Babylon 5 4-14: Moments of Transition

Episode:

80

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Writer:

J. Michael Straczynski

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Director:

Tony Dow

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Air Date:

19-May-1997

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I've written words about another episode of Babylon 5 for you. This is season 4, episode 14, Moments of Transition, which has to be the least evocative title since Interludes and Examinations last season. You can just tell that nothing interesting or game changing is going to happen here.

The title comes from a monologue by G'Kar in the episode Z'ha'dum, in which he explained that life is made from moments of transition and moments of revelation. So I suppose we can at least be sure there won't be any revelations in the episode.

Though I do have a revelation for you of my own: this is episode 80 of Babylon 5, which means that this is the point where the series had officially overtaken the original Star Trek's episode count. Even if you count Trek's unaired pilot episode, The Cage, Babylon 5 has its own pilot movie, The Gathering, to put it one story ahead again.

I should warn you that there's going to be so many SPOILERS after this point. I'm going to ruin the whole damn episode. But if you're watching through the series for the first time you've got nothing to worry about as I won't even hint at what happens next.

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The episode begins with someone waking up, but it's not Ivanova for once, it's Garibaldi. Right away he's complaining about something, so that's normal at least. Normal for season 4 anyway.

He's been woken up early by a call from his billionaire employer, William Edgars, who knows about the seven hour time difference between B5 and Mars but doesn't much care. Hang on, Mars only has one time zone? I suppose there's no reason why it has to have more than one; depends where they've put the domed cities really.

Edgars dropped Garibaldi into some Die Hard action scenes a couple of episodes back when he asked him to smuggle someone onto the station to pick up a vial and now he's got another package coming through he wants him to handle. Edgars assures him there's nothing dangerous or illegal about what's inside the package at least, which is what Garibaldi's mostly concerned about. He might be a little weird these days, but he's still got his morality.

Garibaldi has also developed an interest in getting off the station and going to Mars, but Edgars can't give him a date for when that's going to happen. In fact Edgars is so secretive that he's the one character in the series who calls people up without using video chat.

Sheridan's awake as well, but that's because he's worrying about Delenn. He calls C&C to see if they've been able to get in touch with her but they've had no luck so far.

Cut to the third revision of the Minbari city stock establishing shot. The place looked pretty bad last episode with all the people running around and fires in the distance, but now some of the crystal towers have collapsed, there's a big chunk missing out of the street and there's not a soul to be seen. The flowers are doing alright though.

The Grey Council ended the Earth-Minbari War when they discovered that Minbari souls were (apparently) being reborn in human bodies, as Minbari don't kill Minbari. It wasn't just illegal, it was unthinkable. But now the Minbari are totally up for it and there's no Grey Council to stop them.

We're back in the virtual hallway from War Without End again, except with a significant increase in the number of injured people bleeding on the benches.

At least Lennier's back on his feet after his emergency lung surgery and seems well, though he'd probably be feeling better if bits of debris weren't falling down around them every time a loud explosion went off.

He tells Delenn that they've received word from the leader of the Warrior Caste. They've surrounded the city and if the Religious Caste don't surrender by tomorrow he'll utterly annihilate it and all the people inside. For the good of the people outside. The Minbari Civil War arc only started a couple of episodes ago, but the guy's in a real hurry to end it. And that's the end of the teaser.

ACT ONE

Things are considerably less apocalyptic back on the station. In fact Lyta's back after a six episode absence and she is nailing her job interview right now.

I bet there's all kinds of backstory hidden in plain sight on that sci-fi shaped paper, but we learn in dialogue that she was a commercial telepath for Xenocorp for 10 years before appearing in the pilot episode (so that's what she did during a lot of the Earth-Minbari war), and before that she interned with the Psi Cops for a year. Interestingly she claims she quit because there was no room for a p5 rated telepath to advance, not because of moral reasons.

