Overview

Ambassador Sinclair returns to pull Babylon 4 through time ("Babylon Squared.") Part 1 of 2. Michael O'Hare as Ambassador Sinclair. Tim Choate as Zathras.

P5 Rating: 9.28

Production number: 316
Original air week: May 13, 1996
DVD release date: August 12, 2003

Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Mike Vejar

An episodic soundtrack is available.

Note: this episode is more momentous than most. Think twice before proceeding to the spoilers if you haven't seen it.

Backplot

• @@@831940422 The last Shadow war nearly ended in defeat when the command center, a Minbari space station, was destroyed by Shadow forces. But shortly thereafter, a replacement arrived out of nowhere: Babylon 4. With Babylon 4 in place, the Minbari, the Vorlons, and their allies were able to drive the Shadows off Z'ha'dum and destroy a good two-thirds of the Shadows' warships. Until Delenn arrived at Babylon 5, the origin of the replacement station was a mystery to the Minbari.
• @@@831940422 Six years ago, just before Babylon 4 vanished, some of the Shadows' allies recognized the station from the last war. A group of Shadow fighters tried to deliver a fusion bomb onto the station, whose destruction would look like an accident and would lead to a Shadow victory, or a stalemate, in the previous war. They were fought off by the White Star, which travelled back in time through the rift in Sector 14 to stop them. These events were recorded by Varn in the Great Machine.
• @@@831940422 The Great Machine is responsible for opening the time rift and allowing Babylon 4 to be pulled backward through time. However, opening the rift strains the Machine, and Draal, to its limits.
• @@@831940422 The White Star's Vorlon technology includes the ability to learn from past experiences. Its previous encounters with Shadow vessels have strengthened its resistance to some Shadow weapons.
• @@@831940422 There is at least one Vorlon on Minbar, a fact that's known to at least some of the former Grey Council.
• @@@831940422 In one possible future, Sheridan is destined to win the war against the Shadows, but not entirely destroy them; some Shadow minions will come to Centauri Prime, where an older Londo reigns as Emperor, and lay waste to the capital city.
• @@@831940422 While on Minbar, Sinclair gained a reputation among the Rangers for answering questions cryptically.
• @@@831940422 The Rangers were put together with the help of the Grey Council, or at least some of its number, including Rathenn, the Minbari who restored Sinclair's memory in the comic issue "In Darkness Find Me." He's an old friend of Delenn's; she asked Draal about him in "A Voice in the Wilderness, Part 1." And he seems to revere her, accepting Sinclair's status without question at her behest.
• @@@831940422 At the close of the last Shadow war, someone who knew Sinclair would be on Minbar left him a note in a sealed box. The box was stored in a temple for over nine hundred years with instructions to not open it until a specific date, a date which has now arrived.
• @@@832006488 During their first visit to Babylon 4, Garibaldi and Sinclair both saw the same flashforward of Garibaldi defending the station against unknown attackers.

Unanswered Questions

• @@@831940422 Who left the note for Sinclair? (See Analysis)
• @@@832444915 Sinclair has a scar on his cheek (as also shown in "Babylon Squared.") Where did he get it?
• @@@832059717 Where did Delenn's note come from? How long has she had it?
• @@@831940422 What was the Vorlon doing on Minbar? Has he/she/it been there all along?
• @@@831940422 How far into the future has Sheridan been thrown?
• @@@831940422 Why did Sheridan end up on Centauri Prime, presumably some distance from Sector 14?
• @@@832059717 What did Londo mean by greeting Sheridan, "Welcome back from the abyss?"
• @@@833172496 Where did Zathras come from? Has there been a community of his people on Epsilon 3 for generations, or are they more recent arrivals?
• @@@832058597 Why was Zathras honored to meet Sheridan? What were the things Draal instructed him not to mention?
• @@@832749392 When Zathras was looking at the Great Machine, he said, "Not good." What was he talking about? Was the strain of opening the time rift causing the Machine to malfunction?
• @@@832060088 Were the Shadows, or their allies, also responsible for the sabotage of Babylons 1, 2, and 3? If so, why didn't they destroy Babylon 4 before it was finished?
• @@@832096008 Did Babylon 4 survive the war? If so, where is it now?

Analysis

• @@@831940422 It seems likely that Sinclair left himself the note. In "Babylon Squared," Sinclair was shown to be present on Babylon 4 when it shifted through time; and from his message to Garibaldi, it seems the note told him he was destined to stay in the past and help defeat the Shadows then.

