. Nor is she convincing when later she reveals to Garibaldi her troubled past. She is no substitute for the always engaging Ivanova. She remained loyal to the Earth regime against Sheridan’s breakaway during the Clark reign as a fascist dictator

G’Kar writes

The Universe speaks in many languages but only one voice( oh if this was so)

The language is not Narn or Human, or Centauri, Gaim or Minbari.

It speaks in the language of hope. It speaks in the language of Trust.

It speaks in the language of strength and the language of compassion. It is the language of heart and the language of the soul. But always it is the same voice.

It is the voice of our ancestors speaking through us
And the voice of our inheritors waiting to be born. It is the small still voice that says we are One.

(The last paragraph is important because it communicates something fundamental in my set of beliefs viz that we are more clones of our ancestors than we presently understand bringing forward their memories and understanding into our subconscious and presently unused and undeveloped parts of our brain).

G’Kar then says
No matter the blood, no matter the skin,
No matter the world, no matter the star
We are One.
No matter the pain, no matter the darkness,
No matter the loss, no matter the Fear
We Are One

(My only observation is that he ought to have said we should be one)

He continues, Here, gathered together in common cause, We agree to recognise this singular truth and this singular role
That we must be kind to one another.

Because each voice enriches us and ennobles us,
An each voice lost diminishes us.
We are the voice of the universe, the soul of creation,
The fire that will light the way to a better future.

We are One.

Alas no one truly lives up to these fine words in the series
And in life as we know it, Jim.

1910 Babylon 5 Background to final season

The Series, Babylon 5 came to an end yesterday(9.4.2010) with a double episode. This however is not the end of Babylon 5 on current TV because over the course of seven days, the FX channel is showing the seven subsequent films which they claim have not been shown on British TV before. Given the same claim is made for Friday episodes of the NCIS which I have seen previously, I suspect have are omitted a qualification, or two. At present I do not know if these films reveal what happened to some of the main characters during the final two decades of the life of Federation President Sheridan - Lennier, G’Kar, Molari, Lyta, Bester and new station chief Lochley are all absent at the final get together before he stops at his appointed hour and joins the First Ones who are able to commence second journeys of self aware experience.

Today I begin with a reminder to myself of the main features of what has happened during the first four seasons and on the main characters who have important roles during the last season, and hopefully in all or some of the films. I will then add my notes on the episodes and films over the course of coming week.

Apart from the first and last episodes, the rest of the final season covers the first couple of years after Sheridan becomes President of the newly formed interplanetary organisation which provides military security for the different nations and their races spread over their systems. This has come about because of the threat posed to all life in the known worlds from the conflicting philosophies and approaches of the ancient races, the Shadows and the Vorlons, and who have been persuaded to return to new homelands beyond the rim of the explored worlds. The penultimate episode sees Sheridan and Delenn move to the new headquarters of the interplanetary organisation to Minbar.

In the first episode there is a future’s look back on how Sheridan and Delenn are viewed on earth, 100 years, 500 years, 1000 years and 1 million years later. The last episode concentrates on the final days of Sheridan, some two decades after the move of the New Order headquarters from Babylon 5 to Minbar. It is possible that the missed episodes also went beyond the first couple of years and provides some answers to the number of unresolved what happened to questions with which I am left

The move of its main function to Minbar commenced its decline and with the effectiveness of the new order there had been decreasing need for the space station to act as a refugee camp, a military staging post, or as a colourful expensive centre with poor accommodation and an absence of natural earth foods, for rebels, and the displaced, rather like Las Vegas meets the restaurant at the end of the universe. In the last episode Babylon 5 has become a shell and is in the process of decommissioning, blowing up in spectacular fashion rather than becoming a hazard to future space travellers.

The major purpose of an Earth alliance inspired Babylon 5, was to prevent conflicts between nations leading to blood shedding and destruction on an inter planetary scale. The first Babylon station was constructed after the end of the war with the newly discovered race, the Minbari, started accidentally in which the human race nearly perished and were only saved because the man subsequently appointed to command Babylon 5 had been captured and unknowingly revealed something which led the Minbari to immediately stop hostilities. This in fact is the subject of the first film to be shown next Monday

The first three stations were not completed and the fourth disappeared just before commissioning and was to play a crucial part in the story subsequently and involving the re-appearance of the Babylon 5’s first commander, Sinclair, meeting his successor. Babylon 5 was established on the model of a United Nations with a permanent inner Council chaired by the station commander and involved the Minbari, the Narn’s and the Centauri who were the three other major planetary systems, together with the mysterious Vorlons who were many thousands of years older than the races represented by the other permanent inner council members. The inner council required the support of the other races and planetary systems whose ambassadors participated in general decision taking sessions. While the Earth, the Narn’s and the Centauri had broadly the same technological development, the Minbari were more advanced with the Vorlon having superior personal powers beyond human understanding.

