Babylon 5 3-13: A Late Delivery from Avalon

Episode:

57

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Writer:

J. Michael Straczynski

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Air Date:

22-Apr-1996

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures I'm writing about A Late Delivery From Avalon, an episode of Babylon 5 that definitely isn't Grail, though it's easy to get the two of them mixed up due to their King Arthury titles.

There's definitely something wrong with that screencap up there isn't there? I've been looking at it wondering when Babylon 5 put on so much weight. The CGI for the series was rendered full frame and then cropped to widescreen for the DVD release, but I think they accidentally stretched it wider this time instead.

But one thing that wasn't a mistake, was Sic Transit Vir being aired in this episode's place during the original TV run. It was felt that they needed something lighter after all the tension of the last few stories and they wanted their big guest star on screen during the first week of sweeps, so they switched the stories around. But the Lurker's Guide Master List says I should watch this one first so that's what I'm doing.

It's been ages since I've had to do this, but here's the order I'm watching the episodes in:

10 - Severed Dreams
11 - Ceremonies of Light and Dark
13 - A Late Delivery From Avalon
12 - Sic Transit Vir
14 - Ship of Tears

All this really means to you is that I won't be spoiling Sic Transit Vir. There'll be a whole lot of SPOILERS for this episode though, and the stories leading up to it.

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The episode begins with the first transport vessel arriving since the station's secession from the Earth Alliance. One ship turning up is better than no ships, but they could do with a lot more of them dropping in as they need the docking fees. They also need more warships protecting the station, but Sheridan has an idea for that.

Hey the C&C staff have new uniforms now! They're not the same black costumes the command crew have, and it looks a bit weird to have them just wearing shirts, but they are definitely uniforms.

Garibaldi's also struggling with financial problems down in the station's post office, as they're charging him 100 credits to receive his own package. That's three times the usual!

The guy at the desk points out that they just broke away from Earth and are lucky to be getting any mail at all (especially seeing as this was apparently Earth Force's postal service and those ships tend to want to blow them up now). The costs of getting mail has gone up and he has to pass those costs along to the consumer... though he could probably be less of a jerk about it. He seems to be under the impression he's in a sitcom and there's going to be a laugh track put over the scene, but Garibaldi isn't amused. Though what else is new; Garibaldi's been grumpy all season.

Personally I think it's a very good scene. I like that fencing over the slats along the wall as well; it looks nice, they should keep that. Plus on this rewatch I'm picking up on more things, like this box is likely full of the ingredients for the bagna càuda Garibaldi makes every year. But he ain't paying up, so he ain't getting it.

Okay now I'm getting confused. They said at the start that the first ship just arrived, and I assumed that's where the mail came from, but now there's a shot of it pulling up to the station and the passengers are still asleep.

Anyway, doesn't matter. The important thing is that one of the passengers is Michael York! I have to admit, I only know him as Basil Exposition in the Austin Powers movies, but he's one of the bigger stars the series was able to get. Logan's Run, that's what he was in! Just remembered.

He was apparently one of producer jms' first choices for Captain Sheridan, and when that didn't happen he went on to be one of his first choices to play the Captain Gideon in the spin-off series Crusade. Either he was too expensive or he was too British, but this turned out to be his only appearance in the series... well, except for a tiny tiny flashback later on.

This episode is the first time we actually get to see the inside of one the big passenger ships. This isn't it though, this is the weird fuzzy corridor lined with doors inside Michael York's monochrome dream.

Turns out that one of the doors is full of wind, but after a bit of struggle he gets that one shut again. Then he accidentally stumbles into a room full of lightning. Freaked out, he gets back outside and races down the corridor, running up to a floating sword. He reaches up and grabs it... by the blade. What is with people in 90s sci-fi shows always putting blades in their hands? In fact what was with any part of that dream?

It seems that every season we get the abstract artsy dream imagery. First there was Ivanova's nightmare in season one's Eyes, then Sheridan got a cryptic Kosh dream in season two's All Alone in the Night. I think those stories did it better though.

Aww, they didn't update the opening titles to put the command staff in their new uniforms! It's disappointing, but not entirely unexpected seeing as it took a year for them to acknowledge Ivanova's promotion. They should've planned ahead and made it so they could just swap in some new clips into the existing file!