• @@@831940422 If that's correct, and the Minbari holy books contain instructions about the box, it suggests Sinclair was involved in writing the books. Very possibly he was Valen, "a Minbari not born of Minbar," as Lennier described Valen in "Passing Through Gethsemane." Sinclair, as the Grey Council discovered ("Points of Departure") somehow has a Minbari soul.

• @@@831940422 Which leads to the question, what does Sinclair's time travel have to do with the Minbari soul migration, if anything? Does he have a Minbari soul because he's a giant figure from Minbari legend, or vice versa?

• @@@832058597 Presumably, if Sinclair is Valen and Draal knows about it, that's why Zathras was honored to meet Sinclair. What Zathras knows about Sheridan, though, is an open question -- perhaps he has been watching recent events unfold on Babylon 5 and simply respects Sheridan's stand against Earth and the Shadows.

• @@@832581786 Rathenn appears to defer to Sinclair. If a former member of the Grey Council looks to Sinclair for direction, Sinclair must be one of the most influential people on Minbar.

• @@@831940422 Londo's description of Sheridan's victory over the Shadows makes it sound like a fairly distant event, but the Centauri capital city was burning while Sheridan stood there. Perhaps the Shadow minions Londo mentioned have been slowly destroying the city, building by building, since the close of the war, and the Centauri have been powerless to stop them. Or, perhaps, the end of the war isn't as far back as Londo implies. (It's interesting to note that Londo doesn't appear surprised by Sheridan's appearance or by the fact that Sheridan hasn't aged.)

• @@@832581494 Sheridan looks older (his hair is lighter) and may be dressed in something other than his uniform as he visits Londo in the throne room -- it looks like he's wearing a leather jacket, but his outfit isn't shown clearly enough to tell for sure. If it's different, though, could his trip forward be along the lines of the flashforward experienced by Sinclair and Garibaldi, rather than a physical transfer? If so, where is his body?

• @@@832006488 If Babylon 4 is being sent back to help defeat the Shadows in the previous war, will other equipment be sent too? For instance, loading the docking bays full of Minbari fighters (or better still, Vorlon fighters) could do as much to turn the tide of battle as the mere presence of the station, especially assuming that Minbari and Vorlon weapons have improved in the intervening thousand years.

  On the other hand, perhaps the non-destruction of the Shadows in the last war wasn't a matter of military strength after all; perhaps the Shadows hid somewhere such that they were impossible to wipe out. If so, will the same thing happen again? Londo's accusation suggests it will, to some extent.

• @@@832096008 How long after Delenn arrived on Babylon 5 did she figure out where Babylon 4 came from? Were the Minbari really so uninterested in Babylon 4 that the Grey Council never saw a picture of the station? Did Delenn recognize the similarity in design as soon as she arrived, or did she find a picture of Babylon 4 in B5's archives?

• @@@832096008 Along similar lines, was the station not identified as "Babylon 4" when it appeared in the past? If it was, the Minbari should have at least heard of the Babylon Project in its earlier stages, and would have known B4's identity before Delenn arrived on B5. It's possible the Minbari lost whatever records contained the name of their second base of operations, or that Sinclair convinced the Minbari to leave such information out in the interest of not altering the future.

• @@@832007102 If the Great Machine opened a rift for Babylon 4 six years ago (while, it should be noted, the machine was under Varn's control, not Draal's) and can still open a rift today for the White Star, will it be able to open other rifts to send more people back? Or is Draal simply not as capable of handling the strain as Varn was?

  On the other hand, maybe the original time rift was generated from the present day by Draal, and Varn wasn't involved at all. In that case, the Machine may only be able to manipulate time once.

• @@@832357291 If B4 was being pulled back in time, why did it reappear four years later than it vanished? Sinclair, according to "Babylon Squared," interrupted the station's time travel to allow the crew to get off. But if it was travelling backward through time, that should have caused it to reappear some time before it vanished.

  Maybe B4 will have to be pulled forward to the present day, from which point Draal can send it back -- that is, maybe Draal can only open rifts between the present day and some other time, not between two arbitrary times.

• @@@832058597 The Great Machine's time-manipulation abilities suggest that perhaps it was built specifically to pull Babylon 4 back through time. If so, who built it, and how did they know about Babylon 4? Their technology in that area exceeds the Minbari's, which says that the Machine's builders were First Ones. In that case, what was the role of Varn's people?