During the first season there was growing indication of the re-emergence of another of the ancient races -, the Shadows, who held a philosophy about the rest of the universe in conflict with that of the Vorlons. The Vorlons believed in intervening organically at a pace which the newer races could cope with. The Shadows believed in the big bang and the Hegelian notion that out of conflict between extremes a new equilibrium is achieved, until there is further imbalance and further conflict will lead to development of the survivors however few. The last conflict between the intervention of the Shadows and the Vorlons took place over a thousand of years before Earth was able to explore its planetary system and beyond, making contact with other races (the good work of Star Trek)

During the first season and second seasons we came to know characters who play an ongoing role throughout the series. John Sheridan is appointed the commander when Sinclair moves to Minbari to prepare for what has been prophesised. We learn Sheridan fought in the war with the Minbari and became hated by the Minbar Warrior class because of military success against them. He is a widower, or so he believes, and develops a close relationship with the Minbar Ambassador Delenn who is assistant by Lennier, a young Minbar who unknown or unrecognised by her comes to worship everything she is and does. She understands she is part of the prophecy and undergoes a metamorphosis, developing human characteristics which enable her to have a physical relationship with Sheridan and they marry at the conclusion of season four. While Sheridan is a military man, she has been an important part of Minbari ruling Council representing the interests of the caste dedicated to the spirit and to peace and while Sinclair is action man she is more of a guider than adviser.

There are four individuals on Sheridan’s management of the station team who have ongoing and crucial roles. (Susan) Ivanova is second in command, initially as head of the station’s defence she becomes the stations trouble shooter and fixer, dealing with union problems, helping ambassadors to settle in, handling trade missions and potential new members of the General Council.

The station has its internal security services led by (Michael) Garibaldi a recovering alcoholic with an aggressive and rebellious past. He becomes assisted by Zack (Allan) who is to have an increasingly more important role over the final season. Michael is given an outreach role when Sheridan breaks away from the Earth Alliance when the new President creates a fascist state

The third individual is head of medical services, Dr Stephen Franklin, whose role was help with understanding the different make up of the races as a means of helping them to live together peacefully. He also has his personal problems, relationships with his father and with drugs because of the pressures of role and living alone and he also goes into the wilderness for time and the internal journey‘s and work of both men on the station providing opportunity top explore and reveal the lives of majority of inhabitants of the five mile in length and with 250000 inhabitants at any one time, about the size of Newcastle, the capital city of the North East of England.

(Unlike Battlestar Galactica and even Star Trek we rarely see children, and there is no reference to schools, libraries cinemas, dance halls, museums, art galleries, sporting events and the only recreation appears to be bars, gambling and restaurants, and with partners and sexual activity only referred to occasionally.

The fourth role is undertaken by two people - the station‘s telepath. Lyta (Alexander) is the replacement telepath and her role becomes crucial to the development of the fifth season and the survival and success of the new order. She is appointed by the earth Psi Corp of telepaths although other races, the Minbari for example have telepaths with the Vorlons more advanced of everyone akin to those of the 4400, and which the Psi Corps are experimenting in order to achieve their objection of power and control within the Earth alliance. The issue of the respective positions and powers of telepaths and other humans comes to the fore throughout the series. Ivanova is hostile to the Psi Corps because of what happened to her mother who when her powers were identified refused to join the Psi corps who then made her life hell.

