Babylon 5 4-15: No Surrender, No Retreat

Episode:

81

|

Writer:

J. Michael Straczynski

|

Director:

Mike Vejar

|

Air Date:

26-May-1997

---

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures I'm writing about another episode of Babylon 5. It's season 4, episode 15: No Surrender, No Retreat.

Each of Babylon 5's five seasons is named after a big game-changing episode from that year. The first was named after Signs and Portents, which introduced one of the series's main antagonists, season two's title came from The Coming of Shadows which kicked off the that year's arc, and season three took it's name from Point of No Return, where the crew made a choice that radically altered their situation. Season four is called No Surrender, No Retreat, so I've finally reached this year's title episode and the shit is almost certainly going to hit the fan.

Here's some more trivia for you: the word 'no' doesn't show up in episode titles as often as you might think. In fact Star Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation are the only two Trek series to have a 'no' title, and they each only have the one (Where No Man Has Gone Before and Where No One Has Gone Before respectively). Stargates SG-1 and Atlantis have just one each as well (Point of No Return and No Man's Land), as does Battlestar Galactica (No Exit). Doctor's Who's been around for 57 years so you'd think it'd do well here, but even if you count the individual episodes that make up the classic serials, it's still only used 'no' once (in Sleep No More). Babylon 5, on the other hand, has four episodes with 'no' in the title, and this one uses it twice! I guess this is the kind of thing that happens when you get one writer scripting most of the stories.

Before you read any further, I should warn you that there will be SPOILERS below, for this episode and earlier ones. This will all be first time viewer friendly though, so if you've been watching through the series (or just reading through my recaps) you've got nothing to worry about.

---

The episode begins with a familiar shot of White Stars arriving at the station. It's the shot from Whatever Happened to Mr. Garibaldi? that I thought looked stretched, and it still looks just as weird here. Though hang on, didn't there used to be more ships?

Yeah, I just double checked and there were 7 more ships in the original shot. Oh damn are those the ones they've lost along the way?

Then it cuts to a circle of fluorescent lights turning on. It's that table from the War Room, viewed from directly above. It's like the director got confused and thought he was making a modern prestige show where he'd have the time and budget to do interesting shots like this.

The scene continues to reveal that after all that work they put in redecorating the War Room to turn it into Ivanova's Voice of the Resistance set, they really have gone and turned it back into the War Room again!

We're also back to episodes starting with a personal log voiceover, this time from Sheridan, who explains that it's September 2nd 2261 and he's had enough. That's it, that's all we get. It's just military drums after that.

We then see that Vir's back on the station (after an eight episode absence, the most he's ever missed) and he's as confused as Londo is about why they're being called to a council meeting.

Damn, it's been a long time since we've seen Londo and G'Kar sitting at the council table together. The last time was season two's The Long, Twilight Struggle when Londo ordered G'Kar removed (and arrested, but that second part didn't happen). It's been so long that they've changed the design on the table since then.

Sheridan and Ivanova come in and tell the assembled ambassadors that it's been a month or so since Rumors, Bargains and Lies and they've had their White Stars busy patrolling their borders for raiders all this time. The League ambassadors are actually satisfied with how this arrangement has been working out for them, though they're all played by extras this time so none can actually talk.

But now there's going to be a price tag attached to the service... to be revealed after a few more shots of the B5 crew preparing for war.

The episode cuts to C&C where Corwin's authorising Starfury launches. Include one from first person view! This is actually Corwin's only episode this whole season after being in a ton of seasons two and three, but that's probably just because we haven't been in C&C much lately.

Back in the Council Chambers, Sheridan tells the ambassadors that their mutual defence treaties with Earth are now null and void! That's if they want to keep the White Star patrols. This gets the ambassadors looking around at each other frantically, but G'Kar interrupts to tell them that he's got no problem with it! Earth was happy to take Narn weapons during the Earth-Minbari war, but was absolutely no help during the Narn's war with the Centauri, or their war with the Shadows.

The Shadows wanted everyone fighting against each other so they discouraged alliances, and the Clark administration is one of the few governments that stuck with the creepy spiderthings until the end. Now Earth is going to find out that the side effect of pulling away into isolation is that they don't have any friends left.

Sheridan tells the League that Clark's anti-alien policies aren't going to be good for aliens, so it's in their interest that they each bring a destroyer class ship to defend their own people on Babylon 5 and then stand back and let his forces kick ass.

