Babylon 5 4-21: Rising Star

Episode:

87

|

Writer:

J. Michael Straczynski

|

Director:

Tony Dow

|

Air Date:

20-Oct-1997

---

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, it's the penultimate episode of Babylon 5's fourth season: Rising Star. Hang on, I recognise this picture: that's the same CGI stock shot of a shuttle arriving they used for the start of No Surrender, No Retreat! I guess the VFX team needed a week off to recover after that last story.

Writer jms must have liked this title as he wrote a comic series a couple of years later called Rising Stars, about the lives of people born with superpowers due to a mysterious comet. I remember the comic being pretty good, though I don't remember much more than that I'm afraid. I'll have things to say about Rising Star though, with any luck.

SPOILER WARNING: I'll be writing about every scene that takes place in episode 87 of a heavily serialised TV show, so this isn't the best place to jump in if you're just curious about it. But anyone watching through the series for the first time will be safe here as I'll not be spoiling anything that happens after this story.

---

The episode begins how the last episode ended, with an ISN Special Report.

These haven't always been good news for for Babylon 5 crew, but I'm more optimistic now that Earth's fascist regime has been purged. In fact that's what this report's about.

Jane's back! Again!

I read somewhere that her scene at the end of the previous episode was actually filmed for this story and I can believe it, as this seems like it's carrying straight on from there.

She can confirm that President Clark took his own life, and that the conclusion of Endgame took place at 2:53am EST... which is a bit of a strange time zone to pick for Interstellar Network News, especially as Earthdome is in Geneva, Switzerland. It would've been 8:53am for him.

We saw them wheel the body away in Endgame, but here Jane claims they left him in place for examination and documentation, so I suppose they must have wheeled him back again and lied about it.

Oh no, he's become a ghost!

This scene reminds me of when ISN reported on William Edgars' death a few episodes ago, only the Psi Corps agents that murdered him didn't think to put a 'TRAITOR TO MARS!' sign around his neck to frame the Mars Resistance even further.

Someone holds up his S C O R C H E D  E A R T H note to the news camera, but it's still too hard to make out any of the handwriting, sadly. One thing's perfectly clear though, ISN's not treating this as the tragic death of a beloved leader. They've gone full anti-Clark.

We learn that Sheridan has surrendered to Earthforce authorities, who are going to decide if charges will pressed for how he stole their space station and declared war against them.

Though things definitely seem to be going better for him than they did the last time he was held by the authorities, they've even brought in some tea. Though if I were him I wouldn't try the sandwiches.

Here's the current leader of the Earth Alliance, Acting President Susanna Luchenko.

People are out for revenge but she asks the public to give the courts and legal system time to separate those who were willing participants in Clark's "reign of terror" and those who were coerced.

I've just realised that we saw the Minbari, Narn and the Centauri get a change of government this season, but there was no sign of anyone reporting on those events (or any hint of how regular people responded to it at all in fact). I guess we're supposed to see this ISN-style news broadcast as being a distinctly human thing. We already learned in Divided Loyalties that the Minbari are told what they require to know, and no more.

Also, Ivanova gets a mention! There's been hundreds of casualties in this civil war, but I guess being Sheridan's second in command and leading their forces for a bit makes her condition newsworthy. 

Nothing's much changed since last episode though, except for a couple of people walking in and one dropping their tray of... miscellaneous medical stuff. My first guess was that something for Ivanova to eat and drink, but she doesn't seem to be in any condition for that at the moment. Either way it has to be great when you turn up to work as an extra and get told to break stuff on camera. It's just a shame that 'glass shattering' sound effect sounds like it was put in afterwards as a joke.

This is Marcus's last scene in the series and it's a lot like his first scene on the station, as he was lying in Medlab back then as well. First time he got there due to someone sacrificing himself to save him, this time it was the opposite. The Rangers always say "We live for the one, we die for the one." I guess now we know that Ivanova was the one for Marcus.

