Babylon 5 5-18: The Fall of Centauri Prime

Episode:

106

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Writer:

J. Michael Straczynski

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Director:

Douglas E. Wise

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Air Date:

28-Oct-1998

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm watching Babylon 5 episode 106, The Fall of Centauri Prime. I suppose lots of planets have an autumn.

Babylon 5 originally took a bit of a break after the last episode, Movements of Fire and Shadow, and even more of a break in the UK. In fact viewers had to wait over four months for this episode! That's way more than the month I've kept you waiting, so I'm not even feeling guilty. There were no more breaks after this though. They aired this final stretch of stories over five weeks, with the movie River of Souls thrown in as a bonus. In the UK, Channel 4 did one better by airing them over five days. Unfortunately it was scheduled a little earlier than usual... at 11:30 AM as part of The Bigger Breakfast block.

The episode was directed by Douglas E. Wise, nephew of Robert Wise (director of The Sound of Music, The Andromeda Strain and Star Trek: The Motion Picture). It was the only episode of the series he directed, but he'd been on the series for a while at this point working as a the first assistant director so I'm sure he knew the difference between a Centauri and a Minbari.

I'll be going through the entire episode writing my comments under screencaps, so there will be massive SPOILERS below. I'll also be spoiling the hell out of anything relevant that led up to it, though I'll not say a word about the episodes that come after.

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Not a real screencap

Okay first I need to talk about something really annoying. I've already mentioned that when the final five episodes first aired in the UK, Channel 4 decided to show the series the respect it felt it deserved... and stuck them on at half 11 in the morning as part of the Bigger Breakfast block. This meant that they had a clock overlaid on the bottom right of the image the whole way through.

That's pretty annoying on its own, though what's really annoying is that I have a copy of this broadcast on tape. I've got the video evidence right here. But when I went to grab a screencap the VCR froze up! I think its rubber band broke. So I switched to plan B and did this Photoshop to demonstrate how distracting the clock was.

If I ever get that tape cleaned and fix the VCR I'll replace it with the correct shot.

Speaking of correct shots, here's the picture that should've been at the top of the review. Writer jms wasn't really showing a lot of concern for spoilers when he chose that name. I nearly didn't write it as the article title but then I realised that no one would know what episode I was talking about if I just used the number.

Wait, hang on, where's the teaser? Where's the cold open? Why did it jump straight to the opening credits and act one? Is this another problem with my region 2 DVDs, like the wrong logo at the start of The Corps is Mother, the Corps is Father? Because missing the entire start of the episode would be a little bit worse!

Also where did all those buildings come from? I thought there were hills over in that direction.

SOME CONFUSION LATER

Okay it turns out that not every region 2 DVD is broken, so here's the missing teaser. It begins with a 'previous on' recap, which is very rare for Babylon 5 despite its heavy serialisation, as it continues moments after the previous episode. In fact these two episodes could've been called The Fall of Centauri Prime, Part 1 and 2, but they decided against it when it became clear there was going to be such a long gap between them.

Basically what happened last time is that the Drazi and Narn decided to take advantage of the Alliance's war with the Centauri to do a bit of an orbital assault on their homeworld. They're not doing all that much damage with each shot, it's not exactly the mass driver bombardment of Narn, but they are firing a lot of shots.

G'Kar missed the attack on his own homeworld but he's got a front row seat to this one. In fact the underground cell that he's trapped in is apparently in more danger than the building on top of it, and the ceiling starts coming down on top of him.

Fortunately Londo comes and rescues him! These two should've gotten their own spin-off series. Londo brings his wounded bodyguard to his room, tells him to stay put, then rushes off to do something else.

Sheridan's still racing to Centauri Prime with his White Stars, when Garibaldi calls to let him know that his wife's ship has been missing for 12 hours. (The Minbari apparently didn't think to inform them before now.) So now Sheridan's got that on his mind as well.

Londo finds Regent Virini in the throne room, still talking about what "they" tell him to do. But Londo's had enough at this point and demands to know who "they" are.

So Virini points to one of them, lurking between a pillar and the curtains. Not that there's anywhere else to lurk in this room, it's all pillars and curtains.

Virini reveals to Londo that "they" say that it's his time now. If I was Londo I'd be bolting out of the room searching for several trustworthy-looking guards right about now.