He makes a point of mentioning that humanitarian aid is good, they can send that, but otherwise they really don't want to be on the wrong side of his fleet here. They're taking back Proxima 3, they're taking back Mars and then they're taking back Earth. Hey that's what he said at the end of the last episode!

Not a lot of new information in that teaser really, but I'm hyped. In Severed Dreams Clark sent a fleet to take Babylon 5, and it lead to arguably the best episode in the entire series. Now Sheridan's going to return the favour.

ACT ONE

Act one begins with Marcus running down the corridors to the War Room to get them a data crystal on the current state of President Clark's forces around Proxima III. I don't know what's going on in this image, but it apparently means that Team Clark has put six Omega-class destroyers between the colony and the local jumpgate.

Those are the heaviest ships that Earth has, so that's not ideal for the colonists or Sheridan. I suppose they're also the ships that blew up 10,000 refugees off-screen last episode and got Sheridan on this warpath. The planet's under siege and are going to have to surrender soon because they just don't have the supplies to hold out much longer.

Marcus confirms that they're the ships that attacked the refugees, specifically it was the Pollux and the Heracles that did it. Sheridan doesn't know their captains, so they must have been installed recently by Clark.

Some of the other captains might not be so keen to fire on civilians though, and that information would be really handy to know. Sheridan's fleet is going to try to avoid fighting anyone they don't have to, and if they can get some ships to defect to their side that's even better. But anyone that needs killing is getting killed; no hesitation, no surrender, no retreat.

Next on Sheridan's agenda is those telepaths with Shadow implants they've got in cryo. Franklin still hasn't been able to remove the implants yet, but that's fine as Sheridan just needs them ready to be moved. Not for this operation, they'll be needed in a later episode. Franklin doesn't question this.

Cut to Vir wetting himself in his sleep (he fell asleep with a drink in his hand and it's pouring out onto him). This is possibly a clue that he's still struggling with assassinating the emperor, and the fact that he wakes up saying "I didn't do it, I didn't do it!" is perhaps a clue as well. I hope that's not a precognitive dream he's having.

Anyway he's woken up by Garibaldi at the door, who's looking fairly sinister today. Then again the guy always looks scary this season.

He dropped by to see if Londo was in, as he's got business to take care of in Centauri space and was hoping he can help him cut through some red tape. Glad to see the characters are talking to each other again, after Londo utterly destroyed their season 1 friendship by starting a war with the Narn.

Vir's not looking so scary today, especially seeing as he fell asleep on his hair.

The guy accidentally lets slip that Londo and G'Kar are in a secret meeting, and then assumes Garibaldi already knew that Sheridan was about to start his war against Clark. Ooops. He also assumes that Garibaldi's going to give Sheridan the benefit of the doubt and sign up to help fight for his world, but instead Garibaldi storms out, saying that he'll fight in his own way.

A couple of seasons ago the idea of Vir fighting for his world would've seemed a little absurd, but the guy has already been in the situation that Sheridan's in now, and he solved the problem personally by going right up to his fascist leader and stabbing him in the chest, so really he's got every right to be judgemental of Garibaldi right now.

Hey it's a new angle of the C&C window! Trouble is they haven't shot the footage at an angle to match, and this becomes really obvious when the camera moves. The video has clearly been projected as a texture onto a polygon placed just behind the window. C'mon B5 you can do better than this!

The Starfuries are still flying around outside and inside C&C Ivanova is giving them their instructions. Basically they're to make absolutely certain their orders are actually coming from their commanders as it would be really easy for Earthforce to fake Sheridan or Ivanova's voice. The operational phrase is "Trust Ivanova, trust yourselves, anyone else: shoot them."

ACT TWO

Act two begins with Sheridan walking into his office, past his desk, then back out through the doorway on the other side straight into the War Room.

It's a nice shot, at least I think so, but I have to point out that we already know what's behind both his office door and the War Room door and it's a grid of illuminated squares:

Sheridan's office                                         |                                           War Room        

I know this because every time I see it I cringe because of how cheap it looks.

The only way the shot makes any kind of sense is if it's not meant to be taken literally... or if the two rooms really have been next to each other this whole time and the wall of squares was just sitting there in the middle of a hallway between them before they got sick of it and took it away.

