Alien abductions, Delenn gets kicked out of the Grey Council, and Sheridan has a strange dream that isn’t quite a dream. And Sheridan debriefs his crew about his real purpose on B5…
I was touched by how protective and loyal Lennier seems to be toward Delenn.
Lennier (to Delenn): Where you are, I will walk.
I would have been worried that Delenn wouldn’t be coming back to B5 except that I accidentally saw her on a DVD cover for Season Four recently, so I know she’s around at least that long. 
But it sounds as if she’s in for a difficult time.
Delenn: Very soon now, I will be going into darkness and fire. I do not know if I am fated to walk out again. If it is your choice to come with me, then I could not wish for a better or braver companion.
Nothing bad better happen to Lennier.
So sad about Lt. Ramirez. As one of you pointed out in recent comments, the B5 writers sure know how to make you care about characters even after just one episode, don’t they?
Sheridan reminds me of Star Trek’s Kirk in some ways, esp. his energy and restlessness, his need to get out an experience things himself rather than let others do it for him.
Interesting alien ship shape; it reminded me somewhat of a giant insect.
Aha, so now we know the truth between reports of alien abductions! An alien race is out there, examining us for potential future invasion.
Pretty gruesome examination. I wonder what the aliens did to Sheridan other than examine him, if anything?
I’m not used to seeing Delenn look so unsure of herself and vulnerable:
Looks like the balance of power has shifted. Delenn has been kicked out of Grey Council, and the Minbari Warrior Caste has the majority.
Grey Council: If you are no longer one of us, how can you be one of the Nine?
Delenn: My heart has not changed.
Grey Council: We no longer know your heart, Delenn.
Am I correct in assuming the alien that Sheridan rescued was a Narn? The pain device on his head threw me off, but the facial markings looked familiar.
I’ll be curious to find out whether we ever see the kidnapper aliens again (the “Stribes,” Delenn called them — not sure how to spell this) or if this was just a one-episode appearance. Don’t tell me.
And Neroon’s part of the Grey Council! That’ll sure make things interesting.
Speaking of interesting, what a BIZARRE dream that Sheridan had!
Very Twin Peak-ish. Does it actually MEAN anything? Don’t tell me.
Dream Ivanova: Do you know who I am?
Dream Garibaldi: The man in-between is searching for you.
Dream Ivanova: You are the hand.
Dream Sheridan: Why are you here?
Dream Kosh: We were never away. For the first time, you mind is quiet enough to hear me.
Dream Sheridan: Why am I here?
Dream Kosh: You have always been here.
And then Kosh repeats “You have always been here” to Sheridan when he’s awake, back on the ship. Bizarre…
I felt like cheering when the Agamemnon showed up to rescue Sheridan.
And then…!!!!
Both Jeff and I were blown away when Sheridan reports to General William Hague about the loyalty of the B5 crew, and that he’s been working for an underground movement to overthrow the government.
I have to admit I’m getting a bit overwhelmed by all the intrigues that seem to be going on.
The Shadows and Morden
The Centauri intrigues
The Minbari intrigues
G’Kar calling up demons
The Rangers and Sinclair
Psi-Corps being suspected re: presidential assassination
Kosh and the Vorlons - who are they REALLY?
Don’t tell me.
Next episode: Acts Of Sacrifice.
[For those who comment below: As the title of my blog indicates, I'm watching B5 for the very first time so PLEASE refrain from posting plot/character spoilers/hints about upcoming episodes, or including links to pages with spoilers (unless you warn readers that they contain spoilers). More info about spoilers here. Thanks so much! - Debbie]
18 comments ↓
The fun has begun! You’re in the “roller coaster” zone now. Enjoy the ride! It’s been neat reading your comments, Debbie. I found this blog last month and have been lurking.
Dawn J
Hello to all the filkers commenting! I see Sherman was the first to write a filk. I’ll think of something eventually. It may not be until the end though. I wrote my first HP filk the month the final book was published!
Yes, I was also liking the asymetrical shape of the allien ship. Yes, it was a Narn that Sheridan rescued.
Sheridan sure got close to his staff pretty quick. Even giving up some lifeforce to Garabaldi before he even talked to him. Was this the reason? Or is he the type of leader that has to trust the worth of the staff he was put in charge of?