Although not the head of the Corps (Alfred) Bester, appearing in 12 important episodes, is a kind of Witchfinder general, especially when it comes to Telepaths who attempt to leave the order, he tracks them down so they can be retrained or eliminated. His duties and his personal interests come into conflict when he finds that the love of his life, a renegade telepath he has partially retrained is one of the telepaths captured by the Shadows and converted into an organic machine to run some of their warcraft. With the help of Lyta, Sheridan uses some of the retrieved telepaths against the earth alliance immobilising the ships on which they have been placed sufficiently long enough to change the balance of the conflict. Bester’s woman is not one of them and he supports the work on Babylon 5 to try and free the telepaths from their Shadow shackles. Lyta in turn gain power through her association with the Vorlon Ambassador Kosh. For a time I speculated if the decision of Garibaldi to oppose Sheridan during season four had been an arrangement by the Commander for his friend to go underground and report intelligence. In fact Garibaldi had been worked on by Bester and although he had been freed from control, a block had been left which prevented Garibaldi from trying to kill Bester.

Because of her past experience, her warrior training and personality, deputy Ivanova resisted any ongoing heterosexual relationship, although as season four progressed she came close to admitting her growing feelings for Marcus (Cole), the head Ranger trained by the Minbari. There are several similarities between the personalities of Ivanova and Marcus, and between Delenn and Sheridan. Like Sheridan she is a warrior at heart, dislikes management and administration, but is also not afraid to take decisions, accept responsibility and face the consequences of actions. When she is mortally wounded at the end of season four, it is Marcus who gives up his life to in effect resurrect her. Marcus therefore plays no part in season five, not does Ivanova for the greater part as she decides to return to active services and is given a role akin to a Squadron leader or perhaps that of a fleet admiral in charge of the latest battleship.

Throughout there series there are two characters with strong feelings for and against each other and we the audience also develop strong feelings for and against them, in some respects stronger feelings than towards Sheridan and Delenn. When the series commenced it is G’Kar of the Centauri we dislike who appears underhand and ruthless, in his hatred of the Narn’s because of the way they colonised and humiliated his people for centuries before they were able to regain their freedom. (Londo) Molari, the Narn Ambassador, enjoys gambling and alcohol and women with several wives and the love of his life, his mistress, a dancer. However Molari wants to regain control of the Centauri and also wants personal power within his Empire, so he accepts the offer of help from the Shadows which leads to the destruction and subjugation of the Centauri whose leadership is eliminated with the exception of G’Kar, who then leads an underground insurrection.

Molari becomes increasingly guilty over what he has done and what happens within the leadership of his world. When he finds that the Shadows have a been given a base by the mad despotic President, prepared to sacrifice his people to become a God, he organises his assassination, with the final blow taken by his faithful assistant, Vir (Cotto). He then frees his people by blowing up the island where the Shadows have their forces. G’Kar is captured and torture and rendered blind in one eye but does a deal with Molari in which the freedom of his people is gained. By the end of season four G’Kar has become a thoughtful, sad individual, no longer interested in personal power but wanting to contribute to the future welfare of his people, returning to Babylon 5 as an Ambassador. Molari has also changed despite being told that he will become President, as also will Vir after the death of Molari. Londo also mourns the loss of his mistresses killed by treachery from home and the loss of his closest friend.

By the end of the fourth series the two major stories have run their course. First there was the conflict between the Vorlons, initially viewed as the good guys through the role of Ambassador Kosh, and who saves the life of Sheridan during an assassination, and the Shadows, portrayed as dark, destructive, sinister and openly human controlling, who have a secret presence on the station through a human looking individual (Morden) who is the first link with Molari. Modern is present when Sheridan is persuaded to visit what has become the Shadow home world, by his long since thought dead wife who appears to have survived intact and become a convert to the Shadow approach. She is destroyed when Sheridan refuses to agree to their approach and proves that his wife has become a Shadow controlled shell. Sheridan has been resurrected from the explosion by a God like figure who claims to be the First of the First ones. He is advised that his future lifespan is limited to two decades and then he will stop existing as a human. (I reminded of the fate of the surviving space explorer in 2010)

When Sheridan returns to the former home world of the defeated Shadows to try and find and make use of their technology and advances on what beings can do, it is Lyta who triggers the self destruction of the planet, so the information will not become available to Sheridan, and to the Psi corp. This action is to have profound consequences during the final season.

During the fourth season Sheridan and Delenn have progressed the role of Babylon 5 as a bridge between races and nations bur with great difficulty and setbacks, but there is unity when the Vorlons and the Shadows start destroying entire planets and all the people on them. They both have planet destroyers akin to that in the Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy, creating a space super highway which destroys earth and its people in their entirety.