Anyway White Stars 7, 12 and 18 are in hyperspace on their way to Earth and Mars in a cunning scheme to set off their early warning systems and lure all the Earth Alliance ships they can away from their real target: Proxima 3.

There's a great transition here, as the picture of Proxima that Sheridan takes off his desk fades into an image of the planet itself, with the evil Omega-class destroyer Furies flying into the shot. I can tell that it's evil as it's got the EA logo on backwards.

At first I thought they'd accidentally mirrored the texture used on the starboard side, but afterwards there's a shot of the Heracles from the starboard side and it's mirrored there too. It makes it look like it says 3A instead of EA. They're not from the Earth Alliance they're from the Third Alliance... or something.

Anyway the ship sends a Starfury out into hyperspace on patrol, which then completely misses the fleet of White Stars that's gathering there.

Hey it's the purple White Star again! I don't think we've seen this one since Ivanova commanded it at Coriana 6 in Into the Fire. The logo above the door isn't exactly the same (they've put it on at a different angle), but it's close enough for an episode that just got a ship's EA logo backwards. This is definitely the same ship and now it has a name: White Star Prime. You'd think that would make it the flagship, but I think that's still White Star 2, with the red colour scheme.

Marcus is having a chat with White Star 14... hang on, wasn't that Ericsson's ship? The one they sacrificed to lure the Shadows to Coriana 6? Man, they didn't waste time replacing it. Anyway he can't talk long because he's got the Proxima Resistance on the line as well. Apparently they can just give him the information about which destroyers have fired at civilian targets, so that was an easy mystery to solve. But the call is interrupted by Earth forces assaulting their base, and they really won't be able to hold out for long down there.

Back on the station, Londo has dropped by G'Kar's quarters. I'm not sure we've seen G'Kar's quarters this season and Londo's never them at all. G'Kar apologises for the lack of chains, saying that the cleaning service must have removed them. The cleaning service later got revenge on writer jms for this joke by stealing his notes while he was staying in a hotel. The thing is, he kind of needed those notes to write season five, so the next year had a bit of a rocky start.

Anyway, G'Kar insults him, Londo insults his room... and then he stops himself. He doesn't want to fall into old familiar patterns, he's here to actually properly talk to him! Londo knows they'll never be friends, but he admits that during his captivity he came to respect him.

But G'Kar doesn't care.

Londo's getting a bit frustrated now and snatches G'Kar's notes from his hand so he can get his full attention. He's realised that his terrible choices almost destroyed their worlds and made him the enemy and now he can't be sure he understands who the enemy even is anymore. But he does know who his friends are, and if both their governments issue a statement supporting Sheridan that might do some good.

The last time the two of them came close to making some kind of peace like this was in season 2's The Coming of Shadows, when G'Kar learned that the Centauri emperor had come to the station to apologise for the Narn occupation. He cancelled his plans to assassinate him and bought Londo a drink instead. Unfortunately Londo hadn't cancelled his plans to start a war between their worlds and things soon deteriorated from there.

This time Londo's the one getting G'Kar a drink to return the favour, in the hope for a better future for both their worlds. G'Kar takes the drink... and pours it back into Londo's flask. Then he gets back to writing. Great scene, bit of a depressing ending.

Now that Sheridan knows which ships have fired upon civilians it's time to liberate Proxima 3. The Pollux and the Heracles are considered hostile vessels, but the Nemesis and the Vesta have gone out of their way to avoid murdering people so there's a bit of question mark over them. The other two are even more of a mystery. There's a hope of turning four ships here if they play it right but if any of their own people are targeted they have authority to engage; they're not going to risk their own ships over this.

It was hard enough for Sheridan to turn against Earthforce in the first place and then use lethal force force to defend the station from an EA fleet, but now they'll be going out there with the intent to destroy Earthforce ships and kill Earthforce officers and that's going to be even harder. They really wanted to avoid it coming to this, but Clark's pushed his luck.

It's actually somewhat reassuring that even in this imperfect future, the idea of Earthforce killing Earthforce is as troubling to the humans as Minbari fighting other Minbari is to the Minbari. As far as we know there's no wars on Earth anymore. Though Sheridan's about to change all that.

