Although I was away for three weekday nights I was able to keep up with the latest episodes of Babylon 5 when the week’s shows were rerun later on Sunday followed by NCIS.
In truth I do not remember much of what happened over the last two season of the series after the Shadows and the Vorlons departed to distant parts of the Universe.
After the battles, the problem confronting the main characters of the series Captain Sheridan head of the Babylon Five space station, his deputy, Commander Ivanova, Captain Sheridan’s closest ally and would be lover Delenn of the Minbari and her loyal assistant Lennier, the two warring Ambassadors who became unwilling partners in saving their respective populations, Ambassadors Mollari and loyal assistant, Vir of the Centauri, and G’Kar of the Narn, the good doctor - the recovering druggy Dr Franklin, and the former head of station security Garibaldi and his former deputy Zack who is most reluctant to take over the role of his former boss, There is also the independent telepath Lyta who could communicate telepathetically with the Vorlons and the head of the Psi Corps Bester, together with the Ivanova fan and head Ranger Marcus was- what do I do with myself now that the great war is over.
In my occupational life I also experienced major moments of change, the reorganisation of the personal social services, the reorganisation of local government, a divisive industrial action, participation in an intensive national inquiry, and in what happened during the past the last year of full time occupational activity and its aftermath which continued over the next decade. In my life outside occupational activity, there was the period in prison, the death and follow up inquiries of my care mother and the last three years in the life of my mother, her 100th birthday celebrations as well as other development which remain confidential. There is always a sense of personal anti climax and the separateness after such events because of the difficult of others not directly involved in the experience understanding or wanting to involve them. It is also understandable that some people become locked in a past situation and are unable to move forward. What happens to sports personalities when they retire or their careers end, to Government Ministers who lose office and soldiers returning from the battlefield are all similar kinds of experience of what do I do now. to the individuals directly concerned.
In this report on the second part of season four all the main characters feature but to varying degrees and to an extent in isolation from each other and it is only towards the end of this period do the various individuals and interests begin to work as a team. The exception appears to be former security Chief Garibaldi who continues to claim he cannot remember what happened to him during his two week disappearance apparently in the hands of enemies. He turns increasingly hostile to Captain Sheridan and joining forces working against the role of the Sheridan and his colleagues, setting up his own private detective service on the station until he goes to Mars where to insist on meeting his new Employer.
First there is action of President Clark against Babylon 5. In Epiphanies 407 the President with the help of the Psi Corps that decided it is better to go on the offensive against the space station rather than await for the Sheridan and his allies to turn their new power and status among other nations against him. Thus begins a blockade and embargo and a fierce propaganda war with black operations.
The Illusion of Truth 409 comprises a government inspired Television programme which cleverly misrepresents what has happened in the War with the Shadows and Vorlons as a power and personality trip for Sheridan under the influence of Delenn of the Minbari, the former enemy of the Earth alliance. A reporter and camera team arrive of the open Space Station and persuades Sheridan against his better judgement to be interviewed with Delenn and for other members of the team to give their perspective while admitting the programme will be heavily slanted as part of the propaganda war. Garibaldi gives a damaging interview against the captain and Delenn is also much affect by the allegations against her, The programme is clever because it uses elements of truth to give a one sided and false perspective. Sheridan’s father and mother, and what other family he has on earth have in effect been taken into protective custody and are being used to undermine Sheridan.
It takes a little while for Sheridan to work out a new strategy for dealing with the situation and this has three facets. He belatedly, in my view, works out that he must counter the Earth propaganda by establishing an alternative information service, called the Voice of Resistance, based on the truth and drawing upon the free radio used in France and other German controlled nations during World War 2. He puts Ivanova in charge of the operation and as the chief broadcaster in Lines of Communication 411 and she makes the first broadcast in Conflict of Interest 412.
His second approach is to send Dr Franklin with Ranger Marcus on a mission to Mars where the President’s forces has been attempting to regain control of the former colony and his third approach is bring up the other worlds into an alliance to protect the station and break the embargo. He remains reluctant to take offensive action because this would involve civil war and killing former comrades in arms. The important consideration is that he and the other officers on station were within the military command and his objective is to re-establish democracy throughout the earth alliance.
