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b5_revisitedWar Without End, Part One
Season 3 Episode 16
The Non-Shipper Version
This week and next we should have two posts! One will be a shippy one contributed by a special guest.
This is because so much happens in this epic two parter and it is too easy for me to get distracted and besides you really don't want me chanting 'John and Delenn, sitting in a tree, K*I*S*S*I*N*G' over and over and over...
So here we go. No shipping! Well, not much anyway...
We start out on Minbar. All is blues and greens, crystals and light and falling water.
In a long corridor illuminated by stained glass, Rangers walk by, and bow in passing to a hooded figure. A Minbari rushes up to the figure, carrying a chest. It is over 900 years old, and contains a letter addressed to Jeffrey David Sinclair.
On Babylon 5, Corwin intercepts a distress call from Sector 14, which has been under quarantine for the last 3 years. The message is from Ivanova. Babylon 5 is being overrun, and is about to be destroyed.
Sinclair sits on a bench, reading his letter. Rathenn approaches and tells him his ship is ready. After they exchange what sounds suspiciously like final farewells, a Vorlon glides up to Rathenn, who comments:
“I have the strangest feeling I will never see him again.”
The Vorlon replies, “He is the closed circle. He is returning to the beginning”
And Rathenn asks, “The beginning of what?”
Sheridan and Ivanova listen to a recording of the distress call overheard from Sector 14. Garibaldi thinks the signal is from the future. He has the most experience with the time crazy, and is sent to go check it out.
Zach is checking people into the station when he sees a familiar identicard. It is Sinclair, who remembers Zach because of course he does. Sinclair has an interesting scar on his cheek.
“Will you be staying long?”
“That is a far more interesting question than you might suspect.”
Delenn sits in a darkened chamber. Lennier enters looking for her. She knows Sinclair has arrived. Lighting a candle she recites, “We are Grey. We stand between the candle and the star.”
Obviously upset she tells Lennier, “He is my friend.” Lennier replies “I know. But it must be done. Or the dream will die.” We see she received a letter addressed to her in the same hand as the one Sinclair received.
Marcus is in the war room, discussing the situation with Sheridan. Delenn arrives and gives Sheridan his marching orders. They are to go to the White Star. At once. Chop chop.
She tells Marcus he is also needed, and Ivanova, and…one other.
Sinclair enters behind Sheridan and the two meet again, for the first time since the Mars riots.
Garibaldi comes in on the screen and Sinclair fades away from his field of vision. The chief is trying a long range scan into Sector 14. The temporal rift is much larger. What’s more, there is a tachyon field being transmitted into the center of the rift, and it is coming from Epsilon 3.
We see Zathras(!) looking at a field of pulsing lights, shaking his head.
Pulling back we see two Zathri(!) on what looks like one of the catwalks the criss-cross the central corridor of the Great Machine on Epsilon 3. Lightning moves up and down the core of the Machine. Zathras says it’s bad, but don’t distract Draal, Zathras has been told what to do, and that is what Zathras will do. They run off, stage right.
Sheridan thinks they should go to Epsilon 3. Delenn says no, child, hush now, and promises to explain it to everyone later.
Garibaldi is still scanning, and intercepts Ivanova’s distress call again. He can’t get a clearer signal.
Sheridan tries to get info out of Sinclair. That doesn’t work either.
Garibaldi is still trying to pull in the signal. Now he has visual of Susan in C&C. The Captain’s dead. The defense grid is down. They are boarding us. Garibaldi has rigged the fusion reactor. It is Shadow ships, hundreds of them, attacking Babylon 5. Weapons are locked, a bright light, and…that is all we see.
Aboard the White Star, Delenn is pacing and twisting her hands. Sheridan asks for hiscookie explanation and she asks if he trusts her. He does! So she asks everyone to sit for the presentation. Susan gives her such a look. Delenn gives a history lesson.
Can I just pause and say how much I love this? It is time travel, and circular history, and tying events from Season 1, 2, and 3 all together.
Babylon 4 must survive to go back 1000 years to provide a base of operations for the Minbari and other worlds fighting the Shadows. The Shadows tried to destroy Babylon 4 six years prior, before it went online. The White Star is the ship that saved it, and presumably also moved it backwards to be the base in the old war.
They argue back and forth a little, with Marcus going for blind obedience (understanding not being required) and Susan declaring she will wait in the car. Sheridan checks in with Garibaldi, who has seen the station’s destruction quite a few times now, over and over. The end is dated 8 days from now.
Sinclair thinks he and Sheridan would work well together like Butch and Sundance, Lewis and Clark, Lucy and Ethel. Sheridan is convinced by this and off they go. Sheridan tells Garibaldi to go back to the barn. (I am currently re-watching Haven and can I say that phrase gives me chills?)