Unfortunately we'll never know for certain if there would've been a safer way to use the machine to save Ivanova. I'm sure the B5 crew on the station would've each taken a turn to donate some energy to her. I mean Sheridan did it to save Garibaldi right after he arrived and he hadn't even met the guy yet.

ACT ONE

After a quick walk and talk to give us the necessary exposition, Franklin finally makes it to Medlab, but he's too late. Marcus has given all his 'life energy' to save Ivanova, whatever that means. They don't say he's dead, but that seems to match the description of his condition.

Ivanova's current condition could be described as 'distraught', but that's a significant step up from how she was in the last episode. Seems that the alien healing machine can fix a broken spine, as she's out of the neck brace and doing fine, well apart from the guilt and despair.

Claudia Christian got to act her heart out in this scene as Ivanova talks about how incredibly annoying Marcus was. She really sells it. Turns out that Ivanova woke up and saw herself connected to the machine, but she couldn't move and disconnect him from it before it was too late, so now she's got that tormenting her as well.

She mentions her terrible luck with relationship. Nothing specific, but we've seen that one was secretly Homeguard (in The War Prayer) and the other had her personality destroyed by the Psi Corps (in Divided Loyalties). But she knew Marcus loved her and she knew she could've trusted him, and she feels like she could've tried one more time... for him!

It's plenty tragic, though maybe it would've been a little less uncomfortable hearing her wish that she could've done more for the nice guy who loved her and helped her out if Marcus had ever admitted how he felt to her. Or admitted to himself that he wasn't ever going to pursue it, and perhaps tried to move on and love someone else. He can't be blamed for being in love with her, he didn't choose that, and he never acted like she owed him anything or acted out of jealousy. He just seemed satisfied to linger in the unrequited zone. But he's left Ivanova with a lot of guilt and confusion.

She feels like she could've at least 'boffed' him once, possibly mostly joking, and then tells Franklin that all love is unrequited.

Cut to Londo and G'Kar meeting up in a docking bay. G'Kar makes a tactical error when Londo accuses him of being early and he responds that he's "never premature". This gives Londo an opening to make a couple of jokes at his expense, just like he used to do back in the early seasons, except without so much antagonism this time. I feel like we've missed a couple of episodes as their relationship's really developed since they (kind of) shared a drink in No Surrender, No Retreat.

Vir arrives with some bad news though: the Regent is sick and it's predicted that he'll die early next year. The Royal Court has finally chosen a new emperor to replace him though... and it's Londo! So there's another part of his precognitive nightmare come true. The scene ends with a slightly less shocking reveal: the three of them are about to leave the station on their way to Earth.

Meanwhile, on Earth...

Surprise, it's Bester again! It used to be he'd only show up once or twice a year, but he's all over this season. This is the first time that he and Sheridan have met on Earth though.

I like the lighting in this room, with the sun coming in through the blinds. The series has a pretty cheap look a lot of the time but it can look very... normal when it wants to, especially this season. It makes me wonder what the main station sets could've looked liked if they'd started designing and building them in late 1997, with all the experience they'd gained in the meantime.

Bester mentions that he got in here by telling the staff that he and Sheridan were good friends, like Reebo and Zooty, and puts a jammer down to let them speak privately for a few minutes. In fact he slides the jammer over to him, to show how chill he is. I remember when Sheridan and Garibaldi used to use these things way back at the start of the Conspiracy of Light arc in season 2. That seems like forever ago now.

Sheridan reveals that he knows what Bester did to Garibaldi and that he had William Edgars killed, and he also knows about the virus. Trouble is it would take a telepath to back up Garibaldi's claims, and only a Psi Corps telepath would be able to give evidence that's admissible in court. Wait, I thought we'd learned that telepathic evidence wasn't admissible (in The Quality of Mercy)

Anyway, Bester wants to know if Sheridan used his rogue telepath lover to disable one of those Earthforce ships last episode and warns him that if he did, and she died because of it, then he won't leave this room alive. So there's a surprise bit of tension just before the first act break.