After reaching a stalemate between the Vorlons and Shadows, and they are required by The First One to leave the area and find new homes beyond the rim, the alliance breaks down and Sheridan becomes preoccupied with defending the station from the despotic new president and working to over throw the man who has become a fusion of Hitler and Stalin operating a regime which is a fusion of Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm, and Huxley’s Brave New World.

We learned that the head of state had only come to power with the help of the Psi Corps who had also be party to the recovery of a Shadow craft and a knowledge of their powers and technology. We also learned that Garibaldi has been commissioned in his work as a detective by the head of Mars based inter planetary corporation (William Edgars), who had also married the love of his life. This corporation with other earth based interplanetary corporations, also wanted an end to the Earth dictatorship but for different reasons. Their concern was the role and ambitions of the Psi corps who they recognised were after the subjugation of normals and the taking and advancing of their own powers, given the knowledge of how it had been developed by others. The Mars based enterprise had developed a drug which could kill telepaths if they are not provided with ongoing treatment. However the side effect of the treatment is to render them ineffective and controllable and to be used as work slaves for the corporations. They were hostile to what Sheridan was doing and planning not just because it was thought his timing was wrong, but they feared his plans to set up a new from of alliance which would have power over them rather than the other way round, thus confirming the established truth that the development of International Corporations with the movement of capital and production to friendly, accommodating and stable regimes whatever their composition was advocated, planned and implemented on earth during the last three decades of the twentieth century, and in the UK under Thatcher.

With the help of the combined forces of the Narn’s, the Centauri and the other nations and races who remained part of the Babylon 5 Council, President Clark was deposed, and the earth planet is saved, as the President turned the defence system upon earth before committing suicide. The new administration on earth while recognising that Sheridan and his team had saved them and the planet, in more ways than one, recognised that he was then a threat and insisted on his premature retirement. Sheridan accepted and produced his mastercard, his appointment as the President elect of the new Interplanetary government with Babylon 5 as its initial base.

This then is the baseline for the final season and subsequently broadcast films. Will the new Interplanetary organisation work and achieve its objectives? What part will the characters who have played such important roles in the previous seasons have in the brave new order?

1889 Babylon 5 Mid Season 4

Although I was away for three weekday nights I was able to keep up with the latest episodes of Babylon 5 when the week’s shows were rerun later on Sunday followed by NCIS.

In truth I do not remember much of what happened over the last two season of the series after the Shadows and the Vorlons departed to distant parts of the Universe.

After the battles, the problem confronting the main characters of the series Captain Sheridan head of the Babylon Five space station, his deputy, Commander Ivanova, Captain Sheridan’s closest ally and would be lover Delenn of the Minbari and her loyal assistant Lennier, the two warring Ambassadors who became unwilling partners in saving their respective populations, Ambassadors Mollari and loyal assistant, Vir of the Centauri, and G’Kar of the Narn, the good doctor - the recovering druggy Dr Franklin, and the former head of station security Garibaldi and his former deputy Zack who is most reluctant to take over the role of his former boss, There is also the independent telepath Lyta who could communicate telepathetically with the Vorlons and the head of the Psi Corps Bester, together with the Ivanova fan and head Ranger Marcus was- what do I do with myself now that the great war is over.

In my occupational life I also experienced major moments of change, the reorganisation of the personal social services, the reorganisation of local government, a divisive industrial action, participation in an intensive national inquiry, and in what happened during the past the last year of full time occupational activity and its aftermath which continued over the next decade. In my life outside occupational activity, there was the period in prison, the death and follow up inquiries of my care mother and the last three years in the life of my mother, her 100th birthday celebrations as well as other development which remain confidential. There is always a sense of personal anti climax and the separateness after such events because of the difficult of others not directly involved in the experience understanding or wanting to involve them. It is also understandable that some people become locked in a past situation and are unable to move forward. What happens to sports personalities when they retire or their careers end, to Government Ministers who lose office and soldiers returning from the battlefield are all similar kinds of experience of what do I do now. to the individuals directly concerned.

In this report on the second part of season four all the main characters feature but to varying degrees and to an extent in isolation from each other and it is only towards the end of this period do the various individuals and interests begin to work as a team. The exception appears to be former security Chief Garibaldi who continues to claim he cannot remember what happened to him during his two week disappearance apparently in the hands of enemies. He turns increasingly hostile to Captain Sheridan and joining forces working against the role of the Sheridan and his colleagues, setting up his own private detective service on the station until he goes to Mars where to insist on meeting his new Employer.