Lennier breaks in to tell Delenn they are being followed. It’s a small ship, like a shuttle, and he thinks it came from Epsilon 3. Delenn has been expecting some equipment courtesy of Draal, to enable them to control the unstable time field in Sector 14. Draal can’t come with them so he sent one of his aides.
Zathras! enters in a flurry of dropped equipment and apology and explanation. Delenn is decidedly and hilariously discomposed by him. Zathras is looking for The One. Sinclair remembers him from their last excursion on Babylon 4. He tells Zathras, when he sees him again, in Sinclair’s past and his future, he shouldn’t say anything.
Zathras agrees to do this; Zathras is good at doings not understandings. He tries to not tell them a lot more, but is forestalled by his bad memory. About this time my head always starts to hurt, but in a good way.
Sinclair asks Sheridan for a favor.
Garibaldi gets a message from Sheridan to go home and stay home. This was the favor. And Garibaldi is not to know that Sinclair was there. Sinclair watches Garibaldi go and says ‘good-bye old friend.’ Sinclair sees a vision of Babylon 5 being destroyed; he and Garibaldi are fighting side by side. Sinclair vows he will not let this future happen.
They approach the Rift. Zathras hands out belt buckles for everyone. Susan mentions the pilot who died of old age after entering and returning from the Rift last time.
They enter the Rift. Okay, I can’t resist. Delenn and Sheridan are holding hands! And Sinclair gives them such. a. look. Pained and pleased at the same time.
Back to our non-shippy recap:
Back on Babylon 5, Garibaldi returns and Zach tells him Sinclair was there, but took off with the Captain and everybody else on the White Star. Garibaldi is nonplussed.
The White Star comes out of the Rift into normal space. They look for the Shadow fighters and the bomb.
Garibaldi goes to his quarters and finds a message from Sinclair, but it is password protected.
We go back and forth between Garibaldi’s frustration at figuring out the password and the battle to defeat the bomb. Sinclair left a good-bye message, saying he couldn’t let Garibaldi come as he would never return.
Susan targets the bomb manually and destroys it, but Sheridan’s time stabilizer is hit by a random bolt of energy and he vanishes. He is unstuck in time. Past, future? “Cannot say. Saying, I would know. Do not know, so cannot say.”
Zathras can never have anything nice.
Sinclair takes over and is The Man. They have to complete the mission and put the future back on track. So off they go, and Sinclair looks good in the chair. (Better than Bester anyway!)
Sheridan, hand-cuffed, falls to the floor. A carpeted floor. Men in tall boots surround him, and one takes a random kick to his mid-section.
As he is pulled off the floor we see they are Centauri guards, and he is wearing a nice black leather ensemble rather than his Army of Light uniform. He is confronted by an elderly Londo Mollari, apparently the Emperor now.
“Welcome back from the Abyss, Sheridan. Your timing, as always, is quite exceptional. Just in time to die.”
Back on the White Star Susan, Marcus, and Sinclair are discussing strategy. They plan to board Babylon 4 and plant the homing beacon while the defenses are down due to the EMP when the bomb exploded. Delenn is notably staring out into space and not participating.
Sinclair approaches her, and tells her everything will be all right. He knows what’s coming. Delenn says she is sorry, but he tells her, don’t be.
“All my life, I’ve had doubts about who I am, where I belonged. Now, I’m like the arrow that springs from the bow. No hesitation. No doubts. The path is clear.”
Marcus is looking at him with great suspicion.
Londo tells Sheridan he is being put out of Londo’s misery, and his death is a fitting punishment for his crimes.
Crime of neglect. Crime of convenience. Dark minions of the Shadows remained behind after the war, and Centauri Prime is burning.
The White Star attaches to Babylon 4. They have to onboard a lot of equipment without anyone noticing and Susan has a plan. She and Marcus head off to implement.
Sinclair sends Zathras back to unload the equipment. Then he and Delenn head off.
“Ready?”
“Why do your people always ask that just before you are about to do something massively unwise?”
“Tradition.”
TO BE CONTINUED….
Discussion:
Since the Babylon Project was a joint Minbari-Earth Alliance joint, why didn't Delenn recognize Babylon 4 until she got to the station? Was she not involved in the plans for the earlier stations? Why not?
Let's discuss predestination and free will, and their relation to time travel, shall we? You go first.
Later, after Part 2, let's get into what would have happened if they hadn't imported Sheridan into the story and Sinclair had been left in place as Commander of the station. How would these episodes have been different? How the same? Keep it in mind as you watch. Much of the retro-fitting due to the substitution is in Part 2.
I love Delenn's plaintive 'This was not supposed to happen. This was not the plan.' Girlfriend thinks too much. First time through I thought Sinclair's 'I know what's coming,' was about Sheridan's fate (myopic I know) but it is so much more poignant that he knows his own fate and is happy with it. And this time through I was struck by the wheels turning in Marcus' head as he overhears their conversation. The look on his face...
