TV: Babylon 5, S1 Disc 5.

 Here in Disc 5 we begin to ramp up for the end of Season 1.  Only Legacies is purely filler, but necessary filler that introduces some Minbari aspects we'll need later, as well as Sinclair and Delenn scenes whose meaning is changed completely by knowledge of later events.   With the two-part A Voice in the Wilderness, we further expand the series' tableau for future seasons, and then Babylon Squared seemingly answering the mystery of Babylon 4's disappearance. The What, anyway.  The Why will linger for two more seasons.
 



Episode 17: Legacies

The Minbari are taking the long way home with the body of Shai Alit Bremmer,  one of their revered war leaders -- and coincidentally, the commander of the final attack on Earth.   When his cruiser arrives at B5, Sinclair has an apprehensive Line flashback, noting he (wishfully, I suspect) never thought he'd see a Minbari warship again.  Its approach establishes one of B5's more questionable alien customs, one that a lot of Minbari history in the show is unfortunately built on: approaching with gunports open to honor their fallen leader (they do this in first contact situations as well, but that's a story for another season).

We also meet Alit Neroon, Bremmer's arrogant second and a recurring source of Minbari antagonism throughout the series.  Neroon maintains a low opinion of the humans, and he and Sinclair nearly come to blows.   Tensions boil over when Bremmer's remains disappear!   Neroon all but promises a war, but Delenn urges restraint.  She mourns for a priestly Bremmer she once knew,  who set aside his faith.

Elsewhere, young orphan Alisa one-shot manifests her latent, high-level telepathy in the Zocalo, happily when both Talia and Ivanova are on the scene to help. It won't surprise you that Talia would ship Alisa home to the Psi Corps, while Ivanova opposes her.   Because of the irregular legal status, she has more freedom than a teep normally would, which allows the telepathy-bereft Narns to bid for her genetic material. A glimpse into Na'Toth's mind squicks her, so there's only one option to entertain...

Delenn, who just happens to have a secret: she took the body, to give Bremmer a simple religious caste funeral.  Good thing a P10-level teep with control problems is here this week to ferret out the truth. Delenn throws her Satai rank around, earning Neroon's long enmity, but allows he and Sinclair to reoncile; a nice scene in light of later events.  Likewise, Alisa's choice to live on Minbar enables a slow thaw between Susan and Talia...


Pros: A lot of Minbari development, to say nothing of Delenn's shifting moral compass.

Cons: Like Talia scanning Londo back in episode 1, coincidence is always a bad resolution.

Then:  C+
Now:  C+

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Episode 18: A Voice in the Wilderness (I)

Our plots are underway quickly: Draal, a mentor of Delenn, arrives.  He's world-weary and in one of the show's many (many...) allusions to Tolkien, speaks of "going to the sea," firmly polishing the "elf" parallel on the Minbari...  Meanwhile, Epsilon 3, the supposedly dead world beneath the station, suddenly exhibits technology and, worse, hostility.  Contrasting this, it's also broadcasting a holographic distress signal that specifically targets Sinclair, and then Londo.

A running thread of the second half the season are tensions on the Mars colony, and here it becomes a  C plot as the Marsies are in full revolt against the Earth Alliance.   Garibaldi's ex is on Mars, leading to more than enough angry Garibaldi scenes as he tries to get in contact with her; even going so far as asking a favor from Talia.  And on that subject, it's another of those B5 conventions that he just runs into her in a public area.  This station has 250,000 people on it, and finding someone is never a problem for anyone.  While it hinders stories at least as often as it helps, Star Trek's omniscient "Computer, locate _____" at least makes the comings and goings of the regulars a bit more believable.

When he eventually gets to call his ex, his High Fidelity moment is crushed by news of her marriage and pregnancy...

After a lengthy planetary surveying process, Sinclair and Ivanova travel to the subsurface of Epsilon 3 on the pretense that it could be a first contact.   They discover the planet is in fact full of technology, some of it from the forbidden world of Altair IV. 



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Pros: Not only a rare bit of good humor, but good delivery from O'Hare! 