First there is action of President Clark against Babylon 5. In Epiphanies 407 the President with the help of the Psi Corps that decided it is better to go on the offensive against the space station rather than await for the Sheridan and his allies to turn their new power and status among other nations against him. Thus begins a blockade and embargo and a fierce propaganda war with black operations.

The Illusion of Truth 409 comprises a government inspired Television programme which cleverly misrepresents what has happened in the War with the Shadows and Vorlons as a power and personality trip for Sheridan under the influence of Delenn of the Minbari, the former enemy of the Earth alliance. A reporter and camera team arrive of the open Space Station and persuades Sheridan against his better judgement to be interviewed with Delenn and for other members of the team to give their perspective while admitting the programme will be heavily slanted as part of the propaganda war. Garibaldi gives a damaging interview against the captain and Delenn is also much affect by the allegations against her, The programme is clever because it uses elements of truth to give a one sided and false perspective. Sheridan’s father and mother, and what other family he has on earth have in effect been taken into protective custody and are being used to undermine Sheridan.

It takes a little while for Sheridan to work out a new strategy for dealing with the situation and this has three facets. He belatedly, in my view, works out that he must counter the Earth propaganda by establishing an alternative information service, called the Voice of Resistance, based on the truth and drawing upon the free radio used in France and other German controlled nations during World War 2. He puts Ivanova in charge of the operation and as the chief broadcaster in Lines of Communication 411 and she makes the first broadcast in Conflict of Interest 412.

His second approach is to send Dr Franklin with Ranger Marcus on a mission to Mars where the President’s forces has been attempting to regain control of the former colony and his third approach is bring up the other worlds into an alliance to protect the station and break the embargo. He remains reluctant to take offensive action because this would involve civil war and killing former comrades in arms. The important consideration is that he and the other officers on station were within the military command and his objective is to re-establish democracy throughout the earth alliance.

Three episodes feature the Mars Mission of Marcus and Dr Franklin with them setting off on the cautious three week journey to Mars to evade capture in Atonement 409. In Racing Mars 410 their contact with the Resistance is a Captain Jack (Billy Joel song) who unbeknown to them has been taken over by a parasitical creature and he betrays and frames the two so that the Mars resistance believes they are assassins in the employ of Earth, They have to work hard to persuade the resistance leaders to the contrary and in a reference to the Prisoner they are called Number One and Number Two. Captain Jack gives his life for the cause. It also emerges that those on Mars had been so preoccupied with their own struggle and cut off from communications with the outside world by Earth, have little idea of the great battle which was fought, of the planet destroyers of the Vorlons and Shadows, or the role of Sheridan and his team on Babylon 5. The same applies to the population of earth. Thus it was ever so.

(Passing thought Is there any official record of the extent to which social service departments would not have been created without my interventions in terms of promoting the Lobby of Parliament, the article saying no to the proposed role of Medical officers of Health and the Blacklisting of the London Borough of Sutton and of Torbay when Chairman of ACC0‘s Blacklisting Committee, acting on the Advice of senior Labour Government Ministers that without a stop on what was happening with nine variations of reorganisation, it would be impossible for the government to introduce one national form of reorganisation for England and Wales, an a separate pattern for Scotland?) (Would things have worked out better for Child care services if I had not intervened in this way and Child Care officers remained with specialist working even if their training became generic?)

One problem which Marcus and Dr Franklin face in persuading the Mars’ rebels to work with Babylon 5 is that Sheridan was involved with the suppression of food riots on Mars immediately after the ending of the Earth Minbari War. Their efforts are eventually rewarded and the Mars planet is to play a major role in the rest of the season 4.

The parasitical creature who took over Captain Jack also has a continuing role. In Epiphanies 407 Bester, the head of the Phi Corps of telepaths arrives on Babylon 5 seeking to do a trade, he not only alerts Sheridan to the Clark offensive against the station, but to provide details of a forthcoming black ops operation, in exchange for Sheridan undertaking an expedition back to Z’ha’dum to try an retrieve the technology which the Shadows used to prepare captured telepaths to become integral parts of Shadow war craft. And which happened to his rescued lover. He hopes to find a way to reverse the process and to free his lover and the other telepaths who are being kept in a cryogenic condition for their own and Babylon 5’s protection. Accompanying them on the mission is the independent telepath Lyta who was also separately transformed but this time by the Vorlons and which enable direct communication with them as long as she carried out their requirements. She is concerned at the implications of the technology falling into the hands of Phi Corps and sends an alert to those on the planet who arrange for its total destruction before any of its secrets can be discovered. In Lines of Communication issues are raised about the Drakh, the parasitical creatures who it appears inhabited Z’ha‘dum and where one or more may have escaped before the self destruction of the planet. Sheridan refers to the Drakh as wild cards which is the reverse spelling of card!