She's careful to avoid mentioning that she's kind of a rogue telepath right now, but she has to admit that the Psi Corps aren't going to authorise her employment with her company. Unfortunately this turns out to be a deal breaker, for insurance reasons. The interviewer tells her it's "very disappointing" and walks right out!

Back on Minbar, we get to meet the guy that Neroon was sending a sneaky message to at the end of the last episode. It's his boss, Shai Alyt Shakiri (not to be confused with the singer Shakira). We've never seen the guy before, but I can tell he's a general as he's got a paper map on his table. He's also got Vorlon-looking decor like on the White Star; I guess it's fashionable on Minbar these days.

Neroon looks strangely uncomfortable here, probably because Shakiri is being very cavalier about all the Minbari that are dying outside. As Shakiri is concerned they'll all be reborn, so it's fine. Plus it's their own fault for sending the Warrior Caste on holy wars all the time instead of fighting for practical gains!

Shakiri's one of those types of people who like to explain how things are, and he explains to Neroon that Warrior Caste Minbari like themselves fight because it's the calling of their hearts. That life and death are both equal to them. I think he's got the Warrior Caste mixed up with the Klingons.

Meanwhile it turns out that it's Zack's turn to work in the customs area, which means he gets the honour of being the one who gets to meet Bester at the door again. Bester only used to show up once a season, but last year he made a surprise second appearance during episode 14 and now he's gone and done it again. So at least he's punctual.

He's also very distracting, which is good news for Garibaldi, who's over on the other side of the room trying to sneak a package through customs in plain sight! It's one of those rare occasions where Bester actually helps his arch-nemesis out, and neither of them will ever know about it.

Bester's not actually here to see the command staff for once, he's here on his own business, and he makes the argument if the station's really a free port then they can't turn him away. Zack has the sense to let Sheridan make that decision, leaving Bester to chat with a security officer for a bit instead. Bester actually mocks the guy for not recognising a quote from A Christmas Carol, saying that they must still be recruiting from the shallow end of the gene pool. Man that's such a Psi Corps thing to say.

I didn't recognise the quote either to be honest, I've never really been into 1840s pop culture, but I am aware of the gist of the story and it seems that Bester himself has missed its simple "don't be evil" moral.

Zack intercepts Garibaldi in the Zocalo (which has been pretty firmly established as being right next to customs by this point I guess), and confronts him about the package.

For a moment it seems like it's going to come to blows between them, at least that's what the music's saying, but instead Zack wants to talk to him about Edgars. We find out here that he's one of the 10 richest people in the Earth Alliance, but no one has a clue what he looks like. There really isn't a picture of him anywhere. In fact the production crew didn't even know what the actor playing the voice looked like as he hadn't been cast yet. He didn't come in and record his side of that Babcom conversation until later.

Then after he's said his piece Zack basically just lets him go! All while Garibaldi accuses him of breaking the law by seizing Babylon 5 from Earth and working with the others to form their own little empire. Garibaldi would have a better leg to stand on here if he wasn't the one who personally handed the keys to the station's computer over to them.

Meanwhile Delenn's still in that temple hallway and she's not very happy. She tells Lennier that she's had a talk with the others and they've decided that surrender isn't actually a bad idea after all... even though she made a speech last episode saying that they couldn't surrender.

I guess plans change when Neroon sneaks off and betrays you.

ACT TWO

Back on the station, poor Claudia Christian is again doing the work of a newsreader instead of getting to be one of the leads of a sci-fi series. I don't think this was her favourite year on the show.

The camera pans over to reveal that the scene isn't even about her news, Lyta's just watching TV in the Zocalo and the only other thing on these days is ISN. Bester walks up behind her and quips that they've got all those channels and there's nothing worth watching.

He points out how unfair it is that the station staff all get paid from the docking fees and their meals are free, while she can't even find work without Psi Corps approval. But it turns out that the reason he came to the station was to do her a favour, and he's brought a contract printed on shiny grey sci-fi paper. He can arrange for the Psi Corps to authorise her employment and she won't even have to go back to them!