• @@@832058597 Delenn told Sheridan that the Minbari did not have the technology to control a time field "as unstable as this one." How much time-manipulation technology do they have?

• @@@832181516 If there's a Vorlon on Minbar, could it have been responsible for Delenn's childhood vision ("Confessions and Lamentations?")

• @@@832444915 In "Babylon Squared," Zathras hands his time stabilizer to the space-suited figure (possibly Sinclair,) who promptly vanishes. Was that a replacement for Sheridan's stabilizer, or for another broken one?

• @@@832444915 Ivanova's wish has come true -- she's on Babylon 4 and Garibaldi is left behind. ("Babylon Squared")

• @@@832749298 In Ivanova's distress call, she says, "This is Earth Alliance station Babylon 5." Presumably in the heat of the moment her Earth Force training kicked in and she didn't consider that B5 isn't an Earth Alliance station any more. (See jms speaks.)

Notes

• @@@831940422 As in "Babylon Squared," the term "unstuck in time" is a reference to Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s "Slaughterhouse Five."
• @@@832444169 Garibaldi's attempted passwords: "Jeff," "Jeffrey," "peekaboo" (Garibaldi's computer password, most recently used in "Ceremonies of Light and Dark,") "Susan," "Michael," "socks," "fasten," "zip" (the last three from the conversation between Sinclair and Garibaldi on their way to Babylon 4 in "Babylon Squared,") and finally, "hello, old friend," Sinclair's opening line in the message delivered to Garibaldi by the Ranger in "The Coming of Shadows."
• @@@839287158 Viewers outside North America may have some difficulty recognizing all the partnerships to which Sinclair compares himself and Sheridan. "Butch and Sundance" were Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid, two outlaws from the days of the Old West (of more recent fame for the movie in which they were portrayed by Paul Newman and Robert Redford). "Lewis and Clark" were not Lois Lane and Clark Kent, but Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, who explored much of the territory of the Louisiana Purchase (a vast expanse between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains that the United States acquired from France in 1803) from 1804 to 1806, eventually reaching the Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest. "Lucy and Ethel" were Lucy Ricardo and Ethel Mertz, the characters portrayed by Lucille Ball and Vivian Vance in the 1950s sitcom "I Love Lucy."
• @@@832444431 The building in which Sinclair and Rathenn talk bears some resemblance in outline to the encounter suit of the Vorlon inside -- and even more resemblance to a Shadow.

jms speaks

• November 30, 1995 - As I write this, I've just started writing "War Without End, Part One," #316, the first part of the two episodes that bring Sinclair to Babylon 5, which we'll shoot sometime after the first of the year. It's been touch and go, but we've finally been able to schedule all of the guest cast members from "Babylon Squared" for this one, which is the flip side of that episode. It's probably going to be the most expensive show we've done yet, due to the hideous production requirements for this one. It's also the one I'm most nervous about writing, even more than "Fall of Night," because an awful lot happens here, and it has to be done just right. It's going to be probably the toughest writing job of the series to date.

  I'll be putting Sinclair and Sheridan together a lot, which is shaping up to be an interesting combination. We're also going to see Minbar for the first time.

• @@@865188944 "In WWE(1)I noticed a larger than usual group of offhand lines (ethel &.../wait in car.../cool-you know what I'm talking about). Was this scripted? Or was someone just ad libbing?"

  There's almost NO ad-libbing allowed on the show. You can't change a word unless someone comes to my office and approves it, and it can't change the meaning. (I.e., the actor is having a hard time saying "shibboleth" or something.) Everything said in this show is scripted, offhand comments included.

• @@@832444086 Did you work out the circular sequence of events as you went, or was it all mapped out beforehand?
  No, it all has to hang together, or it's kinda useless. It just required working out the details of what was, is, and will be. Then I walked on water....

• @@@832553946 Why didn't Sinclair interact with G'Kar?
  The problem is that you've got about 42 minutes to tell your story. You have to get into it, and get into it fast. Unless there's a reason for the scene to be there, if it doesn't move the plot along, it shouldn't be there. You'll note there isn't even a B-story in the two-parter...there wasn't room.

  Sure, it would've been nice to have Sinclair meet G'Kar, sit around, talk about how they've changed...have Sinclair and Londo meet, talk about stuff...have him and Ivanova sit around, talk about stuff...but then you've got just a bunch of scenes that are basically, "Well, hello, how've you been?"

