lurkers-guide/guide/087

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<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>

<blockquote><cite>
Earthgov decides Sheridan's fate. Delenn makes a remarkable proposition to
the League of Non-Aligned Worlds.  Garibaldi searches for Lise.
</cite>

<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Gentile,+Denise">Denise Gentile</a> as Lise.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Howard,+Rance">Rance Howard</a> as David Sheridan.
<a href="http://www.geocities.com/~beatitude/">Beata Pozniak</a> as President Luchenko.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Koenig,+Walter">Walter Koenig</a> as Bester.
</blockquote>

<pre><a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/087">8.90</a>

Production number: 421
Original air week: October 20, 1997
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000DGBEY/thelurkersguidet">DVD release date</a>: January 6, 2004

Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Tony Dow
</pre>

<p>
<hr size=3>

<h2><a name="BP">Plot Points</a></h2>
<ul>

   <li>@@@877243084 Delenn has overseen the coming together of the nonaligned
	worlds, the Centauri, the Minbari, the Narn, and Earth into a new
	Interstellar Alliance, and
	Sheridan has been elected its first president.  The Alliance, which
	among other things promises to share advanced technologies like
	artificial gravity with Earth, is a confederation whose members
	retain most of their sovereignty, aside from certain rules of
	conduct.  Its armed forces are the Rangers and the White Star fleet,
	and its temporary headquarters are on Babylon 5 until permanent
	facilities are built in the Minbari city of Tuzanor (novel
	<a href="/lurk/novels/009.html">"To Dream In the City of Sorrows."</a>)

   <li>@@@877243084 Sheridan only used 30 telepaths out of 100 to attack the
	destroyer fleet
	(<a href="086.html">"Endgame."</a>)
	The rest, including Bester's lover Carolyn Sanderson, remained on
	Babylon 5.

   <li>@@@877630606 Clark has been succeeded by President Susanna Luchenko
	of the Russian Consortium.

   <li>@@@877243084 Ivanova has been promoted to captain and reassigned to
	shake down an experimental new Earth military vessel, a Warlock-class
	destroyer, for one year.

   <li>@@@877333607 Londo has been asked to return to Centauri Prime; the
	Regent is ill and after his death the royal court plans to name Londo
	the next Emperor.

   <li>@@@877243084 Garibaldi and Lise are together, and she has apparently
	inherited some or all of William Edgars' money.

   <li>@@@877243084 Sheridan and Delenn have been married.

   <li>@@@877243084 Sheridan's father has been released; Clark's forces never
	captured his mother.

</ul>

<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
<ul>

   <li>@@@877243084 Did <em>all</em> the nonaligned worlds join the Alliance?

</ul>

<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
<ul>

   <li>@@@877971225 Delenn's reply to Lennier's comment about unrequited love
	can be read either of two ways: that she is indeed oblivious to his
	feelings for her
	(<a href="055.html">"Ceremonies of Light and Dark"</a>)
	or, more likely, that she loves him too, albeit not
	in the same way she does Sheridan.  The latter interpretation seems
	to have been lost on Lennier if true.

   <li>@@@877243084 Sheridan knew about the telepath virus
	(<a href="083.html">"The Face of the Enemy,"</a>
	among others.)  How many more have been told?  Will its existence
	become common knowledge, and if so, will the fact that it's known to be
	possible prompt enemies of the Corps to start trying to duplicate it?

   <li>@@@877333607 Bester goaded Sheridan about Garibaldi by telling him
	that only a scan performed by a member of Psi Corps would be
	admissible in Earth court if Garibaldi's memory were used as evidence.
	The implication was that since Bester controls the Corps to some
	degree, no Corps telepath would cooperate.  But Lyta is now a Corps
	member, officially anyway
	(<a href="082.html">"The Exercise of Vital Powers"</a>)
	and is certainly no friend of Bester's.  To refute her credentials
	in court, he'd have to reveal the deep-cover program he's using to
	give her the appearance of Corps membership.