All she has to do is wear the badge, wear the gloves, give them 10% of her fees, and sign over her body to Psi Corps researchers in the event of her entirely natural and completely unsuspicious death so they can find out why she's now so much more powerful than a p5 since her visit to Vorlon space.

Turns out that boosting a telepath's ability is something the Psi Corps just can't do yet. Well that's what Bester claims anyway, though we saw in Mind War that they've had some success in the past. It just had the side effect of changing the subject into an incorporeal god. And a different experiment changed someone into an empath capable of messing with people's emotions and getting them to do what he says.

Lyta makes her decision clear and storms out... right past Garibaldi who's been sitting there unseen, spying on the whole conversation.

Something about this shot had me waiting for Patrick Stewart to say "Space, the final frontier...", but it turned out it was just an establishing shot of Minbar (the Minbari war cruiser is the big clue).

It would've been great if this really had transitioned into the Star Trek: The Next Generation opening titles though. That's a crossover no one would've seen coming.

Shakiri and Neroon are up on the war cruiser discussing the Religious Caste's upcoming surrender. The Religious Caste have allowed the Warrior Caste to pick the venue and Neroon's decided to pick the Temple of Varenni. It's down on the ground among the people, unlike the Grey Council which ruled from up in the stars, and its where disputes among the castes were sorted out in the days before Valen appeared and decided he'd rework their whole society. Plus it's got a good broadcasting setup so they can get a video feed out to the whole planet, and give them the Religious Caste surrender live.

Neroon's got it all worked out so perfectly that all Shakiri can do is agree with his choice. Though he does have one thing he'd like to add to their plan: murder. They're going to blow up Delenn's ship when she's on her way back to Babylon 5, to ensure she doesn't give them any trouble afterwards.

ACT THREE

Act three begins with Zack dropping by to see Lyta, and she seems a lot more happy to see him these days. It doesn't last long though, as Zack is the station's professional bearer of bad news, and he's here to tell her that she's got to move to smaller quarters due to all the money she's not paying them. It's just like Sheridan's rent problem in season 2, except she can't solve it by redirecting funds from the military budget. Still, at least they're not kicking her out into the street; they are giving her free housing.

I'm so used to Garibaldi being angry at the messenger that I was surprised here when Lyta apologised to Zack and told him it's not his fault. I was also surprised when Zack then offered to hire her for a job himself: scanning Garibaldi without his permission to make sure he hasn't been tampered with. We're over halfway through the season now but someone's finally brought up the idea of bringing a telepath in to check Garibaldi's head!

She turns his job down though, as she's not quite desperate enough to break her own moral code and invade someone's privacy.

Seems that Garibaldi's still doing his freelance work on the side, finding things for people, and his current client wants him to find his dog and also his cat. All he can tell him about them is that they're planning to take over the galaxy.

This is Mr Adams, played by Dilbert creator Scott Adams. He apparently mentioned in an interview that Babylon 5 was the best series on TV and received this cameo as a thank you. He may have said other things since then.

Anyway Lyta turns up, but not to scan Garibaldi. What she wants is a job... and he's willing to hire her! He needs a lookout to get things through customs and if helping her out pisses Bester off that's even better. Just then Bester appears to say hi... and to scan him right in front of Lyta!

It takes three security officers to hold Garibaldi back from smashing Bester's head open like a piñata and seeing if there really is toys and candy in there, which amuses Bester considerably. Until he turns around and finds Zack standing behind him.

Back on Minbar, they've got the fires put out and they're about ready for the Religious Caste to surrender and declare the Warrior Caste the rulers of the planet. They're going to be meeting in the Temple of Varenni, which is that building on the left with the green roof. It's easy to spot, as it's the one that's not made of crystal.

Hang on, I'll get you a better shot.

Reminds me of Jabba the Hutt's palace. Man, if this is a surprise crossover and Delenn's surrender turns out to be part of a scheme to rescue Han Solo that'll be amazing.