Three episodes feature the Mars Mission of Marcus and Dr Franklin with them setting off on the cautious three week journey to Mars to evade capture in Atonement 409. In Racing Mars 410 their contact with the Resistance is a Captain Jack (Billy Joel song) who unbeknown to them has been taken over by a parasitical creature and he betrays and frames the two so that the Mars resistance believes they are assassins in the employ of Earth, They have to work hard to persuade the resistance leaders to the contrary and in a reference to the Prisoner they are called Number One and Number Two. Captain Jack gives his life for the cause. It also emerges that those on Mars had been so preoccupied with their own struggle and cut off from communications with the outside world by Earth, have little idea of the great battle which was fought, of the planet destroyers of the Vorlons and Shadows, or the role of Sheridan and his team on Babylon 5. The same applies to the population of earth. Thus it was ever so.
(Passing thought Is there any official record of the extent to which social service departments would not have been created without my interventions in terms of promoting the Lobby of Parliament, the article saying no to the proposed role of Medical officers of Health and the Blacklisting of the London Borough of Sutton and of Torbay when Chairman of ACC0‘s Blacklisting Committee, acting on the Advice of senior Labour Government Ministers that without a stop on what was happening with nine variations of reorganisation, it would be impossible for the government to introduce one national form of reorganisation for England and Wales, an a separate pattern for Scotland?) (Would things have worked out better for Child care services if I had not intervened in this way and Child Care officers remained with specialist working even if their training became generic?)
One problem which Marcus and Dr Franklin face in persuading the Mars’ rebels to work with Babylon 5 is that Sheridan was involved with the suppression of food riots on Mars immediately after the ending of the Earth Minbari War. Their efforts are eventually rewarded and the Mars planet is to play a major role in the rest of the season 4.
The parasitical creature who took over Captain Jack also has a continuing role. In Epiphanies 407 Bester, the head of the Phi Corps of telepaths arrives on Babylon 5 seeking to do a trade, he not only alerts Sheridan to the Clark offensive against the station, but to provide details of a forthcoming black ops operation, in exchange for Sheridan undertaking an expedition back to Z’ha’dum to try an retrieve the technology which the Shadows used to prepare captured telepaths to become integral parts of Shadow war craft. And which happened to his rescued lover. He hopes to find a way to reverse the process and to free his lover and the other telepaths who are being kept in a cryogenic condition for their own and Babylon 5’s protection. Accompanying them on the mission is the independent telepath Lyta who was also separately transformed but this time by the Vorlons and which enable direct communication with them as long as she carried out their requirements. She is concerned at the implications of the technology falling into the hands of Phi Corps and sends an alert to those on the planet who arrange for its total destruction before any of its secrets can be discovered. In Lines of Communication issues are raised about the Drakh, the parasitical creatures who it appears inhabited Z’ha‘dum and where one or more may have escaped before the self destruction of the planet. Sheridan refers to the Drakh as wild cards which is the reverse spelling of card!
In Moments of Transition 414 Bester returns to Babylon 5 with an offer to Lyta. She is having a difficult time finding legitimate work on the station being blacklisted by the Psi Corps. Bester offers her continuing independence to work on two conditions. First she must wear the official uniform and insignia and secondly upon her death from natural causes, only, her body is willed to the Psi Corps so they can study how she was transformed from a low grade telepath into a super powered one by the Vorlons. Reluctantly she accepts. In a later episode not covered in this report Lyta is to aid Dr Franklin in finding a way to free the telepaths in cryogenicsis from their Shadow implantations.
In addition to the cold war with earth two other stories dominate this part of the series. The first is the relationship between Sheridan and Delenn and her role on Minbar as a member of the Religious and peaceful Caste compared to the role of the Warrior Caste. Having spent the third night observing Sheridan asleep according to the ritual, Delenn announces they take their relationship to the next stage which involves spending a night discovering pleasure in each others bodies. However this ritual has to be witnessed by an appropriate gathering of other members of the caste outside the chosen room. This reminds of the tradition of a similar approach to the marriage nights of Monarchs and their children to ensure the purity of the line of succession.
Before this happens in Atonement 409 Delenn is summoned back to justify her relationship with a non Minbari to the Grey Council. If she cannot persuade them, she will be required to cease further personal contact with Sheridan. The episode is important because we learn for the first time that after humans inadvertently killed the Minbari leader and Delenn‘s mentor, Dukhat, it was Delenn who sided with the Warrior caste on the Grey Council to launch the war against the earth alliance, because of her shock and anger at his death.