In Moments of Transition 414 Bester returns to Babylon 5 with an offer to Lyta. She is having a difficult time finding legitimate work on the station being blacklisted by the Psi Corps. Bester offers her continuing independence to work on two conditions. First she must wear the official uniform and insignia and secondly upon her death from natural causes, only, her body is willed to the Psi Corps so they can study how she was transformed from a low grade telepath into a super powered one by the Vorlons. Reluctantly she accepts. In a later episode not covered in this report Lyta is to aid Dr Franklin in finding a way to free the telepaths in cryogenicsis from their Shadow implantations.

In addition to the cold war with earth two other stories dominate this part of the series. The first is the relationship between Sheridan and Delenn and her role on Minbar as a member of the Religious and peaceful Caste compared to the role of the Warrior Caste. Having spent the third night observing Sheridan asleep according to the ritual, Delenn announces they take their relationship to the next stage which involves spending a night discovering pleasure in each others bodies. However this ritual has to be witnessed by an appropriate gathering of other members of the caste outside the chosen room. This reminds of the tradition of a similar approach to the marriage nights of Monarchs and their children to ensure the purity of the line of succession.

Before this happens in Atonement 409 Delenn is summoned back to justify her relationship with a non Minbari to the Grey Council. If she cannot persuade them, she will be required to cease further personal contact with Sheridan. The episode is important because we learn for the first time that after humans inadvertently killed the Minbari leader and Delenn‘s mentor, Dukhat, it was Delenn who sided with the Warrior caste on the Grey Council to launch the war against the earth alliance, because of her shock and anger at his death.

The case against Delenn is that her action is against the Minbari insistence on racial purity. However Delenn reminds the Council that this is nonsense as in reality many Minbari are already a mixture of Minbar and Earth beings including herself as a descendent of Valen, their recognised supreme Minbar being. Because she was never pure before her metamorphosis, the Council agree that her relationship with Sheridan can continue..

However the pathway of true love is never straight and an easy one to tread as Civil war breaks out on Minbar, Rumours, Bargains and Lies 413 and Moments of Transition 414. The key to any resolution is the relationship between Delenn of the Religious caste and Naroon of the Warrior caste who previously came to Babylon to kill Delenn and near killed Marcus before relenting because he realised there was something special and different about her. Delenn agrees that the Religious caste should surrender their position and she arrives with the senior members of the caste for the submission, but this is a clever plan in which she insists that under the surrender the Grey Council is recreated with a balance of power not going to either the Warrior or religious castes, but to the Worker’s caste who are to have five of the nine positions.

In the days before Valen when there were war between the casts from time, the leaders would gather in the Temple of Verenni, which is Delenn’s chosen place for surrender of the Religious Caste. The Temple is equipped with planet wide media. There is also the Starfire Wheel. The two leaders, or more in any conflict would enter the beam of fire where the one who stayed and died would prove their cause was the righteous and therefore their side would win the conflict. Delenn challenges the leader of Warrior Class, an ambitious man without regard for loss of life and allegedly unconcerned about his personal fate. However when forced into the fire beam by Delenn rather than lose face with his caste, he refuses to die and backs out leaving Delenn who had promised Lennier to also leave once she had made her point about the hypocrisy of the Warrior leader. However it is Naroon who intervenes and removes Delenn but remains to die so that his caste has their honour restored but he makes it clear that he is a substitute for Delenn and her position. So peace returns to Minbar with their partially destroyed capital city.

The second important story is that of Garibaldi who appears to playing an in the future’s role of Judas. However I still have in mind the secret instructions which Sheridan gave to Garibaldi, to be followed without question, before Sheridan set off for his first visit to Z’ha’dum. Fortunately I cannot remember what happens so his true position remains open.