That's a surprisingly decent looking hallway. Surprisingly narrow too; I wonder if this was all the space they had left on the stage between all the other sets they were using this season. It works, but the creaky wooden floor kind of spoils the atmosphere.

I'm just glad that Delenn's finally getting some proper screen time this episode. This is the resolution to her big story arc and she's barely been in it so far. She hands Lennier instructions for later and then they step through into a giant chamber. There's a nice shot here as the camera follows them into the room from behind and then pans up to reveal the audience above.

It's not the most impressive looking background, in fact they kind of look like cardboard cutouts, but I'm always impressed when a series manages to composite effects into a moving shot.

I'm less impressed by their strange stretched heads. That's just weird looking. Plus those Minbari standing at the edges of the frame must be giants, as even though they're way off in the background they're as tall as Shakiri is.

It's also a bit weird that there's Religious Caste and Warrior Caste Minbari standing right next to each other up there, assuming you can tell them all apart just from the colour of their clothing.

Delenn announces that the Religious Caste surrenders and the audience goes absolutely wild as you'd expect:

Well, actually they're a little less animated than that. In fact this is the most subtle GIF you'll ever see on this site.

Shakiri goes into a speech about how the Warrior Caste is going to make Minbar even greater than before and how they're going to form a new council of warriors, but Delenn interrupts. Just because the Religious Caste has surrendered, doesn't mean they've given up their rights to form a new government.

She points out that eventually one side had to surrender and it would be bloody weird if the military caste wasn't more capable in a war. (In fact the religious caste are so bad at fighting that they sent all their ships off to patrol the borders between League worlds just as the conflict was escalating!) But ideally you want the wisest to lead, not the most dangerous.

She also gives her people a bit of a history lesson about how things were done before Valen formed the Grey Council. The ancients noticed that in war it was typically the young and the powerless who were sent off to do the dying, so they came up with a way for the leaders to die too!

Suddenly the ceiling begins to open and a beam of light is fired down into the centre of the room, which surprises the hell out of Shakiri. I wonder how the Religious Caste were able to take control of the ceiling controls without the Warrior Caste being aware of it.

Hang on, I recognise that shape. That's the logo for the TV show Lexx! Oh no, I don't want a Lexx crossover, that'd just be weird.

Delenn explains that this is the Starfire Wheel, and their pre-Valen laws state that the leaders of each warring caste have to step into the circle and get burned. The idea is that the side that's willing to sacrifice themselves in the same way that they sacrificed those they sent into battle is the most worthy to lead. It's becoming really obvious that Shakiri doesn't know his history, because he didn't see any of this coming and he doesn't want any of it.

Damn, now I'm trying to figure out what this light beam reminds me of...

Oh it looks just like the gene altering device from the Red Dwarf episode DNA! So we got a crossover after all. It's about to turn her into a chicken and then into RoboCop. Actually it's going to turn her into a smoking pile of ashes and she didn't even let Sheridan know about she was planning to sacrifice herself like this. Or anyone for that matter; this had absolutely zero foreshadowing.

But will Shakiri join her in the beam? He did make that speech earlier about life and death being the same, neither valued more than the other. Now's his chance to put his money where his mouth is.

ACT FOUR

The beam's a bit too small, but Neroon eventually shames Shakiri into joining her in the spotlight by throwing his own words back at him. The whole world is watching after all.

He really doesn't like it though and is soon wiggling around in pain while Delenn continues no-selling it. Her hair must be protecting her from the sunburn.

Once inside he tries to negotiate with her, saying that they can share leadership, but she's pissed off with how he tore their people apart and killed countless Minbari so she's not letting him walk away from this with even the slightest bit of power.

Shakiri finally dives out the beam smoking, with people running over to put his clothes out. They could've sold the beam's power better by using some actual flames, but hey it costs money to set people on fire and they're on a tight budget here.