  The next sounds you would've heard would be the click of remote controls changing channels across the nation.

  As it is, in that two-part episode, you've got Delenn, Garibaldi, Sinclair, Sheridan, Marcus, Ivanova, Lennier, Zathras, Major Krantz, Krantz's second...it's our most character-intensive episode in a long time, all of them being present in every other scene, plus the other three characters we see in part two. It was, quite simply, stuffed to the gills, and there wasn't room for a single wasted word.

  That's the difference between a novel and a television show; you can stop the action in a book as often as you want to have asides, but you can't do that in TV with as much facility. To do the scenes you describe would've meant turning this into a three-parter, and as it is part one is almost an extended teaser for part two. It would've been moreso with these additional scenes.

  If it isn't necessary, it shouldn't be there.

• @@@832581630 It would've been nice to see some of those scenes, it just wasn't practical. And you have to make hard choices. As someone once said of writing, "You have to kill all your darlings," meaning the nifty little things you'd *like* to do, as opposed to the things you *have* to do.

• Actually, Mike Vejar is directing the two-parter, and I'm absolutely thrilled about it; Mike's been our mainstay for some time, and he's just terrific. (He directed "Convictions," and "Inquisitor.")

• Well, reactions have been coming in on the two parter, and so far everyone's wog-boggled. Peter Jurasik called to say he didn't know what I'm smoking these days, but to please send ten pounds of it to his house at *once*. Mumy went nuts over it, everyone's very excited...including and especially Michael O'Hare, who got his copy of the script today, read it straight through, and is *extremely* excited by the story, and what happens with his character, and is VERY much looking forward to the shoot.

• (Oh, and lest I forget, yes, Zathras does return in "War," as does Sinclair, who has a lot of great scenes with Marcus, Sheridan, Delenn, Zathras and others. It also has some real surprises in store, including some flash-forwards from WAY down the line.)

• January 22, 1996
  Today was a very interesting day; today Michael O'Hare returned to the Babylon 5 stages in preparation for shooting the two-parter, which begins tomorrow. Today he came by for his wardrobe fitting and to get his hair trimmed, say hi to folks, and hang out...lunch was me, John Copeland, Michael and Bruce Boxleitner eating together at one of the tables in the lunch area behind the stage, lots of laughing and kidding, and the two get on great. (Turns out they'd worked on other projects before, including the short-lived A Rumor of War series by Sterling Siliphant.)

  Anyway, it's a great atmosphere, and everybody's psyched for the two-parter. It's like he never went away.

• January 23, 1996
  [...] today is Michael O'Hare's first day of shooting here on the B5 stages for the two-parter, featuring his return to the station from Minbar, and propels him into the center of attention for most of the two parts. Everyone's having a great time so far, he and Bruce have been hanging out a lot, and the episode should be a real toad-strangler when it's finished.

• A toad-strangler, a barn-burner, a doozy...it's a good thing.

• Won't Sheridan and Sinclair both be standing around giving orders?
  The similarity is only if you choose to define them by their narrow roles. Their personalities are vastly different. Also, Sinclair's been through a lot in the intervening couple of years, he's grown, he and Marcus would definitely have something of a relationship since he would've been there while Marcus was being trained, and so on. And their roles in the story are very different.

• My guess is that "War Without End" may well pass by "CoS" as all time favorite...until the next one comes along.

• Did you reuse footage from "Babylon Squared?"
  We did both; we reshot some scenes from B2, and used some footage directly from that episode. Some pretty elegant matches, too, I think.

• @@@839783104 The vision of B5 blowing was the same as the one from Signs.

• @@@833178382 Why weren't the new uniforms in the flashforward in "Babylon Squared?"
  We only saw the black flak uniforms in B2, because I knew we'd be changing them, but wanted to hide that fact (as I did with Delenn's line to Sinclair in B2, done off-camera to hide her change). And the Minbar cityscape was done by Eric Chauvin.

• @@@833560031 About Ivanova cracking under pressure
  With most of their systems down, everyone around her dead, Sheridan dead, knowing she's about to die and there's nothing she can do about it, and obviously knowing full well who's out there...about to witness the deaths of a quarter million sentients on the station...I felt a bit of an outburst, a final letting go of the emotions, was not inappropriate for her. (Although I do think Claudia may have played it a bit too hysterical at times; separate the lines from the performance and look at it again.)