The alien rescued by Sheridan was indeed a Narn.
About the likeness between Sheridan and Kirk, I just thought about that when I rewatched ST:TOS recently! He reminds me of the early Kirk in the 1st season, when he was a bit more vulnerable and occasionally had a few self-doubts, and was not that much of a womaniser as later.
You’re a bit ahead of your time, btw - your still in season 2 of B5, but last two entries are titled “Season 3″
Mandagora: Thanks for pointing out that typo, I’ve fixed it.
A_Tim: Good points re: Sheridan!
Thanks, Dawn. And good luck with the songwriting!
IIRC, those aliens were named after Whitley Strieber, who wrote about alien abductions and such.
We won’t tell you.
Sheridan is the best sort of leader, one who holds it as an unquestioned tenet that loyalty and responsibility run both ways. The moment he accepts command of somebody then they become *his* responsibility and he will go way out on a limb or put himself in danger for them whether he knows them (like Susan) or not (like Garibaldi). We saw this with Garibaldi, right at the start, and we will see this many more times in all sorts of ways, because it’s absolutely central to Sheridan’s personality.
It’s also the kind of leadership that inspires loyalty amongst his subordinates - it might not even occur to Sheridan that he might not be able to trust them, because he’s someone who gives trust so easily to his people and so expects it back in the same unquestioning way. (And fortunately he has Ivanova and Garibaldi to counterbalance any potential shortage in the cynicism department!)
When the show was first on, the fans and JMS used to label them as “a regular episode” (just basic storytelling, not really connected to The Great Plot-Arc), a “wham!” episode (significant to the Arc), and a “WHAMMMM!” episode.
Trouble is - it’s hard to tell which of the 3 any specific episode is, until much, much later. So much foreshadowing, and so much FAKE foreshadowing. Sometimes, JMS was “The Great Maker”, and sometimes he was “that B*STARD!”
The Narn Sheriden rescued is named Ta’Lon, and he shows up again later on in the series.
The aliens are called the “Streibs”, after Whitley Streiber, a science fiction writer who also claims that he has been abducted several times by aliens (written about in various books, the most famous of which was Communion). Yes, I think he’s a loon, why do you ask?
Delenn’s comment about walking into darkness and fire echoes the words she spoke at the rebirth ceremony: “Will you follow me into fire, into storm, into darkness, into death? And the nine said yes.” As we come to realize, the Minbari have a ritual for everything.
“But it sounds as if she’s in for a difficult time.”
Well, yes–but the entire galaxy is in for a difficult time, whether they sign up for it (as Delenn did) or not. The avalanche has started; it is too late for the pebbles to vote.
And from here on out it really does feel kind of like an avalanche, most of the time, through the end of season 4. JMS originally had a five-year deal informally with the studio because he had a five-year plot arc in mind from the very beginning. In the middle of the show’s run, they told him they were only going to give him four, so he compacted everything to fit and cut out a lot of the extraneous stuff (you haven’t gotten to that point yet, but it’s coming up–fasten your seat belts, you’ll need them). Then, at the end of season 4, the studio decided the ratings were so good they were going to give him another year for a total of five years. But he had already finished up his major arc in season 4 because he thought he had to, so season 5 is in a lot of ways quite different from the first four. I think it gets a bad rap from fans, but that’s life.
Well, that’s not exactly what happened re: season 5. Every season of the show B5 was teetering on the brink of cancellation. They never knew for sure if they would be renewed until very late. This happened with season 4 and as it was looking like they wouldn’t be renewed, some of the major story arcs that would have carried over into the beginning of season 5 were wrapped up for the end of season 4. And the show would have been canceled if TNT Network hadn’t stepped in to pick up the show for syndication and it’s last season. (It really had nothing to do with the studio, as it was a syndicated show, they weren’t the ones making the renewal decision.)
But I agree about season 5. A lot of fans give it a bad rap but while there may be some bumps it’s still very good and very important to the over-all B5 story.
There’s a funny little practical joke soundclip from one of the blooper collections involving Ramirez — I’ll send it to you.
