[Previous entry: "The War With The Centauri"] [Main Index] [Next entry: "Film And A Half"]

2005-02-14 Entry: "On To The Movies..."

More war in "Movements Of Fire And Shadow" and the President has authorised the White Star fleet to start attacking the Centauri. But he wants to build a destroyer-class White Star, and needs the Minbari to agree before Earth will... so Delenn has to go back to Minbar... which is risky now that the Centauri are targeting jumpgates.

Vir meets with Franklin and Lyta because the Drazi aren't returning the bodies of Centauri lost in Drazi space during the war... and so they have to go to the Drazi homeworld... Although Lyta demands an extortionate amount of money for her services.

Londo is still in a cell with G'Kar. But the Drakh knock them unconscious and drag Mollari away. They perform some experiments on him.

The Narn and Drazi believe that the Alliance don't have the stomach for the war, so they're planning a secret strike against Centauri Prime. Amazingly, Michael manages to find out about it!

Delenn's White Star encounters four Centauri ships in hyperspace and is nearly destroyed.

Lyta and Franklin discover there were no Centauri on board their ships that were destroyed... only strange Shadow-tech attached to all the systems.

G'Kar continues writing in his cell. The Regent meets with Londo, but someone is telling him that he will be dead by morning... and that Londo will be Emperor. But his last order was to order all the ships away and turn off the planetary defence network, leaving the planet defenceless.

"The Fall Of Centauri Prime" picks up where the last episode ended - with the combined Drazi / Narn fleet attacking Centauri Prime directly.

The Drakh reveal themselves to Londo... how they want a new homeworld, how they want the Centauri beaten and dependent on the Drakh, how they have planted fusion bombs throughout the planet to ensure compliance, how the Regent had a Keeper that controlled his actions.

Delenn and Lennier are being very fatalistic about their drifting in hyperspace.

Londo says goodbye to G'Kar... but doesn't really tell him anything... he really should have mentioned the Drakh and the Keeper. G'Kar forgives Londo for his past actions. Londo submits himself to the Drakh. And then gives the surrender order... Sheridan wants Londo's help in finding Delenn... but the Drakh don't want to help.

Delenn manages to attract Centauri attention... and in their final moments, Lennier admits his love for Delenn. And then, the Centauri lock a tractor beam on them and tow them to safety.

Vir returns to Centauri Prime to meet with Londo... and on bursting in gets a frosty reception. Vir is appointed Ambassador to Babylon 5... mainly to keep him safe. And the rest of the Alliance is asked to leave.

And then Londo, alone, walks to his inauguration.

Ah... it was terrorists with an atomic bomb that destroyed San Diego...

And the Vorlon homeworld is off limits for one million years - until they've earned the right to go there.

G'Kar's cult of personality has indeed gotten out of hand... when he returns to the station in "The Wheel Of Fire" he finds a whole bunch of chanting Narns waving statues of him in customs. And Michael is forgetting times of meetings and then coming completely unprepared and clearly drunk. Garibaldi gets suspended until he works out his problem...

Narns keep coming to the station on a pilgrimage to learn from G'Kar.

The bombings of Psi-Corps installations appear to be the work of amateurs, but each bombing has the words Remember Byron painted nearby... and the money trail leads back to B5... so they're required to detain Lyta for questioning.

Lochley tries to have a heart-to-heart with Garibaldi... apparently her father was an alcoholic.

Lyta resists arrest... apparently you can't stop someone who's been touched by Vorlons... fortunately the President is there to stop her.

Lochley arranges for Lise to come to the station... Who suggests he come back to Mars to run Edgars business interests... and he sees a way out of the telepath problem frustrating him and the station (presumably Bester and Lyta).

Delenn gets a little frustrated at the Narns, who are boycotting all Alliance ships until G'Kar returns to the Narn homeworld to lead them. But during her rant she collapses. After some tests, Franklin finds that she's pregnant.

G'Kar decides to leave the station and travel the stars... and would like Lyta to go with him. Garibaldi gets control of the telepath funds that Lyta has been collecting.

And then we get Lyta's counter-proposal - there will actually be two accounts: one to help the telepaths, and the other to do all the covert things she wants done to create a force that can be used against Psi-Corps. In two years she'll check back and if he's held up his end of the bargain, then she'll remove the blocks that prevent him from harming Bester. In return, Garibaldi finds out how powerful Lyta is... she's the Vorlon's doomsday weapon, designed to end the Shadow War if they were out of other options... the telepathic equivalent of a thermonuclear weapon.

"Objects In Motion" sees Number One come to Babylon 5 and have trouble getting through customs on her Martian identification papers. She's here to meet Garibaldi, who's slightly sick due to lack of alcohol. And she brings good news - in the next couple of days, someone is going to try and kill him and Lise. Apparently it'll be an inside job within Edgars industries to hide the illegal medical research they've been doing.

They hold a going away party for G'Kar and Garibaldi to trap the assassin. They stop him, but one of the Narns decides to kill G'Kar at the same time and in the confusion, Lise is shot. Garibaldi uses Lyta to determine who hired the assassin - the entire board of Edgars Industries.

Lise and Garibaldi get married. G'Kar and Lyta leave the station. Zack turns up to see her off... but manages not to say anything again. Garibaldi confronts the board, and is definitely plays hardball - but then Tessa Halloran (Number One) has become the new head of intelligence for the Alliance. So the board have to resign... and if Garibaldi and Lise don't die of old age, a whole lot of money will be paid out to kill the ex-board members.