The case against Delenn is that her action is against the Minbari insistence on racial purity. However Delenn reminds the Council that this is nonsense as in reality many Minbari are already a mixture of Minbar and Earth beings including herself as a descendent of Valen, their recognised supreme Minbar being. Because she was never pure before her metamorphosis, the Council agree that her relationship with Sheridan can continue..
However the pathway of true love is never straight and an easy one to tread as Civil war breaks out on Minbar, Rumours, Bargains and Lies 413 and Moments of Transition 414. The key to any resolution is the relationship between Delenn of the Religious caste and Naroon of the Warrior caste who previously came to Babylon to kill Delenn and near killed Marcus before relenting because he realised there was something special and different about her. Delenn agrees that the Religious caste should surrender their position and she arrives with the senior members of the caste for the submission, but this is a clever plan in which she insists that under the surrender the Grey Council is recreated with a balance of power not going to either the Warrior or religious castes, but to the Worker’s caste who are to have five of the nine positions.
In the days before Valen when there were war between the casts from time, the leaders would gather in the Temple of Verenni, which is Delenn’s chosen place for surrender of the Religious Caste. The Temple is equipped with planet wide media. There is also the Starfire Wheel. The two leaders, or more in any conflict would enter the beam of fire where the one who stayed and died would prove their cause was the righteous and therefore their side would win the conflict. Delenn challenges the leader of Warrior Class, an ambitious man without regard for loss of life and allegedly unconcerned about his personal fate. However when forced into the fire beam by Delenn rather than lose face with his caste, he refuses to die and backs out leaving Delenn who had promised Lennier to also leave once she had made her point about the hypocrisy of the Warrior leader. However it is Naroon who intervenes and removes Delenn but remains to die so that his caste has their honour restored but he makes it clear that he is a substitute for Delenn and her position. So peace returns to Minbar with their partially destroyed capital city.
The second important story is that of Garibaldi who appears to playing an in the future’s role of Judas. However I still have in mind the secret instructions which Sheridan gave to Garibaldi, to be followed without question, before Sheridan set off for his first visit to Z’ha’dum. Fortunately I cannot remember what happens so his true position remains open.
In Epiphanies Garibaldi resigns as Security Chief and begins a new life as a self employed private eye in the sub strata of the station. There is the suggestion that he has been programme in some way as a fifth column during his disappearance. In several subsequent episodes Garibaldi is seen in league with individuals hostile to Sheridan, as agents of Earth and because the blockade is severely hindering some trade although as with all blockades some people can made fortunes providing goods at inflated prices. In Racing Mars Garibaldi is approached by one interest alleging that Sheridan has developed into a cult of Personality and Ivanova does a deal with smugglers to keep the station supplied with food and spare parts.
The episode also reinforces my point that Garibaldi could have gone underground at Sheridan’s request to gain intelligence on the enemy within. In Conflict of Interest 412 the group plotting against Sheridan disclose that they regard Garibaldi as expendable. He in turn finds out that his former lover has married one of the most influential businessmen on Earth/Mars, William, Bill, Edgars. Edgars offers Garibaldi a retaining contract to arrange for packages to smuggled onto the station and handed to designated parties, It is not known if Edgars has a relationship with other groups against Sheridan on the station. Sheridan insists that Garibaldi hands over his Identification, official weapons and other privileges of office. Sheridan and Garibaldi come to near blows as Sheridan seeks to bring the former security chief back into the fold and Garibaldi lets it be known in front of witnesses who he has become opposed to what Sheridan is doing. Sheridan comments what he does not like the company Garibaldi is keeping suggesting that more is going on that the audience is being informed.
It should not be forgotten that Sheridan was given insights into the future when he went to Babylon 4; The machine on Epsilon 3 is also able to see into the future as well as everything that has happened in the past. Ivanova seeks the help of the Epsilon 3 to gain the energy necessary to ensure the Voice of Resistance Broadcasts. It also has to be remembered that Sheridan developed a special relationship with the first of the Originals who ensured that Sheridan had over two decades of more life, all things being equal, to carryout his destiny. Garibaldi insists on going to Mars to meet Edgar in the next episode following this section.