ACT TWO

Sheridan finds it pretty incredible that Bester would think his threats are worth a damn to him at this point. The series is over Bester, he's won already (spoiler: it got another season).

But no Sheridan didn't use Carolyn to disable an enemy ship! Using people to achieve his aims isn't something that comes easy to him, unlike Bester he doesn't enjoy it, so he only sent the people who were single, without families, and without hope of a cure. Sure she technically met the first two qualifications in her records, but he knew about her relationship with Bester and he wasn't going to put anyone else through what he'd been through with his wife Anna. So that's a bit of a relief for Bester.

I'm glad there's actually some fallout here from his decision to use the telepaths the way he did, it's not just being forgotten and ignored. Though no one's debating whether it was a war crime.

But they're not done yet, as Sheridan's well aware that Bester's going to keep moving his people into positions of power, and there's eventually going to be a war between humans and telepaths.

He's not sure Bester will be alive to see it though, as once Garibaldi's finished his current business on Mars, he's going to be coming up with a creative and unpleasant way to settle the score.

Cut to Garibaldi doing something unpleasant. Now that he's rescued Sheridan and helped take down President Clark he's reached the third item on his 'to do' list: find Lise.

Seems that she went to the Mars Mafia for help getting off the planet and they decided to hold onto her for a ransom. So he's gone to the best black market accountant on Mars for some information and the lighting's so dark in here I've no idea what set they've redressed for his office.

I've noticed a theme running through this episode, as we're seeing over and over what people will do for the people they love. Marcus died to save the person he loved, Bester would kill to avenge the person he loves, and Garibaldi is going to beat the crap out this guy if he doesn't give him the answers he needs to go rescue the person he loves.

The episode's also about ambassadors, as it turns out that G'Kar and Londo aren't the only ones taking a trip to Earth.

In fact they've got all the League ambassadors on board this White Star! Makes it one hell of a target if you really hate ambassadors.

Before the others come in, Delenn talks to G'Kar and Londo in private, giving them each a document and asking for their support. We're not allowed to know what it is yet, but Londo bursts out laughing at it. What she's got here would make history and he's just a bit emotional about it.

In fact when the other ambassadors turn up he tells them that he hopes they brought a change of underwear, which has me wondering how many days this trip is going to take. And whether they have adequate toilet facilities for their various biologies. I'm going to stop wondering about things now.

Back on Earth, it's Acting President Luchenko's turn to speak with Sheridan and he is suitably respectful, acting like an Earthforce officer talking to his president rather than a head of state talking to a senator who got a surprise promotion this morning.

Luchenko reveals that half of Earthforce wants to give him a kiss on the check and a medal, and the other wants him executed, but she's decided that a compromise there would be awkward. She also reveals that they were totally planning to move on Clark themselves, it's just that the timing wasn't right yet. Morally he was right to make a move and prevent the loss of more innocent lives, but what he did was somewhere on the scale between 'mutiny' and 'treason', so politically he's a bit inconvenient.

Luchenko's not going to strap him in a chair and make him sign a confession, but she has called a press conference and he is going to announce his resignation from Earthforce there. In exchange he'll get to keep his military pension and she'll guarantee amnesty for the officers who served under him.

The alternative is that he and his officers get court martialed, and the tribunal will be stacked with the officers who don't want to kiss him, so really he has no choice. Even if there's going to be a season five, he cannot be the captain anymore. The music, and his expression, sells his resignation as a sad thing, but he did just get amnesty for all his people (in writing as well!).

She then basically rephrases the line he said himself a moment ago: "The bitch of it is that you probably did the right thing, but you did it in the wrong way, in the inconvenient way." She never quite gets around to letting him know what the right way was though.

ACT THREE

Hey I recognise this shot! This is the warehouse on Mars that Garibaldi was hiding in when he got captured by the Mars Resistance. It's where they keep all the pipes and girders I guess.