We get another shot of Corwin at the C&C window, but then it pulls back to reveal that White Star 2 has gotten a new paint job. Corwin even confirms it's White Star 2 in dialogue, so it's definitely the same ship Sheridan commanded at Coriana 6. He's a bit worried that sticking a flag on the wing is making it really obvious to the enemy which ship Sheridan is on, but Ivanova tells him that's the idea.

ACT THREE

Ivanova will be staying behind to command the station, so Marcus abandons his purple White Star and comes over to Sheridan's ship to give him have a main cast member to talk to.

After a trip through hyperspace they open up a jump point and we get a rare first person view of the transition into real space as they arrive at Proxima 3. Some of the White Stars love jumping to real space so much they even do a barrel roll as they're flying through.

Oh good, they've sorted out the backwards EA logo.

We've actually only gotten to see the bridge of an Omega-class ship like this once and that was the EAS Agamemnon, Sheridan's old ship, in Points of Departure.

2-01 - Points of Departure

It wouldn't be unfair to call the Agamemnon's bridge a blatant redress of Babylon 5's C&C. They did a fair amount of work on it, adding a bridge across the pit and repainting it red, but there's no ambiguity about what room this started out as.

The bridge of the EAS Heracles, on the other hand, is very different:

It's a really well disguised redress of C&C, with railings borrowed from the War Room! In fact I wasn't sure it was the same set until I noticed a distinctive door in the background that looks just like a door that's mysteriously appeared in C&C this episode (the design of the ceiling was my first clue though).

Anyway, this is Captain... uh... damn, they mentioned it right at the start of the episode and I've forgot. He's Captain Trevor Hall of the Heracles and his first line is yelling "What the hell is going on?" The ship has detected mysterious vessels arriving on the opposite side of the planet so he sends the Pollux and the Nemesis to investigate.

If you're trying to keep track, the Pollux is one of the evil ships that fired on refugees, the Nemesis avoided shooting people.

Marcus is a bit curious about why the enemy commander wouldn't send the Heracles instead of the Nemesis to intercept the incoming vessels, seeing as they can be sure of their willingness to open fire on civilians. But then he concedes that it's possible that all six of the ships are evil.

Sheridan orders the second unit to jump in and the Heracles finds there's multiple warships on approach, unknown silhouette. But Captain Hall must have seen that ISN report which featured the White Stars prominently because he immediately realises that they're Sheridan's ships, and has the Vesta and Juno launch fighters.

Nemesis and Pollux are wondering whether they should come back, but Hall's smart enough to know that you generally want the front of your ship facing the enemy, not the back, and being surrounded doesn't help either, so he lets them carry on to intercept Sheridan's first unit.

Just then Sheridan himself arrives in a third unit and the Heracles receives a message pointing out all the ways their orders are illegal and inviting them to leave the area before shots are fired. Hall gets his ships arranged to intercept all three groups, but he's interrupted by Captain MacDougan on the Vesta calling to White Star 2.

MacDougan just wanted to warn his old friend Sheridan that his plan isn't going to work. I'm not sure he's aware that Sheridan's commanding Minbari vessels with Vorlon technology and incredibly agility, and he's brought a lot more than six of them.

The episode's turned into a tale of three bridges now, with the Vesta and the Heracles differentiated by the different logo on the back wall. It's a shame they couldn't have used the old C&C redress for one of them, but I guess using he same set for three different looking rooms in the same episode would've been pushing it. It's nice to see the old Earthforce uniforms back again by the way. It's been over a year now since our heroes were wearing them.

MacDougan and Sheridan have a chat about whether it was right for Proxima to secede from the Earth Alliance, and about illegal orders. This makes a nice change from earlier space battles in the series, as it's unusual for captains to have an ethical debate before the shooting starts. Plus we get a nice shot of Sheridan looking at the Vesta out of the window.

Sheridan makes the case that Clark is out of control and we learn that MacDougan (or Mackie, as he keeps calling him) was one of his instructors at the academy. We don't learn anything about Hall but I'm guessing he was the bully as he just opens fire without even giving Sheridan a warning, and the White Stars all scatter. The Starfuries are less good at scattering though and a bunch get blown up.

That's Sheridan's cue to issue the order to attack all hostile forces, and we see Starfuries fighting Starfuries again. No idea which side is which though! It's pretty fortunate someone on Clark's side finally did open fire though as Sheridan wasn't likely to fire first. Their ships would've just sat there staring at it each other and it would've been awkward.