   <li>@@@878759283 Sheridan told Bester he knew what it was like to lose
	someone, only to find them again and lose them again, clearly a
	reference to Anna
	(<a href="066.html">"Z'ha'dum."</a>)
	He said he'd never wish that on anyone.  But
	in a sense, he's putting Delenn through the same ordeal
	over a much longer timespan: she lost him at Z'ha'dum, got him back
	thanks to Lorien, and knows that in 20 years she'll lose him again
	(<a href="070.html">"Falling Toward Apotheosis."</a>)

   <li>@@@877243084 The Alliance was most likely what Delenn was referring
	to in
	<a href="061.html">"War Without End part 2"</a>
	when she told Sheridan that they'd built something that would endure
	for a thousand years.  Whether that figure was just a generality on
	her part or reflected additional knowledge about the future isn't
	clear.

   <li>@@@878022972 Sheridan and Londo have followed similar paths: both of 
	them rose up against their own governments to fight Shadow influence,
	and both were helped in their quests by resistance movements working
	against those governments (the Mars resistance in Sheridan's case,
	the Narns in Londo's.)  Both of them arranged to have the captive
	populations freed after defeating the old order.  Are their fates
	going to be similar as well?  Londo sacrificed himself to kill his
	Keeper and allow Sheridan and Delenn to escape
	(<a href="061.html">"War Without End part 2."</a>)
	Will Sheridan make a similar sacrifice to save someone?  One could
	argue he already has, by dying on Z'ha'dum to save Centauri Prime
	(<a href="066.html">"Z'ha'dum."</a>)

	<p>@@@878106933 
	All the major ambassadors on Babylon 5 have been offered leadership
	roles of some sort, in fact.  In addition to Sheridan and Londo,
	G'Kar was offered leadership of his people in
	<a href="071.html">"The Long Night."</a>
	Delenn was elected leader of the Minbari in
	<a href="020.html">"Babylon Squared."</a>
	And Sinclair became leader of the Minbari of 1000 years past in
	<a href="061.html">"War Without End part 2."</a>
	Kosh is apparently an exception, though for all anyone knows, he
	already <em>was</em> the leader of the Vorlons.

	<p>@@@879107321 
	Perhaps not coincidentally, all the major ambassadors have been willing
	to sacrifice themselves for the greater good.  Delenn was willing to
	die to stop the Minbari civil war
	(<a href="080.html">"Moments of Transition."</a>)
	Londo was ready to give up his life to save Centauri Prime from the
	Vorlon planetkiller
	(<a href="072.html">"Into the Fire."</a>)
	Sheridan ordered a suicide run to stop Earth from being razed by a
	defense platform
	(<a href="086.html">"Endgame."</a>)
	G'Kar offered to return to Narn and face certain death to save the
	families of the Narn on Babylon 5
	(<a href="047.html">"A Day in the Strife."</a>)
	Kosh forfeited his life when he arranged for the Vorlon fleet to
	attack the Shadows
	(<a href="059.html">"Interludes and Examinations."</a>)

   <li>@@@877243084 Ivanova apparently only gets promotions when her
	commanding officers leave: she went from Lt. Commander to Commander
	when Sinclair left Babylon 5, and from Commander to Captain when
	Sheridan resigned Earthforce.

   <li>@@@877333607 Has Babylon 5 reverted to Earth ownership?  If so, who's
	in command now that Sheridan is no longer a member of Earthforce?
	Presumably Corwin is in charge temporarily until a new commander
	is assigned.

</ul>

<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>
<ul>

   <li>@@@877243147 Both Clark and Sheridan were succeeded by Russian women
	after their deaths (though Sheridan didn't remain dead.)  Both women
	have similar first names.

   <li>@@@877630606 President Luchenko's comment about "the better angels of
	our nature" was a reference to the last line of
	<a href="http://douglass.speech.nwu.edu/linc_a73.htm">Abraham Lincoln's
	first inaugural address,</a>
	in which he urged the United States not to lapse into civil war.

</ul>

<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>
<ul>

   <li>@@@877629153 "If this had been it, I would've walked away with a
	great big smile and a full heart."

	<p>
	Exactly..it doesn't *end* the story, as people kept saying, "Oh,
	the arc is being finished in year 4," it provides a sense of
	*resolution*, which is different altogether, and leaves plenty of room
	for other planned stuff.

<p>
   <li>@@@878022574 <em>President Luchenko's accent sounded fake.</em><br>
	I love comments like that.

	<p>
	Beata, who played the President, is a native-born Russian.