They've really dialled back the number of original VFX shots in this episode, possibly to give Netter Digital more time to render the effects in the previous episode.

These must be the Mars Mafia (I can tell from the guy's accent), and they're not very bright. Someone knocks on the door and leaves a colourful box with a button on top for them to find, so this guy tells his buddy to hand it over and then presses it!

The box plays a Porky Pig sound sample, saying "T-T-THATS'S ALL FOLKS!" then explodes in with a tiny shower of sparks and a bit of smoke. Then it explodes again and sends everyone flying.

Then someone kicks the wall in on top of one of them! They're just showing off now with the stunts.

Okay now they're just showing off with the stunts.

It's nice to see the Rangers in action again, for the first time since... uh... you know, aside from Marcus I think this might be the first time we've ever seen the Rangers in action.

Garibaldi's in action as well, knocking people out and kicking open doors. In fact he straight up kicks one of them off its hinges. I remember that Garibaldi was the Rangers' contact on the station during season two, so it's nice to see them teaming up again.

He found her!

I'm genuinely surprised, about this whole scene. I mean I expected Garibaldi to rescue Lise, I'm just shocked that this set looks nothing like Down Below.

The episode cuts back to Earth to show Delenn's White Star arriving from a jump point. It's a new VFX shot this time, with an unusual ship in orbit.

It's an Explorer-class vessel!

We heard in A Distant Star that if you're very lucky you might get to see one of these during your lifetime, so I guess we must be really lucky to have seen two of them in the series so far.

It turns out that that the ambassadors have voted, and Delenn and Lennier seem fairly happy about the way things went. It's not every day that ambassadors decide to make history in a surprise vote while on a ship heading to something else they were meant to be doing. We still don't know what they were voting on though.

The two of them also talk about Marcus for a bit and how he followed the path of his heart. Delenn wonders if saving Ivanova was the only way he could find peace after the death of his brother. It seems like Franklin's been telling people what Ivanova said in that scene earlier, as they also talk about whether all love really is unrequited. Delenn touches Lennier's face and tells him that it's not... which kind of seems like it's sending the wrong signals. Then again she may have no idea that Lennier's as much in love with her as Marcus was with Ivanova.

Now everyone's on Earth!

I think this is just supposed to be Sheridan's press conference but no one seems too surprised or curious about the fact that the Minbari and Narn ambassadors have turned up, along with the Centauri Prime Minister.

First Luchenko has a bit of a speech, saying that both sides were fighting to protect an Earth they could proudly call home. We know her well enough now to know that's not necessarily what she believes, but she does believe it's the best way they can move forward from this. She also has lots of nice things to say about Sheridan and I'm sure she believes some of them as well.

It's a good thing they were able to find a dress uniform for him with all the right ribbons on. Maybe Delenn got it out of his wardrobe and brought it over.

Sheridan decides that this is a good time to sum up one of the themes of the series, saying his time on Babylon 5 taught him that you always have a choice, those choices have consequences, and those consequences come with responsibilities. He also announces his resignation... after making sure to mention on camera that Luchenko offered his people amnesty. So that's done now. He's not Captain Sheridan anymore.

Luchenko comes back to the mic to announce that the League of Non-Aligned Worlds would like to address the gathering, and invites G'Kar to the stage. I'm sure it's not a mistake on her part, but... the Narn aren't part of the League, they're one of the major races that worlds would be aligned with.

Anyway, what's important here is that Andreas Katsulas gets his moment to deliver a speech, talking about how humans make communities... but he immediately switches tack and drops the bombshell that the League of Non-Aligned World his been dissolved! Apparently ambassadors have the authority to vote on that and just come up with their decision on the spot while they're on their way to a press conference.

There's a reaction shot of Luchenko here that reveals that she did not know about this, and she's equally blindsided by the fact that they've voted to establish an Interstellar Alliance to succeed it. It's a bit like how the League of Nations was replaced by the United Nations after World War II destroyed its credibility.