Two to go... although, really only one to go as the last is the show finale rather than the season finale... so on with "Objects At Rest" - so what is there still to wrap up? Lennier betraying the Rangers? The President wants a quiet departure... yeah, that's going to happen!

Ta'Lon arrives, looking for G'Kar... who sent for him before he left... and left him a message naming him the new Narn Ambassador to Babylon 5. Franklin appoints his replacement as he's leaving... of course, she was the only other doctor who was ever present in the show, so it wasn't really a tough choice!

Lennier arrives to help Delenn move. Tessa stays on the station, as she'd get more information there than back on Minbar... Garibaldi meets with the troublemakers in Edgars Industries... and appoints them all to the board.

The White Star that is returning the President to Minbar has a coolant leak in the weapons system, and the President gets trapped in with the leak. Lennier, who could hit the access panel and release him, instead chooses to leave him in there and run off, but then changes his mind and goes back to help, but the President has already got out on his own. Lennier takes a flyer and runs away...

You have to give one thing to the Minbari... they give good CGI... and Londo is at the Alliance headquarters when they arrive. Londo wants a drink, but there isn't any available... and his associates prevented him from bringing any of this own... Delenn almost catches a glimpse of Londo's Keeper. And Londo gives an urn to their child - when they turn 16 years old, they are to be given it.

Lennier is off trying to earn forgiveness... oh, and the urn has a Keeper in it...

The remaining 19 years are weighing heavily on Sheridan... and he decides to start recording his thoughts to his child so that there's something to pass on when he's gone... for his 21st birthday.

And then, "Sleeping In Light" set 19 years later. The President knows the end is coming - he's having dreams of Lorien...

Ivanova is an important General. Vir is Emperor (which places In The Beginning before this). Garibaldi has a daughter who is a big tennis player... and Franklin appears to be visiting then on Mars. And Franklin is still Chief of Xenobiological Research. And the Rangers are visiting all of them, calling them to Minbar.

So one final dinner party... and a toast to absent friends... G'Kar, Londo, Lennier, and Marcus. Now, we know Londo and G'Kar die at each others hands, and we saw Marcus die... so that just leaves Lennier's death a mystery.

And Ivanova is pretty angry and bitter here... I know some of it was due to the fallout of season 5 that never happened as the actress left.

Ah, and David Sheridan is out on Ranger training, which means they resolved the bit with the Keeper.

Delenn is current President of the Alliance, as John stepped down two years prior. And John is head of the Rangers. But when he leaves, Delenn would like Ivanova to take over the Rangers.

And then a last hoorah though Babylon 5 before they turn out the lights, because Sheridan wants to go out for a Sunday drive... So John departs on his own... wanders into Customs on B5, and finds no-one there. The current commander hurriedly arrives, and informs the former President that the station will be decommisioned and destroyed (it'd be a hazard to navigation if left intact), so there's just a couple of people plus the shutdown crew on board. Zack's still there... although he went back to Earth briefly in the interrim - he's also acquired a limp in the intervening years.

And then it's on to Corianus 6, where the Shadow War was ended and Lorien departed the known Universe. And then, Lorien reappears for one last cryptic conversation. And then, in a burst of light, he was gone.

All the airlocks were sealed, and there was no body on board the ship when the Minbari went out to find it.

And then, one final goodbye to B5... everyone comes to look round... they turn out the lights... and then, indeed, the station ends in fire.

And then, on to the movies... first "In The Beginning" (as I did The Gathering when the pilot was supposed to be watched... at the beginning). Now, we have the prequel movie... the history of the Earth / Minbari war, bookended by a couple of scenes on Centauri Prime, just before Sheridan and Delenn are released and G'Kar shows up. And of course it spoils the important plot point from season one - what happened at the Battle Of The Line and what the connection is between Delenn and Geoffrey Sinclair.

I like Londo's comments that the child who is asked "What do you want?" did a lot better with the question than he did... and so we have a story... a story of war, and battles, and a true story.

Okay, I know Londo takes a lot of blame on himself, but why is he blaming himself for the Earth / Minbari wars?

Sheridan is offered the Executive Officer position on the Prometheus... how things might have turned out differently if he'd been there for first contact with the Minbari.

Hey, it's Byron playing a Minbari! And there's our shot of Michael York.

Ah, now we get Londo's mistake... the Narn mission to have the Humans and Minbari negotiate was disrupted by the Centauri, because they thought it was an arms shipment, and they wanted to prevent closer co-operation between Humans and Narn.

So this ends where the Londo / G'Kar death scene begins in War Without End... with Delenn and Sheridan meeting in the prison cell.

Then we have to watch the two rubbish movies, first with "Thirdspace" which probably has something important to say but is basically a big goofy fourth season mess. Okay, yes, it's set between the two wars in Season 4, so we'd be about when Delenn wandered off to deal with the Minbari Civil War non-event.

Considering Claudia decided not to do the fourth season, she sure came back for a lot of the movies!

So they find a big object floating in hyperspace and tow it back to B5. Lyta goes suitably crazy (writing "There is Danger. Remember." all over her quarter's walls. IPx turn up wanting to investigate the thing. And it's over one million years old.

Zack admits his feelings to Lyta, but she's in a world of her own and doesn't really hear him babbling on. Ah, and that's why he doesn't ever say anything later... as he promises he won't ever bring it up again unless she mentions it.

As Lyta says, one mistake among many... so many others... so where are all the other Vorlon mistakes (other than the telepaths, which they clearly make the point about in the series)?