• @@@839783104 "You hand this woman a script and say to her, 'Miss C., everyone around you is dead and you are in command.
  The station is falling down around you and you're in terrible pain, about to die by decompression or laser burns or crushing--or worse, you could become a Morden and be controlled by the Shadows the rest of your life.
  You have no hope of rescue.
  You may not know where you are.'
  And then you say she was a tiny bit on the hysterical side?"

  Hey...from where I sit, that's just another day at the office.

  Don't know many producer/writers, do you?

• @@@839783849 I don't believe anyone on Minbar was wearing shorts. It's not the season for that.

• @@@832308936 Was the voice of the Vorlon on Minbar the same actor who did Kosh?
  Yes, that was Ardwight again.

• @@@832444086 There probably wasn't a credit there because it was an incidental voice rather than a recurring voice.

  The other Vorlon also sounded different because I directed Ardwight in different inflections...literally stood there outside the booth using my hand like a baton to indicate the rising and falling inflections as he spoke, to give it a wave kind of sound.

• @@@834863912 Sinclair's Minbari words are subtitled "alright," which is a misspelling -- it's really "all right."
  Yep, it was misspelled, and it wasn't misspelled in the script. When I saw that on the final tape, it was too late to correct it for this airing. It'll be corrected later. (Somebody wasn't being careful when they did the captioning.)

• As Sinclair notes when he arrives at B5, his status as ambassador is pretty much gone after the coup.

• @@@833560520 Won't Earth ask where its ambassador is?
  Well, Minbar isn't being very receptive to Earth at the moment, and will probably just put them on hold...indefinitely....

• @@@833442235 How did Sinclair get so cryptic so quickly?
  He was kinda Zen when he left, frankly...and two years living among Minbari, learning their language, learning to think the way they do, learning the whole history of the shadow war...that can have a pretty profound effect on you. It obviously wasn't all hanging around the Hyatt Minbar and watching reruns of I Love Lennier for two years....

• @@@833179405 Sinclair wasn't on Mars during the riots in the first season, so how does Sheridan know him from them?
  It's been established that there have been previous riots on Mars, including the food riots referenced in, I believe, the pilot.

• Will the relationship between Delenn and Sheridan cause problems with Sinclair?
  Well, remember that we never defined what those feelings were between Sinclair and Delenn; she had a great deal of respect and admiration for him, yes. And she had a fair measure of faith in him as well. Question is, what's the root of that? We'll learn some of that in the two-parter. As for Sinclair, he was mainly involved with Sakai.

• @@@833442235 Sakai certainly wouldn't have wanted to get tied down to life on Minbar, and Sinclair knew that his life would be difficult now with the rangers, so they parted ways.

• @@@833442235 Marcus's look came because he overheard the Minbari-language part of the discussion, and knew something was up. It made him more watchful of Sinclair, which pays off in WWE2.

• @@@832144671 I like Zathras...he's just nuts.

• @@@832236521 Will we learn who Zathras' people are?
  Eventually, though that answer isn't terribly important.

• @@@832308936 Why didn't the Shadows destroy B5 before it went online?
  B5 wasn't destroyed because it wasn't the one that would be taken back. Yes, the prior stations would've looked more like B4 but they were sabotaged *very* early in the construction process. You'll learn why he didn't want Garibaldi along next ep.

• @@@832444086 The B1-B3 sabotages had nothing at all to do with the B4 situation; it was just done by forces opposed to the very notion of the Babylon Project.

• @@@833491960 The first 3 Babylon stations never got much past the very earliest stages of construction, just some hull elements, that sort of thing, nothing that could be recognized. Other forces took them out, mainly for political reasons.

• @@@832308936 B4 survived the prior shadow war, but in very bad shape; didn't last much longer after that.

• @@@839783104 Is the war room staffed continuously?
  Yes, the war room would have to have support personnel there when the big guys are off having fun or sleeping.

• @@@833178161 Why did Sheridan's clothes change?
  His clothing is different because that's the future Sheridan, into whom the current Sheridan has sort of slid....

• @@@833442235 Was whatever destroyed Sheridan's stabilizer related to the creature in "Knives?"
  No, that was just the result of the blast.

• @@@846743236 The energy being that got Sheridan in "Knives" had no relation to anything in the ongoing story; it just existed outside our normal universe, and got in and out via the rift (which also served to remind us that it was still there).