Delenn comes on next and explains a bit about the Alliance. It'll help promote free trade, improve conditions on less advanced worlds, create peace etc.

It'll also have its own military force, with the most advanced fleet of ships in existence, and they just happen to be doing a fly by over Earthdome at the moment, flying so close that it makes their drinks shake. Fortunately ISN has a camera outside to cut to, and it does that Battlestar/Firefly thing of trying to get the action in frame.

Personally I'm glad to see they've still got so many ships left, but are they trying to give Londo more nightmares?

In fact sending an alien fleet to enter foreign airspace and fly over the centre of Earth's government without their prior knowledge or approval is going to be giving a lot of people nightmares. Especially as they lost their planetary defences last episode. I'm not sure this is the best way to make a sales pitch, but as deliberate show of power it's pretty impactful.

Delenn's learned a lot from And Now For a Word and Illusion of Truth it seems, as she's manipulated the situation to get her message broadcast live and unedited, and she's backing it up with some dramatic imagery. She's a much more experienced, cynical politician now.

This water looks really good in motion by the way, they've nailed it.

Delenn continues by explaining that the ships belong to the Anla'Shock, aka. the Rangers, and right now their job is to guard borders and give warning to your neighbours if you choose to attack them. It seems like their main method of ensuring good behaviour by the member races is to threaten to kick them out of the club, and deprive them of all the benefits of being a member. She makes it clear that their purpose now is to create peace, not enforce it, and they'll only go where they're invited. Though the music's still weirdly tense.

Anyway she's offering to let Earth join this amazing alliance as well. It seems a bit early maybe, seeing as they've only been free of Clark for like 4 days (assuming it took Delenn two days to return to B5 and two days to get back to Earth again), but maybe that's part of the plan.

ACT FOUR

Lots of leaders in this room right now.

Luchenko's interested in their Alliance, but she needs something more tangible that she can use to sell it to the public and her generals. So Delenn agrees to throw in artificial gravity technology!

On the one hand that's a hell of a tech upgrade, on the other, it means no more Omega-class ships with the rotating section in the middle! No more rotating stations like Babylon 5! It also I means I can't point out that Mars has a much lower gravity than Earth and the actors should be bouncing around ever again. It's the end of an era.

Delenn explains that the three of them make up the Alliance's advisory board, so they'll basically be sitting in the same seats as usual (assuming Londo doesn't have to go off and be Emperor), but they've elected their own president and Luchenko really should've guessed who it is.

Cut to one of the generals bursting in to get that certificate of amnesty from Sheridan. I guess he wants a bit of leverage. Unfortunately Sheridan's already given copies of it to the press and he's got the original some place safe.

Sheridan reveals that he's been building to the Alliance for months now, which we saw in Rumors, Bargains and Lies when he manipulated the League worlds into demanding he send his White Stars to patrol their borders. He had no way of knowing what they would vote for, but he did apparently know there'd be a vote. Really he would've been happy to get out of this mess with retirement and amnesty for his crew, but instead he's gotten the ultra happy ending and that's made him pretty happy.

And it turns out that his dad's okay too!

The only way this day could go any better for Sheridan is if his dad met his girlfriend for the first time and gave his absolute support for their relationship. So that happens as well. Sheridan's dad welcomes her to the family and she's glad to have found somewhere she truly belongs. Aww.

Then they kind of ruin the scene with someone calling Sheridan 'Mr President' and him telling his dad it's a long story. Though then again, if anyone on the show is allowed to be corny, it's Sheridan.

ACT FIVE

It's ISN Special Report time again, as Jane continues to report on the unfolding Babylon 5 story.

Earth has agreed to join forces with the new Interstellar Alliance, and Acting President Luchenko makes it official by shaking a lot of Rangers' hands.