They've established that it's not fun to be in there at least, but Delenn still won't leave. Lennier's obviously a bit concerned about this and Neroon is too. It's kind of obvious by this point that he never really betrayed her in Rumors, Bargains and Lies, and that the two of them had been conspiring together all along. He picked the location after all. In fact he outright confirms it by saying that her burning to death was never a part of their plan. I guess he forgot that Minbari never tell the whole truth.

Neroon yells "No!" and forces his way into the beam to save her! But then he doesn't leave.

If Neroon dies in her place then the Warrior Caste wins, so he announces to the crowd that the calling of his heart is Religious and tells everyone to listen to her. It's almost certainly a lie, but hey who's going to find out?

The guy realised in Grey 17 in Missing that Delenn had to be the one to lead the Rangers because they would die for her but they wouldn't die for him. Now he's gone and died for her as well. Not really the ending you might have expected for one of the series' longest running antagonists.

Neroon's first appearance was in a season 1 episode called Legacies, which was all about a Minbari leader who had converted from Religious Caste to Warrior Caste, so I suppose it's fitting that he's gone out doing the opposite. There's symmetry there.

Speaking of symmetry, the episode opened with Garibaldi being woken up by a message from Edgars and now that we're near the end it's gone and happened again. Garibaldi is so furious that he yells at the guy, but Edgars ignores his obvious anger and gets straight to the point. He knows that Garibaldi has hired Lyta and he wants him to end this arrangement immediately.

He might be working on a cure for telepaths, but he doesn't trust them, and doesn't want them close enough to his employees to read their minds. So Edgars gives Garibaldi a choice: either he fires Lyta or he gets fired himself. Garibaldi's paying Lyta with the money he's making from Edgars so it's not really a decision at all.

Then there's a great shot which starts on Garibaldi and Lyta having a silent conversation in the background. She storms off and the camera pans down to reveal that this time Bester's the one spying on them. We don't need dialogue to know that things are going his way after all.

But we do get some dialogue anyway, as he records his personal log as a voice over. It's August 3rd 2261, apparently, which means it's exactly one year after Kosh's death in Interludes and Examinations and three years after Signs and Portents.

We see that Lyta signed Bester's form in the end and now she's back in the gloves and badge. Last time we saw her dressed like this was way back in The Gathering.

But it turns out that Bester was mostly on the station for Garibaldi. He provoked him just to drive a little more of a wedge between him and his former friends and keep him on the path he wants him on. Not that getting Lyta to sign wasn't a fantastic bonus. Bester's had a nice day!

I'm beginning to see why Walter Koenig likes this episode.

ACT FIVE

Hey I recognise this room! So far every season has featured a visit to the Grey Council and now season 4 finally gets to join the club (Atonement was a flashback and doesn't count). Delenn broke the council back in Severed Dreams and now she's the one who's putting it back together again. She hasn't glued the staff she snapped back together, but it seems like they can make do without it.

Delenn's still suffering from extreme sunburn and walking is a struggle, but she makes her way to the centre of the room to give a speech. As she introduces each of the new council members they walk into their spotlight, with their hoods down this time! Everyone can see each other's faces, it's crazy. But there's an even bigger change: she's messed with the ratio. Instead of it being balanced with three of each caste, now the Warrior Caste only gets to have two representatives on the council. But the Religious Caste only gets two as well.

In a big twist, after being utterly forgotten and ignored for the whole war, the Worker Caste have been given five places on the council, making them the dominant caste! Delenn has always praised the humans for being so great at building things and putting communities together, and now she's gone and put Minbar's builders in charge. Religion and war must act in the service of the people, not the other way around, she explains. Makes sense to me.

There's still the place in the middle that used to be held by Dukhat, but she's keeping that empty in honour of Neroon, ready for 'the one who is to come'. It's like she's inviting them to come up with ways to justify taking that spot! Doesn't seem like they have to worry about Shakiri anymore though; he's just straight up gone from the episode after his pathetic performance in the Starfire Wheel.

