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2005-01-01 Entry: "New Years Eve (Part 1)"

New Years Eve, and only six episodes of B5 season 1 to go... but before we ramp up for the end of the series, we've got to get through "Legacies" first - the Minbari are touring a fallen war leader through a whole bunch of systems, and their ship comes in with gun ports open. Now, Sinclair is obviously suffering temporary amnesia and has forgotten that it's a sign of respect and not an imminent attack (and basically the misunderstanding that started the Earth-Minbari war). And Talia and Ivanova battle over a latent telepath whose powers have just awoken.

Neroon makes his first appearance here, and he's as suspicious and antagonistic as ever. And of course, the body goes missing, which is more than a little suspicious after the Minbari insisted that only they could guard the body before the viewing.

Ah, and Sinoval gets his first mention - he comitted suicide when the order for surrender went out. I'd wondered where the Dark, Distorted Mirror star came from and now we see that in this timeline he was just a footnote in history.

And then the big two parter - "A Voice In The Wilderness" - the planet below them suddenly sends out a signal, Sinclair is receiving strange holographic messages from an alien calling for help, Draal comes to visit Delenn, and Mars erupts into conflict.

We get the first mention of Lise here, as Garibaldi tries to contact her during the near-communication blackout on Mars.

And we get Sinclair and Ivanova rescuing dying alien from the planet. Of course, all the diplomatic tension, crazy Londo adventures, and meaningful sacrifice are in the second part, so a lot of part one is setup.

Part two gives us another bunch of aliens claiming the planet, an Earthforce cruiser also wanting control of the planet, and Londo, Draal, and Delenn going down to the planet to help the dying alien.

And Lise is apparently expecting a baby with someone other than who she's married to later in the series... so the questions become what happened to this husband, and what happened to the baby?

"Babylon Squared" sees the temporary return of Babylon 4, which disappeared 24 hours after becoming operational. They're trapped in some kind of temporal flux, and Sinclair and Garibaldi have to go in to rescue the crew.

This is a neat little episode, but only half as neat as the two parter in a couple of series time. They set up just enough to be able to tell a whole second story during the same time frame, but it'd be nice not to have to wait two series for an explanation of the mysterious blue space-suited figure, or Zathras' cryptic comments.

Meanwhile, Minbari politics takes center stage, as Delenn faces the rest of the Gray Council. They want Delenn to leave her position on the council and become their leader. She refuses the offer, which no-one has ever done, which may force the council to make her outcast...