• @@@833442235 Sheridan "leapt" into his future self, hence the difference in wardrobe and appearance. Londo wasn't suprised to see him. If you recall the Centauri guard when we first arrive in the Palace, he says, "I think he's awake again, would you like to see?" The implication being that he's been beaten into unconsciousness, hence Londo's line, "Welcome back from the abyss." It was at that moment of unconsciousness that he "slid" into his future self.

• @@@832443782 The time-flash (which in Sheridan's case is much more pronounced than what we've seen before) slides you forward or backward in time to where you are at that moment. At that moment, 18 years from now (in the story), Sheridan was/will be on Centauri Prime. So when he slid along the time line, that's where he ended up. Just as in Babylon Squared, when Garibaldi had a timeflash back to his time on Mars. It blips your perception to another point in your life, wherever you happen to be.

• @@@833560655 Sheridan slid forward in time, to wherever he was at that moment in the future. He didn't just go hopping around aimlessly; if he flipped 10 days ahead, he'd come into his body at that point 10 days from now, wherever he happened to be. At that moment, 17 years down the road, he happened to be on Centauri Prime.

• @@@865188944 I'd rather let part 2 get into what exactly happened to Centauri Prime....

• @@@832444086 Has Sheridan slid past his death on Z'ha'dum?
  Well, who can say at this point *what* happens on Z'ha'dum...?

• @@@833560145 Would the future Sheridan notice being slid into?
  The future Sheridan would have a little memory of what happened during that time, but it'd be almost dreamlike, two steps removed.

• @@@833475135 How did the Shadows know about Babylon 4?
  Well, if the Minbari had records of B4's visual look, given that the Shadows are advanced, would they not also have the potential to recognize it for what it was once it was nearing completion from their own records?

• @@@832444086 Did the Minbari agree to help fund B5 because they knew about B4?
  No, because if you remember, even Delenn didn't know where B4 came from until she came to B5, well after completion.

• @@@839190055 Why don't the Minbari have many records of the last war?
  It was also a very devastating war, and one of their mistakes was that there were those who were entrusted to keep the past, sort of a more advanced version of storytellers, who put all their data in one basket, as it were...very possessive and jurisdictional. When they and that center of data were taken out, a lot was lost. One drawback of a very rigid and structued society.

• @@@839190055 But if that happened early in the war, wouldn't they have records from after that point?
  Certainly it would've occured in the last days of the war.

• @@@833179293 Do the Minbari have time travel?
  They've played with some research in this area, but they aren't anywhere near the tech required to actually do anything with time.

• @@@833179293 Why hasn't Minbari ship design changed?
  The design *has* changed; the main section is much longer, and more primitive looking, less tricked out. You can see a bit of it there, but you will see them in more detail in part two.

  Sinclair was scarred during ranger training duties.

• @@@839784051 Would arguing with Kosh in "Interludes and Examinations" have been the original source of the scar?
  No, because you'll note that Sheridan isn't scarred by it. No, you have to remember that one doesn't just transplant one storyline onto another. It doesn't work that way. Sinclair has his arc, Sheridan has his own.

• @@@839784051 Sheridan wasn't a "backup" for Sinclair, he was brought in specifically because I needed somene who could and would do things in a different way, and had a different arc. If it was going to track 1-to-1 you wouldn't *need* a new character.

  And the swipe Kosh took at Sheridan wouldn't be *nearly* enough to cause a huge scar like that.

• @@@832493213 "1) Assuming the present is the time period during which we watch Babylon 5 and the period we saw at the beginning of the WWE episode, does the possible fall of B5 (if the mission fails) take place in the past or the future? We see Ivanova screaming in the mysterious transmission that "they're killing us" and that the Captain is dead, so I assume this indicates that the possible fall of B5 takes place in the future since Sheridan is the only Captain (Sinclair was a Commander, non?). But we also see Sinclair reliving his flashback with Gerabaldi from Season one in which B5 falls, and he then seems to indicate that his mission is to prevent such a catastrophe. Since Sinclair is there, with Gerabaldi, this would seem to suggest that the fall of B5, if the mission fails, takes place in the past in relation to the present with which we are all familiar.(Breath) So, if the mission fails, when will B5 fall; past of future??? Or perhaps put another way: Will B5 possibly fall under Sheridan's command or Sinclair's? <-- God, that's complicated."