And with that she leaves. She didn't want power before and she doesn't want it now.

Hey Ivanova's getting some proper screen time this episode after all, and she is furious.

She puts a data crystal in and shows Sheridan footage of one of President Clark's Omega-class destroyers, the EAS Pollux, opening fire on commercial liners packed full of women, children and the sick escaping from Clark's regime. There were 2,000 people on each ship, so that's 10,000 in total.

It's a little jarring hearing the 'women and children' line coming out of Ivanova's mouth, seeing as she's a woman and far from helpless, but it's more jarring that 10,000 people just got blown up. Sheridan's just as pissed as she is now after seeing that, and he doesn't care if they're ready yet or if they're outgunned. He's done trying to find ways to avoid firing on their own ships. The Minbari Civil War is over, and it's time for the Earth Alliance Civil War to kick off!

First he's taking back the colonies, then Mars, and then Earth. And God help anyone who gets in their way. Now there's a quote for ISN!


CONCLUSION

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G'Kar wasn't in this episode, but his monologue from Z'ha'dum says that "The future is all around us, waiting in moments of transition to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of the future or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born in pain." Well he was definitely right about the 'pain' part, especially for poor Delenn.

There were three transitions in this story: Lyta has transitioned from being a rogue to wearing a Psi Corps badge again, Minbar has transitioned from a civil war to having a new Grey Council, and Sheridan has transitioned from being concerned to being furious.

The Lyta and Garibaldi plot gets a lot more screen time than you might expect, considering it's sharing an episode with the resolution of the Minbari Civil War, but it ends with a bombshell: Bester is the one who has been manipulating Garibaldi all season and he's not just doing it for a laugh. He's got a plan for him, and it apparently requires him to be really grumpy all the time. Garibaldi's so unrecognisable now with his new costume, hairstyle, personality and beliefs that he might as well be Garibaldi's twin brother.

Delenn had a plan as well, but unfortunately it didn't lead to anything as interesting as Londo's dealings with Cartagia earlier in the season. She's very determined, earnest and self-sacrificing, but not all that entertaining to watch, especially when she's just hanging around looking defeated for most of the episode. Though when it's time for asses to be verbally kicked she brings the steel and dominates the Warrior Caste leader in his own victory party. She's definitely recovered from her weakness and uncertainty she suffered from in season 2 after her transformation, and is willing to sacrifice herself to undo the damage she admits she caused. Hopefully this will fix the internal disagreements we've been seeing since Babylon Squared. Maybe it'll also help reverse the problems with their society mentioned by Draal back in A Voice in the Wilderness.

The Minbari are now the third major race to undergo a regime change thanks to B5 characters this season, after the Narn and the Centauri (and the Vorlons have disappeared entirely). Poor Sheridan, season three set him up to have a big epic confrontation against his own people to fix his government, and now Londo and Delenn have both beaten him to it!

In fact you could argue that the Minbari Civil War was maybe a little bit rushed, seeing as it happened over four episodes and skipped one of them. The reason for that is the season's pacing was all screwed up when their network fell apart from under them and it looked like they weren't going to get a fifth season. Showrunner jms had to cut five or so episodes to get the current arcs finished in time, so he decided to cut them from here. That's why the Minbari Civil War is over before it's started and the event that triggers Sheridan's assault on Earth is tagged onto the end of act five. It was supposed to have a lot more build up.

Would that have made the story better though? I'm not sure. A lot of the serialised TV shows I've watched have felt padded out and I've been eager for them to just get on with it already, but Babylon 5 hasn't had that problem for me. I'd rather be left wanting more than wishing I had less of it.

This was a good episode by the way! Just like all the others this year.

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NEXT WEEK

Next on Sci-Fi Adventures it's Babylon 5 season 4, episode 15:  No Surrender, No Retreat. I'm not saying it's going to be anything special, but they did name the entire season after it.

What did you think about Moments of Transition, by the way? I've written my block of words, now its your chance to write your own.