ACT ONE

"Who, what are you?" asks Londo. I guess he can't read the text on screen revealing that he's Wayne Alexander, and he's a Drakh! Man, this has to the first time I've even been able to write the word 'Drakh' without having to do a Google search to check if I spelled it right. I don't even have to look up the actor. Wayne Alexander has been in a lot of Babylon 5, mostly in the role of Sheridan's buddy Lorien, though he also played a Narn in And the Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place, the fake Drazi prisoner in Intersections in Real Time, and literally Jack the Ripper in Comes the Inquisitor.

Virini explains that his people worked for the Shadows, until Sheridan and Delenn convinced all the First Ones to leave the galaxy. And then to make things worse Lyta went and blew their planet up! After that the Drahk all felt a bit lost and without purpose.

The Drahk finally starts to speak for himself here and honestly I kind of wish he hadn't, as his voice makes me want someone to hand him a glass of water already. The two of them remind Londo of what he did to the Drahk's Shadow masters in season 4, and we get a good old fashioned black and white flashback.

This was one of Londo's most awesome and horrifying moments in season 4, as he had fusion bombs planted across an island full of Shadow vessels. Then he nuked them all while they were still on the ground. Mr Morden was kind of upset to hear this at the time, and we get a replay of him yelling that the Shadows have allies and they'll make sure Centauri Prime pays the price. Turns out that the Drakh were those allies and this is the price.

In season 3 a precognitive telepath told Londo that he still had three chances to avoid the fire that awaits him at the end. Trouble is that she was incredibly vague about what they were, to the point that even people who watched the whole series (or wrote the whole series) seem a little unsure about what they were. 

What she said was:

• You must save the eye that does not see.
• You must not kill the one who is already dead.
• You must surrender yourself to your greatest fear knowing that it will destroy you.

To me it seems like the first could've been saving G'Kar from losing his eye that did not see Cartagia's greatness, and the last will be when he lets G'Kar strangle him to death (as seen in War Without End). Now it's looking like Morden is a good candidate for being the one he shouldn't have killed. Maybe there was a way he could've avoided this situation by making a different choice on that day.

Speaking of War Without End, that's a very familiar sight out of the window.

3-16 - War Without End, Part One

The buildings are on fire in the exact same way! Even though these scenes take place almost 20 years apart.

Londo says if the Drakh want vengeance on him they don't have to kill innocent people, as he's standing right there. Man, Londo can actually be a badass at times. The Drakh reveals that what they really want is a home. Wow, everyone's looking for a new homeworld this season! The former servants of the Shadows and the weapons of the Vorlons.

The Drakh need the Centauri to be a beaten people who rely on them so they can do their work in secret. And Londo's going to play along, because they've copied his trick of planting fusion bombs and they'll pull the trigger if he doesn't. They could've put the keeper on him in his sleep, like they did to Regent Virini, but they've decided to flip his moment of awesome around on him instead.

Sheridan's White Stars finally arrive, considerably later than nick of time, but soon enough that there's still some Centauri Prime left to save. He's kind of pissed off at this point and not in the mood to mess around, so he straight up tells the Narn and Drazi fleet that if they don't stop shooting the Centauri he'll start shooting at them.

Narn general Na'Tok answers the phone, looking entirely smug, and reminds Sheridan that he promised to back any action they decided was appropriate.

Na'Tok clearly saw this conversation coming and he's not even slightly bothered by Sheridan's threat. He points out that the Centauri defence fleet will return soon so Sheridan's got a choice: he can order his White Stars to join their fleet and stand a chance or he can die alone.

I don't think I like Na'Tok much. He's like a kid who's been caught with his hand in the genocide jar and just keeps helping himself to more of that sweet delicious genocide even though everyone's staring at him. I kind of want Sheridan to start shooting him to be honest.

A few hundred miles below, Virini tells Londo the Drakh's plan: everything's been set up so that all the blame for the war will fall on himself. That way when he dies, Londo can take power, issue the order to surrender and remain blameless. Virini doesn't mind if Londo pins everything on him, because he knows that by that point he'll have no choice.

Then he reveals the keeper on his shoulder: that mind-control parasite he was given way back in Epiphanies in season 4.

The keepers seemed like they were going to be a thing last season, especially after Franklin found someone else with one in Racing Mars, but then they just disappeared from the series. Now they're suddenly very relevant again.

While I've got my list of episodes open I should mention that since season 2 every season has featured an episode where a character talks to one of the heroes and lays out the horrifying truth of what's really going on. Season 2 had Delenn and Kosh's chat with Sheridan In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum, season 3 had the Shadows explaining their side in Z'ha'dum, and season 4 had Edgars and Bester revealing their plans to Garibaldi in The Exercise of Vital Powers. Each time a character had to make a decision about what to do with this new information, even if sometimes they really didn't have any choices at all.