Cons: And bad humor from Londo. Very bad.  And however good a character scene, they pad the story.

Then: A-
Now: B
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Episode 19: A Voice in the Wilderness (II)

Sinclair and Ivanova have found the source of Epsilon 3's distress  signal, Varn, an old, dying alien who is attached directly to Epsilon 3's "Great Machine."  Thinking they are doing him a favor, they take him back to the station for medical attention.  But without direct sentient control, the planet will become unstable and break apart, in all probability destroying B5 along with it.

Hmm, Varn's dying, and the machine needs a replacement.  Wasn't there someone in part 1 who was sick of life and wanting to sail into the west?  Someone thoughtful and noble, and someone who even made a point about sentient life's capacity for self-sacrifice.   I wish I could remember just who that was...

Demonstrating a different kind of phenomenal timing, the Earth Alliance destroyer Hyperion arrives to ensure the Earth Alliance "has dibs" (a term I find hard to accept would enjoy a renaissance of use in the 23rd century) on the Great Machine.   This makes its travel time somewhere in the 3, 4 hour range.  Sinclair is livid at losing control of the situation, vowing to dismiss the Hyperion as quickly as possible.



Checking in with Garibaldi and the Mars situation, we find that the president is ordering shock troops to "The Capital City," which should really have a name.   The news gives Garibaldi some much-needed catharsis in beating up the one-note anti-Mars asshole at a bar.

And then Varn's people, or, at least, violent outcasts from his people arrive, laying claim to the planet.  The standoff with the Hyperion occupies both for a long enough period that Londo, Delenn, and Draal spring Varn from medlab and return to Epsilon 3,

Once Draal is ensconced, he pushes the machine's deus ex button, declaring Epsilon 3 neutral territory under the influence of B5's advisory council.   To assert this point, he destroys the Varner fleet.

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Pros: Advances or resolves several plotlines.
Cons: The Great Machine is a can of worms that's never fully integrated into the fabric of the series.

Then: A-
Now:  B+


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Episode 20: Babylon Squared

Strange tachyon increases in sector 14 have a simple explanation: Babylon 4 has reappeared.  Sinclair and Garibaldi lead an evacuation flight to B4 and learn that the station is "unstuck in time," leading to unpredictable personal flashbacks and flashforwards for everyone.  In the first, B5 is being overrun by unknown forces and Garibaldi is leading a last stand. In the second, Garibaldi relives his breakup with his Marsie ex, and was it really necessary?  Lise goes back on the shelf for the better part of three seasons after this episode.

Also aboard B4 is Zathras, an comically babbling alien of unknown origin who reacts to Sinclair first with awe and then with disappointment.  Not the one, he says, sadly.  He came to take B4 through time as the command post in a great war. "The one" is the leader of the the forces of light, and has stopped  the theft in order to evacuate the crew.   He's interrupted by the appearance of a spacesuit-clad (2001 model) humanoid whom Zathras identifies as The One. Zathras notes that The One is in great pain, and is sacrificing himself for others -- tying nicely into last episode's resolution.   He gives The One a device, and The One disappears again.

If only this had paid off as planned...

B4 is hastily evacuated, and after it disappears once more, we are teased with a scene taking place there: The One removes the spacesuit helmet, revealing an older, grayer Sinclair.  He laments that he tried to change things, but it happened just the way he remembered.  Delenn rests a hand on his shoulder from just off-camera, comforting him...

In a not-enough-time-for-this B story,  Delenn leaves the station to meet with the Gray Council, and finds that in her long absence aboard B5, she has been selected the next Leader of the Minbari race. Delenn wishes no part of that, and resigns her position on the Council to return to B5 and some prophecy about the humans that legendary Minbari leader Valen one made.  Could this be related to her extratemporal activities with future Sinclair? Hmmmm!

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Pros: Nicely "resolves" B4's disappearance while opening up far more questions.
Cons: Silly amounts of time-travel magic, and the Lise scene is nothing but fat.

Then: A
Now: B+