	<p>@@@878182322 
	<em>Ed. note: Beata Pozniak was actually born in Gdansk, Poland, not
	Russia.  The accent is her own, however.</em>

<p>
   <li>@@@877368470 <em>If Marcus had survived, it would have been a
	copout.</em><br>
	As for Marcus, that's precisely the point.  If we do
	what we do to Ivanova, then let her get bailed out, then do the same
	for Marcus, it becomes a double-cheat, and that's not fair to do to the
	audience.  If you bail her out but only at great cost to someone else,
	it's not a cheat on either level.

	<p>
	And yeah, generally, if you follow the threads, you can pick up
	on where things are going.  It's something I learned on Murder, She
	Wrote, where at the end, when the killer's been revealed, you should be
	able to back up the tape, watch it again, and this time see all the
	little bits that point to his (or her) identity.  It's basically about
	playing fair with the audience.

<p>
   <li>@@@878327718 It was hard doing that to the character [<em>of
	Marcus</em>], but it was
	the only way to handle the situation with any integrity and honesty. 
	Very hard to write.

<p>
   <li>@@@944510023 Marcus was a martyr waiting to happen, looking for something
	worth throwing his life away on because he could find little worth in
	his own.

<p>
   <li>@@@884374529 "In the scene with Franklin and the very upset Ivanova,
	when she uses the word "boffed" (like Marcus), was this intended as
	just a cute scene or a hint that the transfer would have had lasting
	effects?"

	<p>
	No, nothing more was intended than what was seen.

<p>
   <li>@@@877971225 <em>Why did Lennier tell Delenn what Ivanova said?</em><br>
	Because Lennier is quite familiar with the concept of unrequited
	love, and because hope burns eternal.

	<p>
	Which is probably the most damnable part of unrequited love.

<p>
   <li>@@@877629093 <em>Was the shot of Claudia Christian at the end from
	another episode, inserted when she decided not to return?</em><br>
	No, that's a new shot (Claudia at the window).  She was shot for
	that episode for that voice-over...we just changed one line.  The basic
	thrust was that she was going to take some time to *decide* whether to
	take on B5, or to take on a Warlock class destroyer.  So we just went
	with the decision.

<p>
   <li>@@@877629241 <em>What was different about the closing shot?</em><br>
	The only really different thing about the shot is the
	length of it; usually our shots average 5-8 seconds; that one was about
	15 seconds, so you have more time to get used to what you're seeing,
	and absorb it, and make it real.

<p>
   <li>@@@877890336 <em>Everything's wrapped up now.  What's left to do in
	season five?</em><br>
	Things that *could* show up (leaving in some ambiguity just to keep some
	surprises):

	<p>
	The start of the telepath war<br>
	The start of drakh war<br>
	Londo's fate on Centauri Prime<br>
	The first year trying to make the Interstellar Alliance work<br>
	Inter-faction fighting among the Alliance members<br>
	The development of Mars as an independent state<br>
	The legacy of William Edgars' black projects<br>
	Fallout from the civil war, and the feelings about it<br>
	How Lennier, Sheridan and Delenn will get along now

	<p>
	How's that just for starters?

<p>
   <li>@@@878327395 <em>Will we see Luchenko again?</em><br>
	Would love to use her again.

<p>
   <li>@@@878327718 The Rangers are independent in authority, answering
	only to Delenn and Sheridan and the members of the Alliance council and
	advisory board.  (In roughly descending order.)  But their jurisdiction
	is exclusively in interplanetary situations between various member
	races.  Each member race has the sovereign authority to govern its
	people in its own way.

	<p>
	The closest comparison is that overall, the states are free to
	enact their own laws, but the US Government has sole claim over
	international matters.  Except here the states would have far more
	autonomy than is currently the rule; more like pre-Civil War America.

<p>
   <li>@@@878327718 <em>If you'd known there'd be a fifth season when
	you wrote the episode, would Delenn's speech have changed?</em><br>
	I don't know if I would've done her speech differently or not,
	to be honest...knowing it now, I'm not sure how I'd improve it.

<p>
   <li>@@@878327718 <em>Is Sheridan and Delenn's bed horizontal or tipped up
	in the Minbari style?</em><br>
	They will alternate, as you'll see soon....

</ul>