Sheridan also throws in one last surprise, which I hope Luchenko knew about before she signed up. To join the Alliance, Earth must recognise the independence of any colony world which votes to be independent. That means he's lived up to his promise and freed Mars!

Though Luchenko is quick to add that it has to be ratified by the Senate.

Garibaldi turns the news off so he can have a scene with Lise in their nice, extensively candlelit bedroom. She moved on from Edgars pretty quickly!

Though he hasn't decided yet if he's going to go back to Babylon 5 or stay and help her run Edgars Industries. It seems that she didn't just inherit her husband's money but also his job. Man, I hope someone's rescinded Ivanova's order to have him killed on sight. Probably safer if he stays here in the comfy mansion with the piles of money.

Turns out that ISN can continue reporting even when Garibaldi's not watching TV, as Jane lets viewers know that Captain Susan Ivanova has requested and received a transfer to command a new Warlock-class destroyer. So she got that ship she wanted in less than five years after all and she didn't even need to sell her soul to Night Watch to get it!

Two shadowy figures are watching ISN on a White Star and we learn that Sheridan and Delenn got married in a private ceremony off-screen! I guess it would've been weird to have shown it and not had Garibaldi and Ivanova attending. Though not as weird as the leader of the Alliance marrying the leader of the Rangers. No one seems to think this is worth mentioning, so I guess it's not an issue!

Jane does mention that the Interstellar Alliance will be run from Babylon 5 until the permanent facilities are constructed in the city of Tuzanor on Minbar. I guess that's Space Geneva now.

Turns out that the two mysterious figures are G'Kar and Londo, having a drink together in celebration. Well, Londo's drinking and G'Kar's eating the rice that was thrown at the wedding.

G'Kar shares some wisdom here, saying that you can't make history, only hope to survive it, which Londo finds to be a depressing point of view. I guess the last year has made him rethink his belief that he doesn't have a choice, as all the choices he's made lately have saved planets and forged alliances.

Londo also finds human wedding ceremonies to be very strange, but then he always seems to find human culture to be strange. He almost wishes he could peek in on Sheridan and Delenn in bed, which is a bit creepy. G'Kar's got him beat though, because he is peeking in on them.

Chekhov's wi-fi eye finally gets a payoff, just not the kind anyone would've expected... or wanted. I mean what the hell, G'Kar?

Man, if only Ivanova had known the White Stars had beds like this on them, maybe she wouldn't have been so quick to request a transfer to an Earth ship. It's unclear if they have candles in those crystals though.

There was no personal log voice over in this episode, but Delenn finishes the story with some narration, saying:

It was the end of the Earth year 2261 and it was the dawn of a new age for all of us. It was the end of one chapter and the beginning of another. The next 20 years would see great changes, great joy, and great sorrow. The Telepath War, the Drakh War. The new alliance would waver and crack, but in the end it would hold. Because what is built endures, and what is loved endures, and Babylon 5 endures."

Wow, spoilers! You can really tell that this was mean to be the penultimate episode of the entire series, not just the season. Well, actually it feels more like an ultimate episode. This could've been the finale and I think people would've been satisfied.

And the episode ends a lot like Into the Fire ended, with Delenn and Sheridan flying back to Babylon 5 on their White Star after bringing the League races together and ending another huge war. It's a very similar shot of the station as well, from almost exactly the same angle.

Plus there's no hook for the next episode here either, they're just allowed to be happy and victorious! And then the miserable, hopeless 'everything's fucked' season 3 end credits music comes on and ruins the mood once again.


CONCLUSION

---

The Babylon Project was the last, best hope for peace. It failed. But now that the last of the shooting has stopped our heroes have established a shiny new Interstellar Alliance and we've gotten a voice over telling us that it works out just fine in the long run. Surprise, Babylon 5 was actually about the birth of the United Federation of Planets the whole time! It stole Star Trek: Enterprise's thunder five years before the series even started. Now we finally know what Future Delenn was talking about in War Without End when she told Past Sheridan that they'd built something that would endure for a thousand years.