Virini does have one choice left to him though: to face his death with bravery and dignity. Not exactly what you'd expect from the guy from his first appearances.

The keeper detaches and the regent dies in Londo's arms.

ACT TWO

It's weird to see Sheridan on a White Star in his presidential suit, but even weirder that the doesn't have anyone we know as his first officer. There's no Lennier, no Ivanova, no Marcus, just this Ranger we've never met before. He could've at least brought Corwin!

Sheridan decides that he's not going to go through with his threat to fire on the Drazi and Narn fleet, and he's not going to do anything about the incoming Centauri fleet either. He's just going to keep phoning up Centauri Prime until someone picks up.

This is pretty much the exact opposite situation of his triumphant arrival at Earth at the end of last season. He had that all figured out in advance, the League fleets had his back, and Earth answered his call! It's making him come across as very ineffectual. Plus he's still got Delenn on his mind.

Things aren't good over on Delenn and Lennier's unnamed White Star, though the situation hasn't changed dramatically since last episode. Their life support system won't last much longer, their navigation thrusters will be out of fuel soon, and they're going to slip off the beacon into the hyperspace currents and never be found again. I guess there must have been a leak or something, as it seems very strange for them to be out of fuel so soon. The Psi Corps has motherships that hang around in hyperspace basically all the time and they do okay!

I wonder if these scenes were actually filmed during the last episode. I mean this is the same set they were using for Sheridan's scenes, so it would've saved them some time and effort to film all the scenes on the trashed bridge in one go instead of cleaning it up and then trashing it again for the next story.

Back on Centauri Prime, Londo decides to visit G'Kar while he still has a little bit of free will.

G'Kar seems a little surprised by Londo's heroism earlier, pointing out that that he would've died if Londo hadn't saved him. Londo replies that he would've done the same for him, and G'Kar admits that's true... but then he's a better person than Londo is!

Londo's got some news for him: they can't continue to stick with each other like this, now that the regent is dead and he is the emperor. He tells G'Kar that he might hear strange things about his behaviour over the coming years, because the position... changes you. I guess they're really not going to be seeing a lot of each other from now on. G'Kar replies that he understands, but Londo hopes he never really does.

Man, this scene just grabs your heart and tears it out. And it's not done yet!

The two of them exchange lines that pretty much define where their character arcs have brought them, and the music's backing them up all the way.

Londo says that he used to have no power and all the choices he could want, and now the reverse is true. G'Kar says that his people can never forgive his people for what they did to his people, but he can forgive him. Then they share the closest thing to a hug that they ever will, and Londo leaves to accept his fate.

Way back in season 1's A Voice in the Wilderness, Londo was chosen as one of the potential candidates to operate the Great Machine on Epsilon 3 because he possessed the capacity for self-sacrifice. He was a bit of a joke character at the time so it seemed a bit strange that he of all people would've been a finalist but now here he is, watching a weird alien guy pull a mind-control parasite off his chest, ready to give up his free will to protect his people. Not all of the time, just when it serves their interests. He'll be a puppet emperor and the Drakh will be pulling the strings.

Quick Londo, kick him in the balls and nick the detonator remote!

Oh man that looks terrible as it scurries across the floor. I feel like they had better looking CGI creatures in season 1. It’s the animation more than anything that’s the problem.

I've just remembered something else from A Voice in the Wilderness. Londo had a line that said "As a young and foolish Centauri... I swore I would die on my feet... doing something noble and brave and futile." Well he's not quite dying here, but he is on his feet being extremely noble and brave.

This is it, this is how Londo ends up with a keeper on his neck in War Without End. This is the creature that will control Londo for 20 years, until G'Kar releases him by strangling him to death to save Sheridan and Delenn. This is the creature that strangles G'Kar to death in return. All the pieces leading to that future have been connected up and we can be pretty certain that Sheridan's choice to sacrifice himself at Z'ha'dum didn't change a thing. If In the Beginning didn't already make that obvious.

Incidentally the other two characters chosen to run the Great Machine in A Voice in the Wilderness both ended up making a huge sacrifice as well. Draal sacrificed his own freedom to take over the Great Machine, while Sinclair sacrificed his humanity and said goodbye to everyone and everything he knew to become Valen. So they both got immense power and a longer life while Londo got being mind-controlled into betraying his people to an occupying alien race. Doesn't really seem fair somehow.