Playing only very small roles in the fourth season are London and G’Kar whose presence on the station is something of a puzzle given the job of work required on both their home planets, especially in relation to the Narn world although G’Kar is still trying to recover from the torturing at the hands of the former Centauri President. G’Kar is another who found a lack of understanding among his compatriots for his role in working against the Centauri and in gaining their freedom from Londo. G’Kar is given an artificial electronic eye by Dr Franklin in which can see outside of its socket. He must remove the eye at night. G’Kar is troubled by the break down of relations between his friend Garibaldi and Sheridan and he only learns of the trip to Mars after Garibaldi has departed.
It is more understandable that Londo and Vir should return to Babylon 5 full of guilt for their assassination of the President and ensuring the freedom of Narn. It is Londo who takes the initiative and suggests to G’Kar that they should issue a joint declaration of support to Sheridan as an act of reconciliation and in giving a lead to the other non aligned worlds. G’Kar is understandably reluctant but does agree to drink a toast with Londo towards the new venture. We have learnt that one of the creatures who left Z’ha’dum before its destruction
This gesture is badly needed as Sheridan has struggled to gain the support of other races in relation to his concerns and dispute with Earth. However he works out a way to make them seek the help of his fighter force by patrolling the outskirts of their planets in exchange for their support should it be required. The situation comes to a head when he learns that not only has earth attacked the breakaway colony of Proxima 3 but destroyed ten thousand people on a refugee escape craft. He devises a plan which involves giving the impression that eh is about to attack earth to draw away warcraft from Proxima 3 and then send his strongest force to the planet to order the departure of Earth forces.
He has discovered that all has not been going well for the Clark Dictatorship in that three quarters of his government has resigned when martial law was declared. Clark has been forced to reinstate the Parliament and more importantly Sheridan learns that not all the war craft commanders are happy about their role in attacking the breakaway colonists and several did not participate in the killing of the civilian refugees. Sheridan uses this to try and divide the earth forces in the campaign to free Proxima 3 No Surrender No Retreat 415 The divide and rule approach works out as the earth battle fleet surrender or are destroyed or join forces. Some go all the way and agrees to join Sheridan at Babylon 5 while others stay to defend Proxima 3 from further attack. He also allows the remainder to return to earth. The programme provides makes a good place to end this report update of the season as it also marked the departure of Garibaldi to Mars and the signing of the support agreement between the Narns and the Centauri although given their off world status is not clear what the declaration will mean in practice.
In truth I do not remember much of what happened over the last two season of the series after the Shadows and the Vorlons departed to distant parts of the Universe.
After the battles, the problem confronting the main characters of the series Captain Sheridan head of the Babylon Five space station, his deputy, Commander Ivanova, Captain Sheridan’s closest ally and would be lover Delenn of the Minbari and her loyal assistant Lennier, the two warring Ambassadors who became unwilling partners in saving their respective populations, Ambassadors Mollari and loyal assistant, Vir of the Centauri, and G’Kar of the Narn, the good doctor - the recovering druggy Dr Franklin, and the former head of station security Garibaldi and his former deputy Zack who is most reluctant to take over the role of his former boss, There is also the independent telepath Lyta who could communicate telepathetically with the Vorlons and the head of the Psi Corps Bester, together with the Ivanova fan and head Ranger Marcus was- what do I do with myself now that the great war is over.
In my occupational life I also experienced major moments of change, the reorganisation of the personal social services, the reorganisation of local government, a divisive industrial action, participation in an intensive national inquiry, and in what happened during the past the last year of full time occupational activity and its aftermath which continued over the next decade. In my life outside occupational activity, there was the period in prison, the death and follow up inquiries of my care mother and the last three years in the life of my mother, her 100th birthday celebrations as well as other development which remain confidential. There is always a sense of personal anti climax and the separateness after such events because of the difficult of others not directly involved in the experience understanding or wanting to involve them. It is also understandable that some people become locked in a past situation and are unable to move forward. What happens to sports personalities when they retire or their careers end, to Government Ministers who lose office and soldiers returning from the battlefield are all similar kinds of experience of what do I do now. to the individuals directly concerned.
In this report on the second part of season four all the main characters feature but to varying degrees and to an extent in isolation from each other and it is only towards the end of this period do the various individuals and interests begin to work as a team. The exception appears to be former security Chief Garibaldi who continues to claim he cannot remember what happened to him during his two week disappearance apparently in the hands of enemies. He turns increasingly hostile to Captain Sheridan and joining forces working against the role of the Sheridan and his colleagues, setting up his own private detective service on the station until he goes to Mars where to insist on meeting his new Employer.