ACT ONE

Act one begins with Dr Franklin examining a patient in Down Below. Turns out that Marcus had dragged him down here (again), claiming that people were catching Banta flu. And he was right! Now that they've broken away from Earth the B5 staff are entirely responsible for the conditions the lurkers are living in, but the best they can do right now is make sure they're inoculated so that when they eat out of the garbage they don't get too sick.

Marcus gets a good jms line here, saying that he used to think it was awful life is so unfair, but now he thinks it'd be worse if it was fair. Because it'd mean we deserved all the terrible things that happened to us. But then he kind of spoils it a little by carrying on talking when the point had already been made.

Maybe the episode was running short. That would explain why Franklin asks Marcus to explains his Ranger pin. We heard how it was made back in Matters of Honor, but here we learn what it means.

There are two figures on it, one human, one Minbari, and they're coming together in the middle to signify the two halves of their souls uniting against the common enemy. In fact the Minbari believe that their souls are literally being reborn in human bodies and we don't know that they're wrong. Nothing in the series has contradicted it.

The jewel in the centre is called Isil'zha, which means "the future". Makes me wonder what Z'ha'dum means. "The doom?" Apparently in Lord of the Rings Khazad-dûm means "Dwarf-excavation" or "Dwarf-mansion" but I don't think we can assume that the Minbari speak Dwarf.

The exposition break continues with Marcus discussing his training on Minbar. He was taught delight, respect, compassion, terror... a whole bunch of things. For some reason it's 'terror' that Franklin wants to hear more about, but Marcus assures him that he really doesn't.

I'm definitely getting the impression this is going to be a Marcus and Franklin story, as the two of them have made it to the customs area by the time Michael York finally comes aboard, dressed as King Arthur, complete with Excalibur.

They just changed the station's logo into a sword and now this guy's turned up. I guess jms must have had swords on the mind at the time. In fact he went on to make a series called Crusade featuring a ship called the Excalibur and tried to cast Michael York as the star.

Unfortunately this particular Michael York character is having a bit of trouble getting through security, as apparently a sword counts as a weapons violation.

Makes sense to me. If they started letting swords slip onto the station people could end up seriously injured or even killed!

Though it does raise the question of how he got the sword onto the transport ship to begin with. Unless he just pulled it from his dream.

Here's another question: why isn't a dude dressed as King Arthur stepping onto the station wielding Excalibur the end of the teaser instead of just the end of act one?

ACT TWO

Hey they've given station security new uniforms as well! I think I preferred the old ones though, as these guys look more like soldiers than police.

Marcus decides that he should be the one to try talking their rogue cosplayer down, as he's equipped with a British accent and has apparently memorised all of British mythology and literature. He explains to Arthur that the B5 staff weren't notified of his return, and he seems to be winning him over until he mentions Galahad and Lancelot. Seem that Arthur's well aware that they're both dead, and doesn't appreciate Marcus treating him like he's crazy. He's not mad! He's just a little bit late is all.

So Marcus tries to appeal to his sense of morality, saying that Franklin will be penalised if he doesn't examine him in Medlab, and that actually does the job. Though Arthur's keeping hold of the sword.

The music seems convinced that Arthur is the real deal, but Franklin remains sceptical. He must have ditched his ID before leaving the transport ship is all. So he's going to run his fingerprints and DNA and see if they're on record.

Franklin confronts Arthur with the fact that it's been 1700 years since he supposedly died, and I'm going to just assume that number's right because I know basically nothing about the story of King Arthur. I mean I know he pulled a sword from a stone and it ended up in a lake, and that he fought aliens from another dimension, but to be honest most of my knowledge comes from an episode of Doctor Who.

Arthur claims that he was taken to the island of Avalon to heal, and that they told him he would sleep for a while, until he was most needed. Which is presumably now.

They've changed the meeting room table again! Now it's got the new sword and shield logo on it. I think I preferred the old one though to be honest, as this one's too colourful.

Anyway, Sheridan has gathered his Knights of the Oval Table to discuss their mysterious stranger. Actually they've got more important things to discuss, like a treaty, but Marcus won't shut up about him.