Back on the White Star, Sheridan's Ranger sidekick is picking up transmissions to the incoming Centauri fleet, but they're encrypted so he can't make out what's been said. He says that he can make out angry voices though. Angry encrypted voices I suppose.

They get a call from Centauri Prime themselves, and it's Londo! Turns out that he's been monitoring their private transmissions as well. Londo accepts that the attack on his worlds wasn't authorised by the Alliance, so it's a good job Sheridan's transmissions weren't encrypted I guess.

Londo informs them that the attacks on their shipping weren't authorised by the Centauri Centarum, so the regent's death means that their very short conflict is now over. As long as Sheridan can convince the Narn and Drazi to stop bombarding the planet... if they haven't stopped already? It's a bit unclear.

Sheridan wants to come down there to speak with Londo directly as he has important business to discuss: Delenn's missing and he needs help finding her! I suppose saving the head of the Rangers is quite important, but it does seem kind of awkward that this is the first thing he's discussing with the Centauri emperor as he orbits a planet covered in burning buildings and dead Centauri.

It turns out that Londo is secretly very keen on saving her life though and he pleads with the Drakh not to kill her.

ACT THREE

By the start of act three the President of the Galaxy has made it to Londo's throne room without being stabbed by vengeful Centauri. And it really is Londo's throne now, he's not just borrowing it for a while like he was after Cartagia's death.

One thing that we've learned about Sheridan is that he can get kind of single-minded when his wife is missing, and he's still mostly interested in discussing Delenn. Only one ship has ever been rescued after drifting into hyperspace and that was by Sheridan in season 2's A Distant Star, so this is kind of a serious situation. What he wants from Londo is the exact location the attack took place. Unfortunately the Centauri ships have been instructed to only accept new messages at certain predetermined times, and we know that all of the ships out attacking fleets are basically drones run by Shadow tech (which Londo explains was bought off the black market).

Londo says that in return for saving Delenn he wants a favour, and gets a bit angry when Sheridan tries saying "She's your friend too!", pointing out that his world's just been attacked! They're still sweeping up bits of the Royal Palace outside in the hall!

Then Londo tells Sheridan that the Centauri are done with his Alliance. It's obvious to us that he's saying exactly what the Drakh want him to say, though it doesn't actually seem like a wildly inappropriate response at this point. Unfortunately Sheridan gets just as riled up as he is and starts talking to him about reparations! Lots of emotion in this scene, but it's not a good look for the hero.

It's funny how Drakh attacks on shipping was one of the things that Sheridan used to pull the Alliance together in the first place. Now it's caused it to crack apart. Not entirely, but they've lost the second most powerful race in known space.

Over on Delenn's White Star, they've just used up their fuel and now they're going to drift even further from the beacon. Delenn jokingly suggests to Lennier that maybe drifting away could be a good thing, as they might stumble across a lost jumpgate left by the First Ones! (Because that worked out well in Thirdspace...) I suppose this hypothetical gate would lead them to a hypothetical civilisation that could hypothetically rescue them, as exiting hyperspace in the middle of nowhere likely wouldn't improve their situation.

These scenes are like the opposite of G'Kar and Londo being trapped in a lift together in the episode Convictions. For one thing it's played like they're the only people alive and there's nothing left but this one room. Do they know for sure they they're the only survivors? Is there no way for them to get off the bridge and reach the hangar or an escape pod? These questions are never answered.

Lennier suggests firing the weapons to attract attention, even though that attention might be from the Centauri warships, and the recoil will fling them further into the "far between". They decide to go for it and Delenn pushes the buttons really hard, her hand visibly shaking with the force she's using.

Well they definitely attracted someone's attention! This screencap makes it look like there's a lot of Centauri ships on the way, but it doesn't quite get across how huge this fleet actually is. There's at least 11 AI controlled ships on their way.

We get a shot of Londo and his new Drakh friend on Centauri Prime just to remind us that Delenn's at their mercy.

They're always filming the bridge from the front this episode. It makes it look very stagey. 

Someone apparently switched the consoles to have an audio output as they're getting very loud right now. They're beeping to tell them that the enemy weapons are powering up and then we get the sound of a modem screeching to indicate they're receiving a coded transmission.

It really seems like this is it for them, and Lennier finally confesses his love for her! She pulls a Han Solo and replies that she knows.

But then they don't die. So that's awkward.