First there is action of President Clark against Babylon 5. In Epiphanies 407 the President with the help of the Psi Corps that decided it is better to go on the offensive against the space station rather than await for the Sheridan and his allies to turn their new power and status among other nations against him. Thus begins a blockade and embargo and a fierce propaganda war with black operations.
The Illusion of Truth 409 comprises a government inspired Television programme which cleverly misrepresents what has happened in the War with the Shadows and Vorlons as a power and personality trip for Sheridan under the influence of Delenn of the Minbari, the former enemy of the Earth alliance. A reporter and camera team arrive of the open Space Station and persuades Sheridan against his better judgement to be interviewed with Delenn and for other members of the team to give their perspective while admitting the programme will be heavily slanted as part of the propaganda war. Garibaldi gives a damaging interview against the captain and Delenn is also much affect by the allegations against her, The programme is clever because it uses elements of truth to give a one sided and false perspective. Sheridan’s father and mother, and what other family he has on earth have in effect been taken into protective custody and are being used to undermine Sheridan.
It takes a little while for Sheridan to work out a new strategy for dealing with the situation and this has three facets. He belatedly, in my view, works out that he must counter the Earth propaganda by establishing an alternative information service, called the Voice of Resistance, based on the truth and drawing upon the free radio used in France and other German controlled nations during World War 2. He puts Ivanova in charge of the operation and as the chief broadcaster in Lines of Communication 411 and she makes the first broadcast in Conflict of Interest 412.
His second approach is to send Dr Franklin with Ranger Marcus on a mission to Mars where the President’s forces has been attempting to regain control of the former colony and his third approach is bring up the other worlds into an alliance to protect the station and break the embargo. He remains reluctant to take offensive action because this would involve civil war and killing former comrades in arms. The important consideration is that he and the other officers on station were within the military command and his objective is to re-establish democracy throughout the earth alliance.
Three episodes feature the Mars Mission of Marcus and Dr Franklin with them setting off on the cautious three week journey to Mars to evade capture in Atonement 409. In Racing Mars 410 their contact with the Resistance is a Captain Jack (Billy Joel song) who unbeknown to them has been taken over by a parasitical creature and he betrays and frames the two so that the Mars resistance believes they are assassins in the employ of Earth, They have to work hard to persuade the resistance leaders to the contrary and in a reference to the Prisoner they are called Number One and Number Two. Captain Jack gives his life for the cause. It also emerges that those on Mars had been so preoccupied with their own struggle and cut off from communications with the outside world by Earth, have little idea of the great battle which was fought, of the planet destroyers of the Vorlons and Shadows, or the role of Sheridan and his team on Babylon 5. The same applies to the population of earth. Thus it was ever so.
(Passing thought Is there any official record of the extent to which social service departments would not have been created without my interventions in terms of promoting the Lobby of Parliament, the article saying no to the proposed role of Medical officers of Health and the Blacklisting of the London Borough of Sutton and of Torbay when Chairman of ACC0‘s Blacklisting Committee, acting on the Advice of senior Labour Government Ministers that without a stop on what was happening with nine variations of reorganisation, it would be impossible for the government to introduce one national form of reorganisation for England and Wales, an a separate pattern for Scotland?) (Would things have worked out better for Child care services if I had not intervened in this way and Child Care officers remained with specialist working even if their training became generic?)
One problem which Marcus and Dr Franklin face in persuading the Mars’ rebels to work with Babylon 5 is that Sheridan was involved with the suppression of food riots on Mars immediately after the ending of the Earth Minbari War. Their efforts are eventually rewarded and the Mars planet is to play a major role in the rest of the season 4.
The parasitical creature who took over Captain Jack also has a continuing role. In Epiphanies 407 Bester, the head of the Phi Corps of telepaths arrives on Babylon 5 seeking to do a trade, he not only alerts Sheridan to the Clark offensive against the station, but to provide details of a forthcoming black ops operation, in exchange for Sheridan undertaking an expedition back to Z’ha’dum to try an retrieve the technology which the Shadows used to prepare captured telepaths to become integral parts of Shadow war craft. And which happened to his rescued lover. He hopes to find a way to reverse the process and to free his lover and the other telepaths who are being kept in a cryogenic condition for their own and Babylon 5’s protection. Accompanying them on the mission is the independent telepath Lyta who was also separately transformed but this time by the Vorlons and which enable direct communication with them as long as she carried out their requirements. She is concerned at the implications of the technology falling into the hands of Phi Corps and sends an alert to those on the planet who arrange for its total destruction before any of its secrets can be discovered. In Lines of Communication issues are raised about the Drakh, the parasitical creatures who it appears inhabited Z’ha‘dum and where one or more may have escaped before the self destruction of the planet. Sheridan refers to the Drakh as wild cards which is the reverse spelling of card!