  Nope. The scenes are all in the future. Garibaldi specifically identifies the distress call as coming from 8 days in the future. Sinclair's vision wasn't a flashback, but a flash forward; even the blowing of B5 was identified by Lady Ladira as in the future. It's *always* been placed in the future, though most of this was in the first season, which hasn't been reshown. Also, in the first act, Garibaldi again *specifically states* that when they went to B4, there was a glimpse of the future and the fall of B5.

  "2) Faced with the end, why would the bloodied Ivanova feel compelled to deliver a play-by-play to a non-existant audience? Or even to one that is there? I found that strange."

  First she was trying to get help. Second, there should be some record of what happened for those who would investigate. They would need to know, just the way a signal operator sends out a distress call for as long as possible as the ship sinks. SOP.

  "4) About Delenn's slide show: It looks as though Minbari ships have remained basically the same for the past 1000 years. I could not see one change. Why is that?"

  Because you weren't looking closely enough. The older Minbari ships are much longer and tubular in design; you'll see them better in the second half, but there's definitely a difference.

  "5) The preview showed Gerabaldi giving 'em hell with a big gun. Why wasn't that in the episode (I know, some scenes in previews don't show up in the actual ep, but it seemed important)?"

  Because we were seeing the sequence from Sinclair's point of view; he was gone by the time Garibaldi began firing, so he wouldn't have seen it. Story logic.

  "7) Londo spoils us all by telling us Sheridan wins the war--suspense exit stage left--unless the time line is somehow further altered, which would go against the inevatability theme JMS seems to be playing."

  Okay, everybody who thought I was going to have our heroes fight a war for two whole years or so, and then *lose it*...a major dramatic disappointment to say the least...raise your hands.

  In any event...quite frankly, several of your "serious nitpicks" are actually incorrect, and come from making assumptions or simply not paying attention when someone says something clearly in dialogue, as Garibaldi does, that the flash was of future events, and then IDs the signal as from 8 days ahead.

• @@@839783104 If Sinclair had stayed with the station, who would have been transported to Centauri Prime?
  I appreciate the questions, but there are so many alternate timelines flying around right now...I'm not sure I want to further complicate the issue.

• @@@865282881 I could answer this, but if I expand the time paradox loop any further, I would end up not answering it because I'd already answered it, which means it wouldn't get answered, requiring me to answer it now, and pretty soon the universe implodes, and I don't want that on my conscience.

• @@@833177878 There are no alternate univeses, only alternate or possible futures. If they didn't go back, the future in which Sinclair is there with Garibaldi -- having come back to see through the final battle -- and in which Sheridan is killed, and Ivanova is calling for help...that future will come true.

• @@@832554014 Why was Garibaldi left behind?
  It's a story point, and it'll be explained clearly in part two. What, you think I'd have something this odd going on and not explain it?

  It's coming. Be patient.

• @@@833179293 The flash to the firefight was Sinclair's, not Garibaldi's.
  Actually...incorrect. Whenever there's a timeflash, people see one thing or another. When Sinclair and Garibaldi first came aboard, there was a timeflash. We saw what Sinclair saw, we have no idea from that scene what Garibaldi saw. No reason he couldn't have seen something from about that same period. It wasn't stated either way at the time.

• @@@839747849 But Krantz said it was different for everyone.
  Hey, who're you gonna believe, Krantz or me?

  Besides, it could've been a sequence from the fall of B5, but not that exact MOMENT, so it WOULD be different, so NYAH.

  (suddenly I'm five years old)

• @@@833177826 How did Zack know about the White Star?
  The White Star has been common knowledge ever since it came in at the end of "Severed Dreams." Certainly, by virtue of being Garibaldi's second in command, he'd know about it. At this point, most everything is out in the open now.

• @@@833475135 I'm sure Garibaldi will eventually end up on the White Star; and the Minbari will also probably begin slowly acquiring English, and vice versa.

• @@@846743236 Why was Delenn so nervous after Sheridan vanished?
  She didn't know what was coming, and that worried her. She is most secure when she has a definite plan of action, and variables aren't something the Minbari are good at in any event, they're very rigid and structured.

  And we'll be seeing the Sigma walkers again in the not too distant future. And some of their pals.

• @@@837967816 Was Sinclair speaking Minbari during his entire conversation with Delenn, with English presented for the viewers' benefit?
  No, he slid into Minbari at that point to try and conceal what was being said from the others on the bridge.

• @@@833177985 Why did Ivanova claim B5 was an Earth Alliance station?
  The name of the station is still the same; it was built by the Earth Alliance. So that's how she'd refer to it.