Delenn realises that this would be a good time to outright lie to help someone save face, so she tells Lennier that whatever he said just now, she didn't hear it. "Nothing happened except that for a moment I found myself deeply complimented and deeply honoured by your presence and by your friendship."

But Lennier's still suffering the shame of admitting his long kept secret. The humiliation's bad enough, but the worst part is probably that his big confession of love hasn't changed anything. Up to this point he was able to fantasise about Delenn dropping her husband and leaping into his arms the moment she learned that was an option, but now he's facing the reality of the situation.

Lennier changes the subject, asking if she thinks they'll have to fight their way out of this. She says for their sakes, she hopes not. Again joking, because poor Lennier's got a broken leg right now.

ACT FOUR

Hey they got the fires put out! So they won't actually be burning for the next 20 years.

This must be a few days later, as Vir has made the trip to the palace and he's going around asking everyone if they've seen the prime minister. They're all extras though and they can't talk back to him.

Vir does eventually find Londo in his room, though he yells at him for bursting in without knocking! I guess Londo's concerned about Vir catching him with his jacket off and seeing the keeper, or walking in on him chatting with a Drakh. 

Vir points out that he's always walked in without knocking! But accepts that he won't be doing it again.

It turns out that the terms of the surrender have the Centauri paying out all the money they need to rebuild after the attack, and the people are kind of angry with the Alliance right now. Londo realises that this is what the Drakh wanted all along, though he can't share that epiphany with Vir. Londo doesn't think he can go live in the royal suite and look out at all the damage every day, so Vir jokingly suggests he could board all the windows up. A suggestion we already know that Londo will take seriously.

Delenn has also made it to the Centauri Prime at this point and someone's brought her a change of clothes, so she's dressed for the big occasion. She joins Sheridan and G'Kar and they all look out the window to watch Londo's inauguration speech.

Hey he's changed into his emperor outfit! This means we'll never see that black coat again.

Londo's been projected above the city as a hologram, a bit like how Sheridan was projected as holograms across Babylon 5 in Severed Dreams when they chose to break away from Earth's government. Sometimes it helps to use dramatic imagery to make a point, though this time the point has been supplied by Londo's Drakh buddy.

And it turns out that it's basically being filmed in a dungeon. He's a bright towering figure to his people in the city, but really he's miserable in a cage, with the Drakh watching on from the shadows.

He basically tells his people that Sheridan and the Alliance have made them pay a terrible price in both lives and money. That they wish to break them and humiliate them. But the Centauri will rebuild alone, in their new isolationism, united in their pain.

Well that's not good. A resentful Centauri Prime is the opposite of what all the characters want! It's a very World War I ending to this conflict. The kind of ending that sets up a sequel.

It's weird seeing all of these characters together on Centauri Prime. The only other time this has happened was 20 years in the future.

Londo tells them it's probably best if they skip the inauguration and tells Vir that he'll be leaving with them. In fact his first official act as emperor is to appoint Vir as ambassador to B5. We knew that this was going to happen anyway but now it really feels like Londo's trying to get his friend as far from Centauri Prime as possible for as long as possible to protect him from the Drakh.

They say their farewells to Londo and leave, with G'Kar only making a silent Narn salute.

After they leave we get flashbacks to Londo's time on the series, and they're in colour!

• We see him drunk on the table in Parliament of Dreams.
• In bed with Adira in Born to the Purple.
• Being offered a drink by G'Kar just before their war started in The Coming of Shadows.
• Watching the Centauri fleet bombard Narn with mass drivers in The Long, Twilight Struggle.
• Being hugged by Delenn in And All My Dreams, Torn Asunder.

And finally:

• Being strangled to death by G'Kar in his prophetic dream in The Coming of Shadows.

He still doesn't know the circumstances of his death, but he has to be suspecting at this point that it's due to something he did under control of the Drakh.

It doesn't actually look so bad outside, not compared to what they did to the Narn. It looks more like they've suffered a bit of a storm rather than intense sustained bombardment by a fleet.

Usually there's at least a couple of palace guards outside, but this time Londo's entirely on his own as he begins the slow walk to his inauguration, with a bell chiming for every person killed in the attack.

See, the planet looks fine! I don't know what everyone's complaining about.

I had to stitch this shot together to give you a proper look at the scene. It looks a bit like Londo has wandered into a PlayStation Final Fantasy game, but that's pretty good for a TV budget in the 90s, and the compositing looks excellent. Partly because he was filmed out on location in the actual sunlight (this was shot in the car park with a crane I believe). Even when the camera tilts up he still looks like he's right there in the scene. Though I took this from the widescreen DVDs and imagine the 4:3 version of the shot probably doesn't cut him off at the waist.