Season 3 Episode 16
The Non-Shipper Version
This week and next we should have two posts! One will be a shippy one contributed by a special guest.
This is because so much happens in this epic two parter and it is too easy for me to get distracted and besides you really don't want me chanting 'John and Delenn, sitting in a tree, K*I*S*S*I*N*G' over and over and over...
So here we go. No shipping! Well, not much anyway...
We start out on Minbar. All is blues and greens, crystals and light and falling water.
In a long corridor illuminated by stained glass, Rangers walk by, and bow in passing to a hooded figure. A Minbari rushes up to the figure, carrying a chest. It is over 900 years old, and contains a letter addressed to Jeffrey David Sinclair.
On Babylon 5, Corwin intercepts a distress call from Sector 14, which has been under quarantine for the last 3 years. The message is from Ivanova. Babylon 5 is being overrun, and is about to be destroyed.
Sinclair sits on a bench, reading his letter. Rathenn approaches and tells him his ship is ready. After they exchange what sounds suspiciously like final farewells, a Vorlon glides up to Rathenn, who comments:
“I have the strangest feeling I will never see him again.”
The Vorlon replies, “He is the closed circle. He is returning to the beginning”
And Rathenn asks, “The beginning of what?”
Sheridan and Ivanova listen to a recording of the distress call overheard from Sector 14. Garibaldi thinks the signal is from the future. He has the most experience with the time crazy, and is sent to go check it out.
Zach is checking people into the station when he sees a familiar identicard. It is Sinclair, who remembers Zach because of course he does. Sinclair has an interesting scar on his cheek.
“Will you be staying long?”
“That is a far more interesting question than you might suspect.”
Delenn sits in a darkened chamber. Lennier enters looking for her. She knows Sinclair has arrived. Lighting a candle she recites, “We are Grey. We stand between the candle and the star.”
Obviously upset she tells Lennier, “He is my friend.” Lennier replies “I know. But it must be done. Or the dream will die.” We see she received a letter addressed to her in the same hand as the one Sinclair received.
Marcus is in the war room, discussing the situation with Sheridan. Delenn arrives and gives Sheridan his marching orders. They are to go to the White Star. At once. Chop chop.
She tells Marcus he is also needed, and Ivanova, and…one other.
Sinclair enters behind Sheridan and the two meet again, for the first time since the Mars riots.
Garibaldi comes in on the screen and Sinclair fades away from his field of vision. The chief is trying a long range scan into Sector 14. The temporal rift is much larger. What’s more, there is a tachyon field being transmitted into the center of the rift, and it is coming from Epsilon 3.
We see Zathras(!) looking at a field of pulsing lights, shaking his head.
Pulling back we see two Zathri(!) on what looks like one of the catwalks the criss-cross the central corridor of the Great Machine on Epsilon 3. Lightning moves up and down the core of the Machine. Zathras says it’s bad, but don’t distract Draal, Zathras has been told what to do, and that is what Zathras will do. They run off, stage right.
Sheridan thinks they should go to Epsilon 3. Delenn says no, child, hush now, and promises to explain it to everyone later.
Garibaldi is still scanning, and intercepts Ivanova’s distress call again. He can’t get a clearer signal.
Sheridan tries to get info out of Sinclair. That doesn’t work either.
Garibaldi is still trying to pull in the signal. Now he has visual of Susan in C&C. The Captain’s dead. The defense grid is down. They are boarding us. Garibaldi has rigged the fusion reactor. It is Shadow ships, hundreds of them, attacking Babylon 5. Weapons are locked, a bright light, and…that is all we see.
Aboard the White Star, Delenn is pacing and twisting her hands. Sheridan asks for his
Can I just pause and say how much I love this? It is time travel, and circular history, and tying events from Season 1, 2, and 3 all together.
Babylon 4 must survive to go back 1000 years to provide a base of operations for the Minbari and other worlds fighting the Shadows. The Shadows tried to destroy Babylon 4 six years prior, before it went online. The White Star is the ship that saved it, and presumably also moved it backwards to be the base in the old war.
They argue back and forth a little, with Marcus going for blind obedience (understanding not being required) and Susan declaring she will wait in the car. Sheridan checks in with Garibaldi, who has seen the station’s destruction quite a few times now, over and over. The end is dated 8 days from now.
Sinclair thinks he and Sheridan would work well together like Butch and Sundance, Lewis and Clark, Lucy and Ethel. Sheridan is convinced by this and off they go. Sheridan tells Garibaldi to go back to the barn. (I am currently re-watching Haven and can I say that phrase gives me chills?)