Marcus points out that the Vorlons have been to Earth in the distant past, taken people and preserved them for centuries. Jack the Ripper himself showed up on the station last season and they met him! It's just like the Vorlons to use legends to their advantage. But Franklin shoots holes in that theory right away, saying that Arthur clearly doesn't talk like someone from 1700 years ago, plus he was dressed in present day clothes in the teaser. The guy's brain is physically fine, but some kind of trauma has pushed him over the edge into fantasy.

He's been here for six minutes and they've already resolved the question of whether he's the real Arthur (he's not). The real mystery is who he is and what caused his condition. And why they're spending so much time on this one visitor when hundreds are currently suffering in Down Below. Actually they showed them treating the sick lurkers in Medlab for free in the teaser, so I'll let them off.

Speaking of people suffering in Down Below, Arthur has escaped Medlab with his sword and his soundtrack, and is currently investigating why this woman is crying. Turns out that someone has taken something from her: a picture of her husband with an expensive frame.

Turns out that Arthur's a bit of a Marcus and just can't help but get involved with other people's problems. He finds out who took her picture and goes after them.

Meanwhile G'Kar's nearby, acquiring a data crystal full of messages from Narn (turns out it's expensive to get mail from his homeworld too), when he hears the sound of someone getting their ass kicked.

It's not Arthur, but the King of the Britons has just stepped in to help the unfortunate punching bag and G'Kar watches as he walks right into the middle of the thugs.

Whoever Arthur is, it turns out he knows how to use that sword, as he takes the entire gang down without breaking a sweat (or getting any blood on his blade). Turns out that they have backup, but so does Arthur, as G'Kar jumps down to help!

We don't actually get to see the fight that follows, but we do see that they got the woman her picture back. It seems that when G'Kar was reborn, he was reborn into Batman. He’s an unambiguous hero now, at least for one evening.

ACT TWO

The two of them end up in a bar in Down Below (probably the same one Marcus likes, judging by their chocolate milkshake drinks) and G'Kar seems to have taken a great deal of satisfaction in the straight-forward righteous violence he's inflicted. He also took satisfaction in the thump they made when their opponents hit the floor, and in his last few drinks, judging by the way he's yelling.

It's nice to see that G'Kar hasn't let spiritual enlightenment turn him into a wise and joyless monk. In fact he's having more fun now than he's had since before the war, now that he's found a friend as theatrical as he is. But the way he takes King Arthur at face value even when he starts talking about making him the right hand at his new Round Table makes him look a bit foolish. And drunk.

Garibaldi has his people searching the station for Arthur, but right now he's more concerned with breaking into the post office to get his package. It's been 19 minutes and we're halfway through the episode now, but his B plot is finally back!

His security card doesn't work and neither does his code, but that's not a problem as he just shoots the lock off. Then the post office guy just walks over and closes the gate again, telling him that'll be another 20 credits. This is the closest Garibaldi's gotten to being inside an actual Daffy Duck cartoon and he doesn't like it. He doesn't have to deal with this crap, he's third in line to the throne of the Independent Nation of Babylon 5! Unless Delenn somehow fits into the command staff somewhere now. Maybe Marcus is above him, you never know with that guy.

Meanwhile Arthur is still drinking with G'Kar and getting very emotional about how he's responsible for the death of his knights. Suddenly he's back in the black and white corridor of doors again, and this time he finds...

A Minbari fighter! Somehow this seems like an important clue.

G'Kar snaps Arthur back to reality... well out of his dream anyway, and the guy goes back to talking about how the battle that got his knights killed was not intended. They were in the middle of negotiations with Mordred and his own knights, with their armies standing ready to attack if someone were to draw a sword. Unfortunately one of Mordred's knights saw a snake about to strike and realised that his suit of armour would be nothing compared to an adder's fearsome bite. He drew his sword, and everyone died.

Just then Marcus turns up to collect Arthur and they leave G'Kar to his drink. Sometimes Andreas Katsulas gets to deliver a heartfelt and moving speech, sometimes he gets to fake being drunk and drop into a table, but he always delivers. Though he's got that alien mask covering his face so I expect a stunt double secretly took over for the part where he slammed into the floor.

If this was a worse episode Marcus and Arthur would shake their heads, laugh, and leave him there, but the scene ends with them going over to pick him up.