It's just a shame that the Interstellar Alliance basically comes out of nowhere, for the audience and the people involved. You don't create a multi-planetary alliance by surprising ambassadors with a proposition while they're flying to a press conference they didn't even appear at. I mean, I don't think you do anyway. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe the ambassadors actually have the power to make decisions like this for their own homeworlds. At least when it came to Earth's turn they bothered to inform the public about it first and the Senate was able to have some say in the matter.

The Alliance had to have been Sheridan's plan all along, or else he was a liar when he promised the Mars Resistance their independence, but pretty much all the setup we get in the series is his attempts to get White Stars patrolling borders in Rumors, Bargains and Lies. It's possible that we were supposed to get more before they had to race to get the major arcs finished before the end of season four, but that doesn't change the fact that what ended up on film isn't as satisfying as it could've been. The whole thing sacrifices believability for the sake of surprise. Plus it makes Sheridan's new position as president feel kind of fake somehow. He's basically the secretary-general of a space UN that was created last night on a whim and I'm not sure anyone knows quite what that means yet. Though it's pretty obvious he's the 'rising star' from the title. Probably. I mean Captain Ivanova did get talked about a lot on the news and Londo's star is definitely in ascendance.

Londo and G'Kar's relationship also had to be wrapped up in a hurry, so now they're suddenly friends! Or at least willing to be in the same room together and have civil conversations. It kind of works purely because it's what everyone watching the series wants, but it got me wondering if I'd forgotten something. Strangely the main human characters didn't get to be in the same room together in this episode. Franklin and Ivanova had one scene together before basically disappearing from the story, and Sheridan and Garibaldi never met. In fact I think the last time all four were in the same room was 16 episodes ago, so that's a bit sad. It's also sad that Ivanova basically left off-screen without saying goodbye, and we had to hear about it from Jane.

The episode has a slightly weird and disconnected feeling to it, due to all the unfamiliar sets, the ISN interludes, and the way we get only get glimpses of what's going on. The Garibaldi B plot especially is just 'Tell me where Lise is!', 'Rangers vs Mafia', and then 'Garibaldi and Lise in bed', without a whole lot of story there to join up the dots. Though at least Garibaldi finally got the girl and a big sack of money along with her!

Sadly Marcus didn't get the girl and things didn't work out so well for actor Jason Carter either, as he found himself written off the show. Last season a few of the cast members played a prank on him during the filming of Grey 17 is Missing, making it seem like he was being killed off, and when it got a bit out of control jms sent the guy a card saying "I will never kill you again." Well, it turns out that he's not completely dead here, but he's certainly dead enough. The fact that everyone else was also out of a job in a week's time probably softened the blow a little... but then the series got miraculously renewed on a new network and most of the other actors came back, except for Claudia Christian. So really Marcus's sacrifice was for nothing!

Anyway, I actually liked this episode a lot, but it's a bit of a step down from the last few stories I reckon. I suppose that was going to be inevitable though, as it's a quieter episode, more about explaining treaties and giving speeches to camera rather than overthrowing tyranny. The Interstellar Alliance is the Babylon Project's ultimate victory, so it does make sense that the episode would spend a while properly defining what it is, however the scenes of Delenn laying down how things are going to be from now on aren't as cathartic as they maybe could've been if we'd had any indication beforehand that this is specifically what our heroes were trying to achieve. It's like I was watching someone score the winning goal in a game of baseball; I was too busy going 'huh?' to stand up and cheer.

Fortunately this is not the finale, as there's one more episode this season and a whole other season after that, so even though it wasn't a completely satisfying conclusion for me it's not the end of the world.

---

NEXT WEEK

Sci-Fi Adventures will return with the ultimate episode of Babylon 5's penultimate season: The Deconstruction of Falling Stars.

Thanks for dropping by and reading my words. If you want to leave some words of your own there's a box below. Go for it.