Lennier breaks in to tell Delenn they are being followed. It’s a small ship, like a shuttle, and he thinks it came from Epsilon 3. Delenn has been expecting some equipment courtesy of Draal, to enable them to control the unstable time field in Sector 14. Draal can’t come with them so he sent one of his aides.
Zathras! enters in a flurry of dropped equipment and apology and explanation. Delenn is decidedly and hilariously discomposed by him. Zathras is looking for The One. Sinclair remembers him from their last excursion on Babylon 4. He tells Zathras, when he sees him again, in Sinclair’s past and his future, he shouldn’t say anything.
Zathras agrees to do this; Zathras is good at doings not understandings. He tries to not tell them a lot more, but is forestalled by his bad memory. About this time my head always starts to hurt, but in a good way.
Sinclair asks Sheridan for a favor.
Garibaldi gets a message from Sheridan to go home and stay home. This was the favor. And Garibaldi is not to know that Sinclair was there. Sinclair watches Garibaldi go and says ‘good-bye old friend.’ Sinclair sees a vision of Babylon 5 being destroyed; he and Garibaldi are fighting side by side. Sinclair vows he will not let this future happen.
They approach the Rift. Zathras hands out belt buckles for everyone. Susan mentions the pilot who died of old age after entering and returning from the Rift last time.
They enter the Rift. Okay, I can’t resist. Delenn and Sheridan are holding hands! And Sinclair gives them such. a. look. Pained and pleased at the same time.
Back to our non-shippy recap:
Back on Babylon 5, Garibaldi returns and Zach tells him Sinclair was there, but took off with the Captain and everybody else on the White Star. Garibaldi is nonplussed.
The White Star comes out of the Rift into normal space. They look for the Shadow fighters and the bomb.
Garibaldi goes to his quarters and finds a message from Sinclair, but it is password protected.
We go back and forth between Garibaldi’s frustration at figuring out the password and the battle to defeat the bomb. Sinclair left a good-bye message, saying he couldn’t let Garibaldi come as he would never return.
Susan targets the bomb manually and destroys it, but Sheridan’s time stabilizer is hit by a random bolt of energy and he vanishes. He is unstuck in time. Past, future? “Cannot say. Saying, I would know. Do not know, so cannot say.”
Zathras can never have anything nice.
Sinclair takes over and is The Man. They have to complete the mission and put the future back on track. So off they go, and Sinclair looks good in the chair. (Better than Bester anyway!)
Sheridan, hand-cuffed, falls to the floor. A carpeted floor. Men in tall boots surround him, and one takes a random kick to his mid-section.
As he is pulled off the floor we see they are Centauri guards, and he is wearing a nice black leather ensemble rather than his Army of Light uniform. He is confronted by an elderly Londo Mollari, apparently the Emperor now.
“Welcome back from the Abyss, Sheridan. Your timing, as always, is quite exceptional. Just in time to die.”
Back on the White Star Susan, Marcus, and Sinclair are discussing strategy. They plan to board Babylon 4 and plant the homing beacon while the defenses are down due to the EMP when the bomb exploded. Delenn is notably staring out into space and not participating.
Sinclair approaches her, and tells her everything will be all right. He knows what’s coming. Delenn says she is sorry, but he tells her, don’t be.
“All my life, I’ve had doubts about who I am, where I belonged. Now, I’m like the arrow that springs from the bow. No hesitation. No doubts. The path is clear.”
Marcus is looking at him with great suspicion.
Londo tells Sheridan he is being put out of Londo’s misery, and his death is a fitting punishment for his crimes.
Crime of neglect. Crime of convenience. Dark minions of the Shadows remained behind after the war, and Centauri Prime is burning.
The White Star attaches to Babylon 4. They have to onboard a lot of equipment without anyone noticing and Susan has a plan. She and Marcus head off to implement.
Sinclair sends Zathras back to unload the equipment. Then he and Delenn head off.
“Ready?”
“Why do your people always ask that just before you are about to do something massively unwise?”
“Tradition.”
TO BE CONTINUED….
Discussion:
Since the Babylon Project was a joint Minbari-Earth Alliance joint, why didn't Delenn recognize Babylon 4 until she got to the station? Was she not involved in the plans for the earlier stations? Why not?
Let's discuss predestination and free will, and their relation to time travel, shall we? You go first.
Later, after Part 2, let's get into what would have happened if they hadn't imported Sheridan into the story and Sinclair had been left in place as Commander of the station. How would these episodes have been different? How the same? Keep it in mind as you watch. Much of the retro-fitting due to the substitution is in Part 2.
I love Delenn's plaintive 'This was not supposed to happen. This was not the plan.' Girlfriend thinks too much. First time through I thought Sinclair's 'I know what's coming,' was about Sheridan's fate (myopic I know) but it is so much more poignant that he knows his own fate and is happy with it. And this time through I was struck by the wheels turning in Marcus' head as he overhears their conversation. The look on his face...
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