Oh damn, it's a council meeting! I don't think they've even set foot in this room since the end of season two. Well, except for when it doubles as other rooms I mean.

Things have changed since the last time they were all here though. The EA logo's been taken off the table, everyone's at war with each other, and Sheridan and Delenn both have awesome black coats to go with their uniforms. They must have been jealous of Marcus.

Turns out that Sheridan's been busy printing off copies of the Babylon Treaty while Arthur and G'Kar were getting drunk, and he's even put them all in nice folders. Meanwhile Ivanova's got the job of handing them out, though the ambassadors in the front row pass a copy to the ones sitting in the back in a heartwarming display of co-operation between warring races. Basically Sheridan's offering their governments continued use of the station for commerce, finance, peace negotiations etc, and in exchange they'll have to send ships to defend the station.

And that's all the scene's about. The two of them walk off after delivering their pitch to give the ambassadors time to read their files and nothing more is said.

Marcus drops by Medlab to chat about Arthur and it turns out that Franklin's solved the mystery! He ran the DNA through the computer and he knows who their mysterious cosplayer is. But we're not allowed to know yet, so he puts the information on a screen for Marcus to read.

All we're told is that the guy was in Earthforce and finding out the truth would be very traumatic to him... possibly. Franklin believes that learning the truth will be his first step towards healing, Marcus feels that it's better to let him live in a fantasy, and they're actually getting into an argument over this.

Personally I think that on a station with 250,000 people on it, there has to be someone else here who's qualified to treat his condition, and they should be going to speak with them. Failing that, maybe there's a holographic lounge singer who can help with his psychological issues. Wait, sorry, wrong universe.

Meanwhile Arthur is asleep, dreaming of the doors again.

The episode's directed by Mike Vejar, one of the best directors on the series, who has a knack for making the series look a lot less cheap than it is. He's really dropped the ball on the these dream scenes though as they look terrible. Especially this one, with Arthur standing in front of a green screen, stretching his arms out and wincing. It looked ropey enough even before he shifted his foot a little.

It's like they tried to come up with a scene so bad that when the ads came on everyone would change the channel. That way they wouldn't have to bother filming the last two acts and everyone working on the show could get a couple of days off. Plus they could only afford to hire Michael York for so long!

ACT FOUR

Oh, turns out that they did film act four.

Plus the episode's done messing around now, as we finally get the truth about who Arthur is, why he dreams about Minbari ships, and why he's so broken up about the misunderstanding that got so many knights killed 1700 years ago.

Turns out that he's David Macintyre! One of just 200 survivors of the Battle of the Line! Former gunnery sergeant on the EAS Prometheus! And the man who started the Earth-Minbari War.

The Prometheus was the first Earth Alliance ship to make contact with the Minbari, fifteen years ago today. Or twelve cycles if you're going to believe Delenn in Babylon Squared. I guess no one ever said a Minbari year was the same as ours.

Anyway the Minbari have a tradition of approaching ships with gun ports open as a sign of respect, which we saw way back in season one's Legacies, when Delenn had to assure Sinclair that a Minbari warcruiser wasn't about to open fire on the station.

Unfortunately Delenn was on the other ship during first contact and the human captain of the Prometheus made what in hindsight could be considered a poor choice. He ordered them to open fire in pre-emptive self-defence, inadvertently killing the leader of the Grey Council, who died in Delenn's arms. David didn't order the attack, but he was the one who pulled the trigger that killed Dukhat.

Arthur still seems convinced that it was the knight raising his sword to kill a snake that started the battle, not him, and what Franklin's telling him is making him pretty distressed. The man's now convinced he has to return Excalibur to the Lady of the Lake, but first he needs to do a bit more acting.

He reaches for the sword in the door dimension, but a knight appears and stabs him in the back.

I wonder how much more money it would've cost to make these dream sequences look good. Because it's a real shame they didn't have it. The dreams are dragging the whole episode down. It's a shame really, because Michael York's bringing the acting.

It's still a better episode than Grail mind you.

Nice work Doctor, you broke your patient. He's just sitting there, staring across the room, ignoring all stimuli. No sane man would find the opposite wall to be this interesting, it's not a great set of quarters. It's not terrible though. I bet those people down in Down Below wish they were living like this.

