What an AMAZING episode. Apologies in advance for the incoherence of this report, but I’m very short on time this evening.
Major Ed Ryan: That’s what makes this war different from anything we’ve gone through before. This time, we know everyone we kill.
Major Ryan is a great character. Sad about General Hague being killed.
G’Kar seems to genuinely want to help. As Delenn pointed out when she left for Minbar, G’Kar certainly has changed, hasn’t he?
Say, didn’t the actor above appear in B5 before? Wasn’t he part of Psi Corps? Or am I misremembering? I’m sure I’ve seen him in the series before.
Cool to see an Asian female captain! Even though she didn’t last through the episode. At least she died bravely and heroically. 
Scary and effective scene at ISN. Up to now, we’ve only seen ISN from a viewer’s point of view, not behind the scenes. Now we find out how restricted and censored the news has been up to now.
I was deeply moved when Ivanova, Garibaldi and Franklin each voted to fight instead of surrendering after Sheridan gave them the choice. They know the stakes and they know their chances of success are low, yet they still choose to fight.
Delenn’s speech was fantastic.
Delenn: “Three years. For three years I warned you this day was coming. But you would not listen. Pride, you said, presumption. And now the Shadows are on the move. The Centauri and the younger worlds are at war, the Narns have fallen. Even the Humans are fighting one another. The pride was yours, the presumption was yours. For a thousand years we have been awaiting for fulfillment of prophecy, and when it finally happens, you scorn it, you reject it. Because you no longer believe it yourselves. ‘We stand between the candle and the star, between the darkness and the light.’ You say the words, but your hearts are empty, your ears closed to the truth. You stand for nothing but your own petty interests. “The problems of others are not our concern.” I do not blame you for standing silent in your shame. You, who knew what was coming, but refused to take up the burden of this war. If the warrior caste will not fight, then the rest of us will. If the Council has lost its way, if it will not lead, if we have abandoned our covenant with Valen, the Council should be broken, as was prophesied. We must stand with the others now, before it’s too late. Between the worker caste and the religious caste we control two thirds of our forces. Do you, I say, listen to the voice of your conscience? Break the Council, and come with we. Our time of isolation is over. We move now, together, or not at all.”
I cheered when some of the Grey Council followed Delenn.
Great to find out a bit more about Sheridan’s past by seeing his communication with his father. His dad seems very down-to-earth yet savvy of what Sheridan must be going through.
Nice use of Draal’s hologram technology. Except I think they should have gotten Draal’s help in this battle! I know Sheridan said that Draal was their “ace in the hole,” but was he that sure that B5 would survive this fight?
Great space battle scenes! The computer graphics show a huge improvement over the first season.
The fight scene inside the ship was disturbing and saddening, especially seeing the Narn being shot down one after another. And knowing that the “enemy” were sent by Earthforce against their own kind! Very depressing.
Woohoo, Delenn to the rescue!
The Captain seems grateful. 
The rest of Sheridan’s staff seems to approve of his blossoming romance with Delenn.
And B5 declares its independence!!! Whoa. The crowds cheer, but as the sign at the end of the episode foreshadows, the Bad Guys back on Earth are bound to respond to Sheridan’s “act of sedition”.
Next episode: Ceremonies of Light and Dark.
[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]
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“Delenn: [Delenn's fleet arrives after Earth Alliance attacks B5] This is Ambassador Delenn of the Minbari. Babylon 5 is under our protection. Withdraw or be destroyed!
Earth Force Officer: Negative! We have authority here. Do not force us to engage your ship.
Delenn: Why not? Only one human captain has ever survived battle with a Minbari Fleet. He is behind me. You are in front of me. If you value your lives, be somewhere else! ”
Just one of Delenn’s best lines ever.
Hooray for D-Day, err, Weird Ernie, err, Major Ryan!
The actor playing Gen. Hague was unavailable for this episode… because he’d taken a similar role on “Deep Space 9.” Because, y’know, the Trek-B5 feud needed more fuel… sigh…
To be more precise, the way JMS describes it, having checked and rechecked the actor’s availability for B5, they were told when they moved to commit that he, or his agent, had accidentally double-booked him for that time, and he was going with the show that was offering more money.
Moving on…various actors played two or three roles in the series. Robin Sachs (Ethan in Buffy) was a Minbari, a Narn, and probably other things besides. I don’t think this was one of them, though.
JMS on interactions with the real world and the health of actors
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Funny thing is, how much as you note the show corresponds to some of the things Mira’s been through…some of it intentional, knowing that if I dig into this area, it’ll come out of her with the ring of truth…some of it quite unintentional. When I finished writing “Severed Dreams,” and the actors got it, Mira’s first words to me were, “So…how long DID you live in Yugoslavia?” The parallel wasn’t intentional…but it fit.
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Something to bear in mind when rewatching, btw…it was during this scene that Jerry fell and broke his right arm and right wrist. And they still had one last scene to film. He stuck it out and they rolled film, to get the shot of him and Zack at the end of the fight. Next time you watch it, keep an eye on the right arm as he releases the helmet…it bends in directions never intended by evolution.