ACT FOUR

Chunks of the Heracles bridge are already on fire and Hall's gone from pissed off to absolutely furious. Especially as the Vesta has decided to just hang back and enjoy the show.

Then Mackie calls to let him know that there's only so far he'll go to support illegal orders and blowing up other ships is crossing that line. So Hall tells Mackie's first officer to seize the Vesta!

The dude was already sneaking into position before he heard the message and he soon has a PPG charged up and aimed at his captain's head. Personally I think this has worked out great for Mackie, as his first officer seems like a bit of a dick to me and this is a great opportunity to show him the door. Either a cell door or an airlock door, whichever works best.

Those he does have to deal with the 'gun to the head' situation first.

I tried stitching together this panning shot and I think it worked surprisingly well. It looks very sharp.

Marcus gives us an update, saying that Juno, Nemesis and the Furies are still moving but not yet shooting, and the Vesta is coming about. Sheridan wants to be sure of who the hostiles are so he can get his forces focused on them so he takes his White Star out to say hi to the Furies and assess its intent.

Suddenly there's lots of stuff in the foreground between the lens and Sheridan's chair as the camera pans around White Star 2's bridge, because director Mike Vejar thinks it makes the shots look better and he's right. Sheridan tells the Furies that he's not going to shoot them, he just wants to know if they're going to shoot him.

He flies right in front of them, giving them a clear shot... and they don't take it! So that's good news. Plus it gives us a good idea of the size difference between the hulking Omega-class ships and Sheridan's tiny White Stars.

The bad news is that the Vesta's trying to shoot them now, so Sheridan has to decide whether or not he can bring himself to fire on Mackie. He says he won't do it, he CAN'T do it... then two seconds later he decides that he's going to do it. Fortunately Mackie calls up in time to tell him that the bridge crew have cancelled the first officer's promotion and they're going back to chilling out on the sidelines. That's two down and Juno is also withdrawing. In fact they've legged it through the jumpgate and gone.

That leaves the Pollux, the Nemesis and Hall's ship the Heracles.

The Earthforce destroyers are actually lasting pretty well considering they're up against ships with the firepower to take on a Shadow vessel. In fact that the Pollux even manages to take one out! I've heard that jms justified this by saying that the White Stars are pulling their punches and shooting to disable the EA vessels, not outright obliterate them, but this isn't said in the episode.

Unfortunately the Pollux made the mistake of crippling a ship that was flying directly towards it and momentum causes the doomed White Star to carry on and slam right into the Earth ship's docking bay

It's bad news for both crews, but it gave the editor a fantastic clip for the season 5 opening credits.

That's pretty much it for the Pollux. Sheridan walks over to the window and starts willing its crew to get to the life pods, but we don't see any launch before the ship goes up in a fireball. I guess the launch bay was where they kept all their dynamite.

Marcus has another update for us, reporting that the Pollux is destroyed and the Nemesis is surrendering. The Heracles is still stubbornly refusing to stand down however, despite the fact that they are heavily outgunned. In fact they don't have any guns any more, and all their bridge consoles are on fire. Sheridan tells Hall to surrender Proxima or he'll destroy them, but Hall doesn't think he'll do it. He's not the type to just gun down a defenceless vessel.

Hall tells his first officer that there's no way he's going to surrender Proxima or stand trial for following orders. I'm curious how he thinks this will help him avoid the second one, but it's nice to get a glimpse into his priorities here. But his first officer won't let her ship get destroyed just because he doesn't want to face consequences so there's a second mutiny this episode!

This one's a lot more successful though.

Proxima 3 is freed, all fighters are ordered to return to the ship, and everyone's happy! Except for Hall that is... and Sheridan. Now it's his turn to be the miserable one on the White Star bridge as he tells Marcus they've achieved the mission objective but they haven't won. Too many people on both sides died for this to be a victory. And next time they won't have surprise on their side so it's just going to get harder.

And act four ends with sad music and the wreckage of the Pollux drifting by. They got the EA logo on the hull the right way around this time though so I'm satisfied.

ACT FIVE

Now those Omega-class ships are looking even more gigantic. They're supposed to be 1714.3 meters long, according to visual effects art director Tim Earls' official size comparison charts, so it's basically Star Destroyer length (with the White Stars in the ballpark of your average USS Enterprise).