Then we get a rare shot of the station filmed from its right side, accompanied by total silence.

It's a nice image, though there's something that's been bothering me ever since I noticed it.

They used a lower detail model for shots rendered at a distance, but there's a place where they didn't just reduce the detail, they removed it.

It's this bit here, between the Cobra bays. There's a pipe that leads to a block, but on the low detail version the pipe just ends. It's just floating there, connected to nothing. A five polygon cube would've done the job!

Other than that the station's beautiful and flawless, and could totally take Deep Space Nine in a fight.

Anyway, in happier news, Ivanova reports to Sheridan that enough of the League worlds have signed the mutual defence treaty to make it work. So those Minbari warcruisers outside don't have to the next few years parked outside a space station. Though I'm not sure a Drazi or a Vree ship is going to put as much fear into the hearts of Earthforce captains.

Well now David's lying in a bed in Medlab utterly unresponsive. I know nothing about treating people with extreme delusions and PTSD, but what Franklin just did was clearly the wrong move. I'm not just talking about confronting him with the truth, I'm talking about leaving him in there alone with a dangerous weapon in his hands!

Franklin figured the sword would help, but that didn't work either, and now he's beating himself up over it.

This would be a good time for Marcus to point out that he warned him about this, strongly, but instead he's entirely focused on figuring this out. David came here for a reason. If they can solve this puzzle maybe his brain will start working again! So they try to figure out the symbolism, thinking that they can work out his reasoning.

When King Arthur was dying he asked Bedivere to return Excalibur to the Lady of the Lake, as else he couldn't be taken to Avalon and healed. The sword must be a symbol of the ship and his pain, and he came to the station looking for someone in particular who could take it away from him. Not Security, it has to be his Lady in the Lake.

They finally work out it must be Delenn. But that's impossible, she's not in this episode.

Surprise, she actually is!

Putting Delenn alone in the same room as a madman with a sword seems like a poor choice, especially as he's already killed one Minbari leader, but she's up for it. In fact she's out of bed and walking again after getting a knife in the back last episode.

We don't know much about Delenn's relationship with Dukhat, but this has to be as emotional for her as it is for David. He's the opposite of those Nightwatch agents who held her hostage, as he's a good man who's felt nothing but guilt for what he did and now she has to decide whether to accept his pain.

Then we get a shot of her hand floating down the hallway to him! This was so close to being a touching and emotional moment as well. They aimed for abstract, but they got absurd.

If I was jms and I was sitting there in the editing room reviewing the final cut, I would've quickly written an extra scene of Garibaldi trying to swipe his food basket that lasts exactly as long as all the dream sequences put together. Then I would've crept into the studio that evening to film it on the cheap with Jerry Doyle and a flashlight, and edited it in to replace them.

David gives the sword to Delenn, careful not to reflect any cameras in the blade, and she silently accepts it. Another trophy for her collection, to go next to the uniforms of the B5 senior staff. And now that the sword's been handed off I guess David's ready to be delivered to Avalon.

ACT FIVE

Hey it's the Garibaldi plot again! He's finally given in, paid the 100 credits and gotten his box. Actually he was given someone else's mangled box at first as a little post office humour, but he's still not amused.

He goes to walk away and but then does a 'there is one more thing' line on his nemesis, to the despair of the extra behind him carrying a box. The guy stepped forward to get rid of his box, but how he has to wait some more and he's clearly not happy about it.

Garibaldi points out that the post office and his rent are all paid for by Earth, or at least they were. But he's willing to keep them funded for the sake of the morale boost, for a minimal bribe. 101 credits. It's only been like a week since they broke away from Earth and they're already completely corrupt!

Hey G'Kar came to see David off! He never met the real David, only his King Arthur delusion, but he thinks he's got some good ideas about organising people and has offered him a position of authority in the Narn resistance. I hope one of them checked to see if he can speak Narn first.

At least he's okay now. Turns out that his mental illness was a puzzle that could be solved and now that he's met Delenn he's got all his wits back and is presumably free of the nightmares as well.

Marcus turns up once David's left for his ship, explaining that he hates goodbyes (except for when he said goodbye to Duncan in Exogenesis). He also says that the story of King Arthur has great power where he's from, presumably talking about his mining colony. If the story has great power in England no one told me about it, and I live here.