In Epiphanies Garibaldi resigns as Security Chief and begins a new life as a self employed private eye in the sub strata of the station. There is the suggestion that he has been programme in some way as a fifth column during his disappearance. In several subsequent episodes Garibaldi is seen in league with individuals hostile to Sheridan, as agents of Earth and because the blockade is severely hindering some trade although as with all blockades some people can made fortunes providing goods at inflated prices. In Racing Mars Garibaldi is approached by one interest alleging that Sheridan has developed into a cult of Personality and Ivanova does a deal with smugglers to keep the station supplied with food and spare parts.

The episode also reinforces my point that Garibaldi could have gone underground at Sheridan’s request to gain intelligence on the enemy within. In Conflict of Interest 412 the group plotting against Sheridan disclose that they regard Garibaldi as expendable. He in turn finds out that his former lover has married one of the most influential businessmen on Earth/Mars, William, Bill, Edgars. Edgars offers Garibaldi a retaining contract to arrange for packages to smuggled onto the station and handed to designated parties, It is not known if Edgars has a relationship with other groups against Sheridan on the station. Sheridan insists that Garibaldi hands over his Identification, official weapons and other privileges of office. Sheridan and Garibaldi come to near blows as Sheridan seeks to bring the former security chief back into the fold and Garibaldi lets it be known in front of witnesses who he has become opposed to what Sheridan is doing. Sheridan comments what he does not like the company Garibaldi is keeping suggesting that more is going on that the audience is being informed.

It should not be forgotten that Sheridan was given insights into the future when he went to Babylon 4; The machine on Epsilon 3 is also able to see into the future as well as everything that has happened in the past. Ivanova seeks the help of the Epsilon 3 to gain the energy necessary to ensure the Voice of Resistance Broadcasts. It also has to be remembered that Sheridan developed a special relationship with the first of the Originals who ensured that Sheridan had over two decades of more life, all things being equal, to carryout his destiny. Garibaldi insists on going to Mars to meet Edgar in the next episode following this section.

Playing only very small roles in the fourth season are London and G’Kar whose presence on the station is something of a puzzle given the job of work required on both their home planets, especially in relation to the Narn world although G’Kar is still trying to recover from the torturing at the hands of the former Centauri President. G’Kar is another who found a lack of understanding among his compatriots for his role in working against the Centauri and in gaining their freedom from Londo. G’Kar is given an artificial electronic eye by Dr Franklin in which can see outside of its socket. He must remove the eye at night. G’Kar is troubled by the break down of relations between his friend Garibaldi and Sheridan and he only learns of the trip to Mars after Garibaldi has departed.

It is more understandable that Londo and Vir should return to Babylon 5 full of guilt for their assassination of the President and ensuring the freedom of Narn. It is Londo who takes the initiative and suggests to G’Kar that they should issue a joint declaration of support to Sheridan as an act of reconciliation and in giving a lead to the other non aligned worlds. G’Kar is understandably reluctant but does agree to drink a toast with Londo towards the new venture. We have learnt that one of the creatures who left Z’ha’dum before its destruction

This gesture is badly needed as Sheridan has struggled to gain the support of other races in relation to his concerns and dispute with Earth. However he works out a way to make them seek the help of his fighter force by patrolling the outskirts of their planets in exchange for their support should it be required. The situation comes to a head when he learns that not only has earth attacked the breakaway colony of Proxima 3 but destroyed ten thousand people on a refugee escape craft. He devises a plan which involves giving the impression that eh is about to attack earth to draw away warcraft from Proxima 3 and then send his strongest force to the planet to order the departure of Earth forces.

He has discovered that all has not been going well for the Clark Dictatorship in that three quarters of his government has resigned when martial law was declared. Clark has been forced to reinstate the Parliament and more importantly Sheridan learns that not all the war craft commanders are happy about their role in attacking the breakaway colonists and several did not participate in the killing of the civilian refugees. Sheridan uses this to try and divide the earth forces in the campaign to free Proxima 3 No Surrender No Retreat 415 The divide and rule approach works out as the earth battle fleet surrender or are destroyed or join forces. Some go all the way and agrees to join Sheridan at Babylon 5 while others stay to defend Proxima 3 from further attack. He also allows the remainder to return to earth. The programme provides makes a good place to end this report update of the season as it also marked the departure of Garibaldi to Mars and the signing of the support agreement between the Narns and the Centauri although given their off world status is not clear what the declaration will mean in practice.

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.