Hey look, there's a few Hyperion-class ships there as well! I wonder where the hell they came from. Maybe they're the two vessels that vanished from the fight in Severed Dreams without explanation, and they've been hiding just off-screen all this time, waiting for their chance to sneak back into a fleet without being noticed.

Sheridan gathers all the Earthforce captains aboard his White Star for a meeting, which I guess proves that the ship can hold a lot of shuttles. It also shows that Sheridan still has no concern for his own safety as there's not a single security guard in the room. It's just him and the elite from the enemy fleet, who are a suitably diverse group considering that they are representing all of Earth.

They're here to discuss what happens next, and he's got three options for each captain:

1. They can take their ship and return home.
2. They can stay here out of the main fighting and defend the colony. 
3. They can join up with Sheridan's fleet and help him kick ass.

The first officer of the Heracles, Commander Levitt makes the point that the military shouldn't be dictating policy, but Sheridan makes the case that Clark is a dictator who ordered them to attack civilians and to defend the people they work for they need to get rid of him. Then they can let the voters decide whether they were right or not. Man, this episode's even giving us ethical debates after the shooting!

Levitt is also wondering why Sheridan even needs their support if he's got all those League worlds supporting him already. He had the biggest fleet in history at the start of the season, why not just do that again? So he tells them that he wants it to be a clean fight. Humans vs humans flying alien ships with First One weaponry crewed by the Minbari is the best he can do I guess.

Back on Babylon 5, Londo is sitting at the bar he was at in The Coming of Shadows, drinking alone, when suddenly G'Kar is sitting next to him, and he's somehow silently ordered the same drink. G'Kar downs his drink and tells him to issue the joint statement. He's going to sign... but not on the same page.

Londo's so moved by this he looks like he's about to cry. I think he might take that empty glass and put it in a trophy case somewhere, and he probably should as it represents a major step towards a proper peace between their two worlds.

I love the use of focus on this scene by the way, as you can make out basically nothing but Londo, G'Kar, and the bar, and never all three at once. The music's nice as well. Very subtle, but also different.

Hey Sheridan's changed White Star 2's symbol to the Babylon 5 shield!

Mackie's dropped by the bridge to let Sheridan know what the others have decided (so they don't have to pay all the actors to speak for themselves). Commander Levitt is going to take the Heracles away to Beta 9 for repairs, the Furies is going stay to help defend Proxima, the Nemesis is going to join Team Sheridan... and so is Mackie on the Vesta. I thought he'd forgotten one then, but then I remembered that the Juno ran away. I guess they never came back.

Oh damn, they finally framed the Voice of the Resistance test card correctly for the DVDs, showing what I've been missing out on at the top: a hilariously dumb Anti-Clark symbol. Not that Ivanova's 'I'm done with this shit' expression isn't hilarious as well.

3-06 - Dust to Dust

I wonder if it was inspired by the shopkeeper's leaflet in Dust to Dust.

Wait, hang on. So they transformed her studio back into the War Room and put the circular table back together for like two scenes where they never sat around the table... then they took it apart again so Ivanova could use it as her desk for another Voice of the Resistance broadcast?

Anyway, she's just telling people that Proxima 3 has been liberated. Or as she puts it "Proxima 3 is free".

Meanwhile Garibaldi's on his way to the docking bay, presumably carrying everything he owns in one bag. He's going to Mars and he won't be coming back. The guy's been on Babylon 5 since the beginning of the series, he's the only human who has been, so this is a real end of an era. But we've still got Delenn, G'Kar and Londo from the pilot, and Ivanova's been on the station since the first regular episode.

Ivanova ends the episode by telling people about the joint statement by the Narn and Centauri and tells her viewers that they may be entering a new age of cooperation and trust. That's an interesting note to end on for an episode like this, especially as we're watching Garibaldi walk out the door.
 

CONCLUSION

---

No Surrender, No Retreat features multiple surrenders and a retreat, but they were all by the enemy side, so that's fine. The episode is split three ways between Sheridan's campaign to retake Earth, Garibaldi's low-key departure from the station, and Londo's attempt to attain a little bit of redemption and do right by his friends. I'm not sure why Sheridan is his friend now, but he's doing his best for him here and G'Kar reluctantly joins in. I suppose he did owe Sheridan that favour after he told him about the Vorlon Planet Killer headed for Centauri Prime.