Damn, Kosh making a last second wordless cameo this episode as well! We haven't seen him around since he got into G'Kar's head during his telepathic drug trip. Funnily enough he's turned up at exactly the right time for Marcus to call him Merlin. Marcus is playing that game where you match each character up to their equivalent from another story.

Marcus has decided that Kosh is Merlin, who can foretell the future by ageing backwards and remembering it, Franklin's Percival now (instead of Bedivere), he's Galahad, Sheridan is Arthur, Ivanova's Gawain, they both know who Mordred is, and he has no idea who Morganna La Fey is. Hey, I don't know who Mordred is, at least give me a clue!

I mean seriously, this is all meaningless to me because all my knowledge of King Arthur's mates comes from Monty Python and the Holy Grail and an episode of Legends of Tomorrow. Now if he was figuring out what Deep Space Nine characters they all are I'd be able to share an opinion! Except not really, because spoilers.


CONCLUSION

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A Late Delivery from Avalon is a... distinctive episode. There aren't many stories in Babylon 5 about Michael York being driven to role-play as King Arthur in between posing in front of green-screened shots of spaceships exploding.

I wouldn't say that it's a bad episode though. The pairing of Franklin and Marcus helped save Exogenesis and it does the same here. The two of them are so passionate about doing the right thing for people that they get along great... until there's a difference of opinion as to what that right thing is, then the yelling starts.

There are technically three plots going on here, but not really. I'd say Garibaldi's three trips to the post office are just substantial enough to count as a B plot, but Sheridan and Ivanova's appearances don't even qualify as a story. Lets do a thing, we're doing the thing, the thing worked! The end. The most interesting part of it was their new coats.

Though it is nice to see the crew having to work to keep the station going after losing their support from Earth. First they sorted out the computer and got the communication channels back, now they're arranging for defence and trying to get the traffic they need for the docking fees. They thought their budget problems were bad enough in By Any Means Necessary, but now they've lost all their budget and have to make the station profitable.

The increased cost of staying in business is made clear in Garibaldi's comedy plot, as it seems like most of the repercussions from their split with Earth Alliance are impacting him personally. In Severed Dreams he broke his arm, in Ceremonies of Light and Dark he was driven mad by the rebooted computer, and in this he's being extorted over his package. I thought it seemed plausible enough that delivery costs had gone up that much, and the guy was doing well just to keep the mail coming in at all, but he's such a dick about it that you can't help but be on Garibaldi's side. Plus I wasn't keen on the wacky computer comedy in Ceremonies, but this time it worked for me.

It's interesting though, that people and packages are still arriving from Earth. They got lucky that the first Earthforce officer who tried to smuggle a weapon onboard turned out to be on their side, as there doesn't seem like there's much to stop Nightwatch planting more agents.

The King Arthur plot seemed like a perfectly self-contained story at first, but the clues started piling up that this is actually the biggest Earth-Minbari War story since maybe Sheridan's introduction. They got the right guest star for the job, as Michael York's great in the role of a chivalrous knight and a confused veteran, and I could believe that he could've been another Sheridan and Sinclair if things had worked out just a little different for him. But I feel like the focus on his problems took away from Delenn, as she's the one most directly affected by his actions but she never gets to say a word. She's finally meeting the man who pulled the trigger and killed her leader, and all we know about her feelings is that she forgives him enough to help him. We don't get to see her process it, maybe even show a bit of uncharacteristic anger before coming to her senses, it's just not her story. I hope I see that sword on display in Delenn's quarters from now on though. Londo displays a sword from his friend who manipulated him into killing him and adopting his family, I think this would be comparably emotionally weird.

But it's not much of Arthur's story either, as it's more about solving the mystery of his condition. Unfortunately the way the characters worked out the symbolism of his delusions to cure him of PTSD forever didn't really work for me, and neither did the daft surreal dream sequences. The scenes of David standing in front of a green-screen shots of spaceships exploding or running around a hall of doors looking for floating objects probably weren't a good idea to begin with, but they clearly didn't have the time or money to pull them off.

Fortunately jms and Mike Vejar learned their lesson here and will never have actors floating in front of a green screen again...

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COMING SOON

Babylon 5 will return with Sic Transit Vir.

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