ACT FIVE

There's still some episode left though, and act five begins with half the cast gathering in Sheridan's office to have a bit of a chat about the Shadow tech they discovered. Including Lyta! It's nice to see her being invited to the group again. She immediately shows her worth to them as she reaches over to stop the Shadow device from rolling off the table. She has to keep her hand there until it cuts to an new angle, where her hands are suddenly on her lap.

As far as Sheridan's concerned their investigation's reached a dead end, as they can't tell whether the Centauri got it from the black market or not. The Alliance's Head of Covert Intelligence suggests going to the Vorlon homeworld to get some weapons of their own, but it turns out that he's completely unaware that a dozen ships have already been sent there and destroyed by the automated defences. He's not very good at his job I guess.

Then Lyta suddenly tells them that the Vorlon homeworld is off limits until a million years from now, when they're ready. Hey that's the time period we see at the end of The Deconstruction of Falling Stars, when humanity flies off to find a new home!

Zack turns up to let them know that the fighting on the station's basically over and... hang on, wasn't that tree green a moment ago? Also the strips around the top of the walls used to be white. What is even happening to the colours in this shot?

He wonders why everyone's so sad. The attacks are over, they won the war! But Delenn's thinking about everything they lost.

Or maybe she's just thinking about Londo specifically. There is a bit of a pattern here of the characters caring more about the people they know than all the thousands of victims of their war. Though to be fair we do get a quick establishing shot of all the buildings on fire. Wait, why are the buildings on fire again?

It's hard not to feel sorry for Londo, as he sits all alone on his chair, miserable. In fact this seems like it's his exit from the series... four episodes from the end. I hope he at least takes this opportunity to get rid of some of those old orders from previous emperors. He could tell that poor guard he doesn't have to watch over the first flower of spring any more for one thing.


CONCLUSION

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Wow, so we're already at the end of the 'mysterious attacks' arc huh? It's been going for a while now, since In the Kingdom of the Blind nine episodes ago, and it's been pretty much the main story of the second half of the season, but now it's over with four episodes left to go.

We've finally joined up the dots that lead to War Without End's flash forward, more or less, so it doesn't seem like there's any tale left to tell about the Drakh lurking on Centauri Prime, nothing that'll fix the problem anyway. This is just how things are for the next couple of decades I guess. So that's kind of depressing. In fact this episode's downright tragic in a lot of ways. The Centauri have been doomed to suffer under secret occupation by a vengeful alien race, Londo has been blackmailed into becoming their mind-controlled puppet emperor for the rest of his life, the harmless and slightly mad Regent Virini has faced his death with dignity after suffering with a keeper since Epiphanies, and Lennier has really embarrassed himself in front of Delenn.

The heroes technically win here, as the war ends and Delenn's White Star is saved, but really the episode is just failure after failure. Sheridan's fails to get to Centauri Prime in time and is reduced from protagonist to bystander as he uses his brilliant tactical mind to just sit there and do nothing. Delenn fails to meet with the Grey Council. Everyone fails to discover the Drakh. The only one bit of success in the whole story is when Londo saves G'Kar from being crushed. Plus I suppose he successfully begged the Drakh to save Delenn's life. There have been plenty of episodes about the characters suffering setbacks in the past, but this feels different because the story's basically over. The Drakh won, the end.

I blame Franklin for this. He's the cause of all this suffering, at least for Londo. He discovered a keeper on Captain Jack in Racing Mars, he took it off and studied it, he learned that a race was planting mind-control parasites on people to subvert and sabotage, and he did nothing with this knowledge!

On the plus side, Londo's tragic fate is the core of this story and it doesn't matter that the Drakh is a bit whispery and dull, or that the Delenn story is contrived, as all the scenes with Londo in are gold. He may not have had the happiest ending, but it's a powerful and memorable one. Though I genuinely can't remember what happens next. I have a pretty good idea how the series ends, but there are four episodes left and we've run out of main story, so what's the next episode going to be about? Don't tell me, I'll find out.

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NEXT TIME

Babylon 5 will return with The Wheel of Fire, but next on Sci-Fi Adventures I'm watching... nothing. Instead I'll be writing my thoughts about the Thirteenth Doctor's run on Doctor Who! Assuming I can think of anything I haven't said already.

If you have any opinions on The Fall of Centauri Prime, you're welcome and encouraged to write something in the comment box below.