The end of the last episode featured a furious Sheridan, with Clark's actions pushing him to act sooner than he planned, without finishing his preparations. It definitely seemed like the guy was ready to make some real mistakes out of haste and emotion, but instead we got the opposite. He was calm, cautious, professional and as moral as possible. I love the fact that Sheridan is coming to save Earth with a fleet of Minbari ships, crewed mostly by Minbari. Terrible for PR, but it takes things full circle. The Minbari have been reborn as the heroes, the humans have become the villains.

It's been exactly 0 episodes since the last civil war on the series, but the way this story is playing out is very different. We didn't see any battles in the Minbari Civil War, only Delenn's allies driven to desperation by their situation, and she resolved the situation.by having a better understanding of tradition and a willingness to sacrifice herself. Sheridan's war has already had a lot more substance to in it just one episode, and so far it's all about tactics and ethics. Sheridan works carefully to isolate Earth politically, gather intel, divert enemy forces with a fake recon mission, then determine which enemy ships will fire on them. In fact half the story was about them getting the intelligence needed to divide Clark's forces and win them over with words. Well, mostly just win Mackie over actually, as he's the only one that will talk to him. The drama of the fight isn't how they're going to win, it's who will fire back and who will survive. There's Captain Obviously Good and Captain Obviously Evil, and there's no mystery which way they'll go, but even there their second in commands make things more complicated with their two mutinies. I was surprised though by how streamlined and focused Sheridan's story is, with the bare minimum of characters and no extraneous scenes. When the battle started it was just captains and first officers, with Ivanova and Lennier sitting it out entirely. I figured that Delenn would make it back in time to see Sheridan off, but nope she was entirely absent this episode.

The G'Kar and Londo plot was similarly focused, mostly based around one conversation in a room (with one person doing most of the talking) but man it was nice to see the two of them have a scene together again after they've been sidelined for so long. They've barely been in the series since their epic Centauri Prime arc at the start of the season, so this is basically the second time they had a chat since then.

Their plot is basically just Londo trying to extend an olive branch and do some good after realising how terrible his choices have been, and G'Kar being understandably reluctant. The last time one of them tried to make peace and they shared a drink, they ended up in a war that devastated Narn. Londo even admits that he's been a terrible person, to himself and G'Kar, and he was wise enough not to point out all the times that G'Kar has been less than altruistic himself. Like the time he conspired to frame Sinclair to start a war, or tried to assassinate the Centauri Emperor, or the time the Narn occupied his nephew's colony. In fact G'Kar was so relentlessly antagonistic to Londo and his people that he couldn't imagine the possibility that they could end their cycle of hatred. So the fact they finally managed to get on the same page (almost) and share that drink (kind of) is a huge step, and Peter Jurasik really sells it in his reaction.

At this point in production it really seemed like season four would be the final season, so showrunner jms had to give us some kind of closure to the Londo and G'Kar arc in a hurry. This might have basically been it for the two of them, the ending of their story, and it's a really satisfying conclusion. Fortunately it just cuts the arc short at a satisfying point instead of fast-forwarding through it all, so there's still plenty of story left to tell in season 5.

And the Garibaldi story is basically just him telling Vir he's totally going to fight for Earth, in his own way, and then leaving the station forever. It's about as quiet as departures can get, with no one turning up to see him off, not even Zack. Probably because he didn't tell anyone about it.

Babylon 5 had two Hugo Award winning episodes during its run, The Coming of Shadows and Severed Dreams, and this reminded me of both of them. Mostly because it was supposed to. They're a high bar to reach, but the episode nearly gets there I reckon. In fact I'm not really sure what's holding it back for me. It's got the drama, the action and the intelligence, it pushes the story forward, it's got Londo and G'Kar sharing a drink, Garibaldi leaving forever, and it's got Mike Vejar's direction. Season four is probably my favourite season and this is one of my favourite episodes from it, it's just not quite top ten for the series overall for me.

---

COMING SOON

Babylon 5 will return with The Exercise of Vital Powers, but not until April I'm afraid.

Coming up next on Sci-Fi Adventures, it's the annual Sci-Fi Adventures Awards, where I desperately try to remember anything that happened in the dozens of episodes I watched over the last 12 months and then hand out awards arbitrarily.

PS. please feel welcome and encouraged to leave a comment.