Maybe one of the things about Season 5 was the fact that we all stopped watching the show once all the episodes were aired. But we watched repeats of Season 1 (or watched our tapes), watched repeats of Season 2 (or watched our tapes, or were now showing them to our freinds), watched repeats of Season 3 & 4, then headed into Season 5. Many in the audience probably seen Season 2 three times but Season 5 once, so their memory of Season 5’s worth may have been tainted by how little time they spent with it.
Tirtzah: JMS has told the whole story in the script books (Available at http://www.babylon5scripts.com/ — and I should point out that if you want the extra special Volume 15 you don’t have much time to order, um, everything) and from what he says, all the seasons were always under threat of cancellation, but the end of Season 4 was the sharpest–there was going to be No More Show. Until Doug Netter pulled a serious bit of maneuvering with the TNT execs at a meeting and got the final season, at which point they had to run around (PHYSICALLY run around, at a convention) to FIND all their actors and re-sign their contracts so they could FILM a fifth season. There was drama.
(WB had been paying for the show up until that point, but they sold it to TNT when they killed PTEN and formed The WB–and TNT bought the four seasons and four to-be-made TV movies… and then Doug Netter said, “Y’know, it’s a shame you’re not getting the whole show, there’s this whole fifth season that the WB didn’t want to make.” And the TNT execs were all “Really? Wow, um, could we make that, too?”)
… Anyway, we’re getting ahead of ourselves.
Season 2! It’s awesome! And fan-favorite scene coming up in Acts!
As I recall, PTEN as a legal entity was effectively dissolved after the 2nd or 3rd season - and B5/JMS was in a very unusual position of producing a show for a full season (or maybe 2) for a company that had been effectively dissolved. It made for rather interesting legal problems, money problems, etc.
Also, the actors had originally signed 4-year contracts, and with any situation where the original contract is up on a successful show you could expect people to want a significant boost in pay if new contracts were signed. I think SAG rules even require certain things. On the other hand, if old contracts got EXTENDED you had a different legal situation. And time got to be very tight. So the “Will there be a 5th year?” question had a LOT of complicating factors. Fortunately, you don’t have to go through all that in real time (with different sides reporting different things about the legal situation when obviously both sides could not be telling the truth). You know that there are 5 seasons, so you don’t go through the “Will it get renewed?” anxiety every year. Not the “I’m pretty sure it will be but I’m waiting for the fall lineups to be announced” anxiety, but the “The best guess is that this has maybe 1 chance in 5 of being renewed” type of anxiety. Every year.
Part of the problem was the lack of Independent TV stations that had room for Syndicated programming. Between season 1 and season 5 the Networks (including the new Networks) were signing up the Independent stations left and right. So the amount of weekly hours available in a typical TV Market for Syndicated programming was cut by something like 75% over those years. It was a HUGE struggle.
Phil said
“It’s also the kind of leadership that inspires loyalty amongst his subordinates - it might not even occur to Sheridan that he might not be able to trust them, because he’s someone who gives trust so easily to his people and so expects it back in the same unquestioning way. (And fortunately he has Ivanova and Garibaldi to counterbalance any potential shortage in the cynicism department!)”
Don’t forget that one of the very first problems Sheridan had to face was that his Chief of Security had been shot in the back. Even for a person who might not normally be cynical, that sort of thing HAS to put you on your toes.
And then, when Garibaldi was recovering, Sheridan walks in on him when Garibaldi is contemplating suicide (loading the gun, unloading the gun, loading the gun, unloading the gun, etc.). Sheridan handles that situation very well. Not confrontational, but showing support - but not endless support either. More “I’m willing to trust you (and I’m going out on a limb to do so), but you have to choose what you want - and soon.”
Phil Allcock @8: Sheridan is the sort of boss I’ve been lucky enough to work under once or twice, whose signature statement could be summed up when one of their subordinates messed up and the client came in to scream at the subordinate. They stepped in, got the client out, and chewed out the messer-up worse than the client would have, ending with “Nobody gets to tell off my people but me.” As you say, the loyalty goes both ways.
I love the name “General Hague”, playing between the actual names “General Alexander Haig” (who was a big name in the US armed forces at the time) and The Hague, which is of course a place of judgment.