In Moments of Transition 414 Bester returns to Babylon 5 with an offer to Lyta. She is having a difficult time finding legitimate work on the station being blacklisted by the Psi Corps. Bester offers her continuing independence to work on two conditions. First she must wear the official uniform and insignia and secondly upon her death from natural causes, only, her body is willed to the Psi Corps so they can study how she was transformed from a low grade telepath into a super powered one by the Vorlons. Reluctantly she accepts. In a later episode not covered in this report Lyta is to aid Dr Franklin in finding a way to free the telepaths in cryogenicsis from their Shadow implantations.
In addition to the cold war with earth two other stories dominate this part of the series. The first is the relationship between Sheridan and Delenn and her role on Minbar as a member of the Religious and peaceful Caste compared to the role of the Warrior Caste. Having spent the third night observing Sheridan asleep according to the ritual, Delenn announces they take their relationship to the next stage which involves spending a night discovering pleasure in each others bodies. However this ritual has to be witnessed by an appropriate gathering of other members of the caste outside the chosen room. This reminds of the tradition of a similar approach to the marriage nights of Monarchs and their children to ensure the purity of the line of succession.
Before this happens in Atonement 409 Delenn is summoned back to justify her relationship with a non Minbari to the Grey Council. If she cannot persuade them, she will be required to cease further personal contact with Sheridan. The episode is important because we learn for the first time that after humans inadvertently killed the Minbari leader and Delenn‘s mentor, Dukhat, it was Delenn who sided with the Warrior caste on the Grey Council to launch the war against the earth alliance, because of her shock and anger at his death.
The case against Delenn is that her action is against the Minbari insistence on racial purity. However Delenn reminds the Council that this is nonsense as in reality many Minbari are already a mixture of Minbar and Earth beings including herself as a descendent of Valen, their recognised supreme Minbar being. Because she was never pure before her metamorphosis, the Council agree that her relationship with Sheridan can continue..
However the pathway of true love is never straight and an easy one to tread as Civil war breaks out on Minbar, Rumours, Bargains and Lies 413 and Moments of Transition 414. The key to any resolution is the relationship between Delenn of the Religious caste and Naroon of the Warrior caste who previously came to Babylon to kill Delenn and near killed Marcus before relenting because he realised there was something special and different about her. Delenn agrees that the Religious caste should surrender their position and she arrives with the senior members of the caste for the submission, but this is a clever plan in which she insists that under the surrender the Grey Council is recreated with a balance of power not going to either the Warrior or religious castes, but to the Worker’s caste who are to have five of the nine positions.
In the days before Valen when there were war between the casts from time, the leaders would gather in the Temple of Verenni, which is Delenn’s chosen place for surrender of the Religious Caste. The Temple is equipped with planet wide media. There is also the Starfire Wheel. The two leaders, or more in any conflict would enter the beam of fire where the one who stayed and died would prove their cause was the righteous and therefore their side would win the conflict. Delenn challenges the leader of Warrior Class, an ambitious man without regard for loss of life and allegedly unconcerned about his personal fate. However when forced into the fire beam by Delenn rather than lose face with his caste, he refuses to die and backs out leaving Delenn who had promised Lennier to also leave once she had made her point about the hypocrisy of the Warrior leader. However it is Naroon who intervenes and removes Delenn but remains to die so that his caste has their honour restored but he makes it clear that he is a substitute for Delenn and her position. So peace returns to Minbar with their partially destroyed capital city.
The second important story is that of Garibaldi who appears to playing an in the future’s role of Judas. However I still have in mind the secret instructions which Sheridan gave to Garibaldi, to be followed without question, before Sheridan set off for his first visit to Z’ha’dum. Fortunately I cannot remember what happens so his true position remains open.