I agree, but Jerry was determined to do it, and more time would’ve been lost arguing about it than it took to do the takes.
The arm broken was his right arm and wrist; we worked it into the show, in a way which actually worked well with what went right before it. Jerry’s doing fine now.
Oddly enough, Jerry’s broken arm tied *beautifully* into something that had happened in the course of the episode we were filming, so all it took was a line or two to sell it.
The funny thing is…in the very next episode after the incident, there was a line in the script I’d written *weeks* earlier, and it freaked everybody out…when Garibaldi asks someone to do something, and the person responds, “What, you’ve got a broken arm or something?” At first some people thought I’d put it in there to pink Jerry, but it’d been there the whole time. Similarly, in the Claudia incident, there was a line (cut for time) where Sheridan says talking to the Drazi is like trying to talk to your right foot…and Ivanova replies “I’ll have you know I have a sublime relationship with my right foot.” Yep, the next day…that’s the foot she broke.
Just recently, I was trying to explain time travel to one of the actors. I used the analogy, over lunch, “Suppose you finished eating your chicken here, then got sick as a dog a few hours later, then got in a time machine to go back in time and warn yourself not to eat the chicken.” Well, a few hours after that…the actor got sick as a dog from the chicken.
I have been asked, expressly, not to make any further mention of actors’ body parts in scripts….
There’s a wonderful take on the blooper reel for this season where Sheridan’s question “Where’s General Hague?” is met with a deadpan “He’s off doing Deep Space Nine”…
JMS had Everett McGill in mind for the Major Ryan role, but told his people to get ‘that McGill guy’. They got
Bruce McGill, who was a bit big for the uniform that was prepared for Everett. Bruce did a great job, JMS enjoyed it, the tough-fit uniform seemed right. The shot on the Alexander were Ryan was asking his now second in command, Trainer, how was he going to tell the wife’s of General Hauge and the captain of the destroyed ship about their losses, became more powerfull by him knowing those commanders on both sides of the current struggle.
Severed Dreams was the winner of the 1997 Hugo award for Best Dramatic Presentation.
I love Sheridan’s dad. He’s another in a long line of superachievers who’ve given up their Big Man status for the farm (Heinlein wrote more than a few of these). Particularly, though this stays with me:
Sheridan (Dad): “What was the first thing I taught you?”
Sheridan (Captain): “Never start a fight, but always finish it.”
We’ve been seeing the runup to that, and that philosophy, since Sheridan came aboard. Now he’s said it; now he has a fight on his hands that he didn’t start.
Not sure whether that or Delenn’s lines, quoted by Allison @1, are the best in this ep. Both stood out as among the best in the series, to me.
Episode won the Hugo, and well deserved. The Earth Civil War (which begins in earnest with this three-parter) is probably my favourite of the arcs, even above the Shadow War, because it’s much more personal.
I just love Delenn’s trash talking, a real punch the air moment. I can almost imagine Sheriden going, “Yeah, my GIRLFRIEND’S gonna kick your ass!”
I obviously have no problem with women in authority.
Out of all five seasons I think that I like Delenn’s speech/lines here the best. (as posted above). “If you value your lives, be somewhere else! ”
Yes, Delenn can kick some A**
Yes, Delenn’s speech to the earth forces is THE ultimate sequence in the whole series.
This is my favorite B5 episode. Just as Sheridan thinks he’s beat, in comes the cavalry, in the form of Minbari war cruisers. Not many TV shows can move me like this one did.
Back at MarCon, a few years ago when JMS was there with several of the actors…okay it was 1996, just a few years ago, I ended up with an authographed copy of the script to this episode. So, in re-watching this episode, once for the pleasure, once for the JMS commentary, then again to follow along in the script to see the slight variations in what was said and such and to see the little description and stage direction given. I think I got it in a charity auction. This episode would have aired just before that MarCon, 1996, May 3-5. 315, (#59) Interludes and Examinations was shown at the con just ahead of the air date to a very packed room.
Like everyone else, I loved Delenn’s “*HE* is behind me. *You* are in front of me. … Be somewhere else.” (I replayed just that speech some 5 times before moving on. Mind you, I had replayed her speech with the Grey Council some 8 times.)
Yup. Love. Pure love.
I remember that JMS also said at the time that Hague was not supposed to die — that he (Hague) had a roll to play later on. But no one crosses JMS with impunity. So, Hague dies, Ryan steps in for this episode, and JMS found another way to do what he wanted to do later.
But then, JMS was (and is) convinced that Paramount *stole* Bab5 and called it “Deep Space Nine.” There are lots of parallels, and almost as many opinions. JMS was particularly miffed, however, that Paramount came out with DS9 — two years *after* he gave them the first chance to produce Bab5. They kept the proposal for a long time, according to JMS, before refusing it.
I know which one I *preferred,* but I have no authority at all on how independently they were, or were not, developed.
The feuding that went on among the fans was ugly, sometimes. Sort of like Obama supporters vs Hillary supporters. Such a furor over so (really) little.
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