In Epiphanies Garibaldi resigns as Security Chief and begins a new life as a self employed private eye in the sub strata of the station. There is the suggestion that he has been programme in some way as a fifth column during his disappearance. In several subsequent episodes Garibaldi is seen in league with individuals hostile to Sheridan, as agents of Earth and because the blockade is severely hindering some trade although as with all blockades some people can made fortunes providing goods at inflated prices. In Racing Mars Garibaldi is approached by one interest alleging that Sheridan has developed into a cult of Personality and Ivanova does a deal with smugglers to keep the station supplied with food and spare parts.
The episode also reinforces my point that Garibaldi could have gone underground at Sheridan’s request to gain intelligence on the enemy within. In Conflict of Interest 412 the group plotting against Sheridan disclose that they regard Garibaldi as expendable. He in turn finds out that his former lover has married one of the most influential businessmen on Earth/Mars, William, Bill, Edgars. Edgars offers Garibaldi a retaining contract to arrange for packages to smuggled onto the station and handed to designated parties, It is not known if Edgars has a relationship with other groups against Sheridan on the station. Sheridan insists that Garibaldi hands over his Identification, official weapons and other privileges of office. Sheridan and Garibaldi come to near blows as Sheridan seeks to bring the former security chief back into the fold and Garibaldi lets it be known in front of witnesses who he has become opposed to what Sheridan is doing. Sheridan comments what he does not like the company Garibaldi is keeping suggesting that more is going on that the audience is being informed.
It should not be forgotten that Sheridan was given insights into the future when he went to Babylon 4; The machine on Epsilon 3 is also able to see into the future as well as everything that has happened in the past. Ivanova seeks the help of the Epsilon 3 to gain the energy necessary to ensure the Voice of Resistance Broadcasts. It also has to be remembered that Sheridan developed a special relationship with the first of the Originals who ensured that Sheridan had over two decades of more life, all things being equal, to carryout his destiny. Garibaldi insists on going to Mars to meet Edgar in the next episode following this section.
Playing only very small roles in the fourth season are London and G’Kar whose presence on the station is something of a puzzle given the job of work required on both their home planets, especially in relation to the Narn world although G’Kar is still trying to recover from the torturing at the hands of the former Centauri President. G’Kar is another who found a lack of understanding among his compatriots for his role in working against the Centauri and in gaining their freedom from Londo. G’Kar is given an artificial electronic eye by Dr Franklin in which can see outside of its socket. He must remove the eye at night. G’Kar is troubled by the break down of relations between his friend Garibaldi and Sheridan and he only learns of the trip to Mars after Garibaldi has departed.
It is more understandable that Londo and Vir should return to Babylon 5 full of guilt for their assassination of the President and ensuring the freedom of Narn. It is Londo who takes the initiative and suggests to G’Kar that they should issue a joint declaration of support to Sheridan as an act of reconciliation and in giving a lead to the other non aligned worlds. G’Kar is understandably reluctant but does agree to drink a toast with Londo towards the new venture. We have learnt that one of the creatures who left Z’ha’dum before its destruction
This gesture is badly needed as Sheridan has struggled to gain the support of other races in relation to his concerns and dispute with Earth. However he works out a way to make them seek the help of his fighter force by patrolling the outskirts of their planets in exchange for their support should it be required. The situation comes to a head when he learns that not only has earth attacked the breakaway colony of Proxima 3 but destroyed ten thousand people on a refugee escape craft. He devises a plan which involves giving the impression that eh is about to attack earth to draw away warcraft from Proxima 3 and then send his strongest force to the planet to order the departure of Earth forces.
He has discovered that all has not been going well for the Clark Dictatorship in that three quarters of his government has resigned when martial law was declared. Clark has been forced to reinstate the Parliament and more importantly Sheridan learns that not all the war craft commanders are happy about their role in attacking the breakaway colonists and several did not participate in the killing of the civilian refugees. Sheridan uses this to try and divide the earth forces in the campaign to free Proxima 3 No Surrender No Retreat 415 The divide and rule approach works out as the earth battle fleet surrender or are destroyed or join forces. Some go all the way and agrees to join Sheridan at Babylon 5 while others stay to defend Proxima 3 from further attack. He also allows the remainder to return to earth. The programme provides makes a good place to end this report update of the season as it also marked the departure of Garibaldi to Mars and the signing of the support agreement between the Narns and the Centauri although given their off world status is not clear what the declaration will mean in practice.
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