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The Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5
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[1][ISMAP]-[2][Home]
### GUIDE ### [3][Background] [4][Synopsis] [5][Credits] [6][Episode
List] [7][Previous] [8][Next]
_Contents:_ [9]Overview - [10]Backplot - [11]Questions - [12]Analysis
- [13]Notes - [14]JMS
_________________________________________________________________
Overview
Ambassador Sinclair returns to pull Babylon 4 through time
([15]"Babylon Squared.") Part 2 of 2. [16]Michael O'Hare as
Ambassador Sinclair. [17]Tim Choate as Zathras. [18]Kent Broadhurst
as Major Krantz.
[19]P5 Rating: [20]9.40
Production number: 317
Original air week: May 20, 1996
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Mike Vejar
_Note: this episode resolves several mysteries from past episodes.
Think twice before proceeding to the spoilers if you haven't seen it._
_________________________________________________________________
Plot Points
* Sinclair and Zathras travelled back in time with Babylon 4. Since
the Minbari would never accept a station commanded by a human (a
race they hadn't encountered yet,) Sinclair entered a chrysalis
using the same kind of device Delenn used to become half human.
His transformation was complete, though, not halfway; to all
appearances he became a Minbari. When he arrived in the past, he
was accompanied by two Vorlons. He introduced himself to the
Minbari as Valen, and went on to lead the war and form the first
Grey Council.
* Later, he wrote himself a note describing what was to come, and
what he would have to do. He also wrote a note to Delenn.
* Sinclair's transformation caused the start of the migration of
Minbari souls to human bodies by linking the two species. Delenn's
transformation in the other direction was, in part, an attempt to
restore the balance that had been upset. (See [21]Notes)
* "The One," explains Zathras, is really three: Sinclair is The One
who was, Delenn is The One who is, and Sheridan is The One who
will be. The three are a whole, consistent with the Minbari
tendency to divide things into threes. (Or, perhaps, The One is
responsible for that tendency somehow, maybe due to Sinclair's
teachings.)
* Sheridan and Delenn, in at least one possible future, will have a
son named David.
* Londo, as emperor of a wrecked Centauri Republic seventeen years
after the start of the Shadow War, will be made to wear a
"keeper," a creature of some sort attached to the side of his
neck. It's visible only when asleep. When it's awake, it forces
him to do its bidding, apparently on behalf of the Shadows. In the
end, he will ask G'Kar to kill him before the keeper forces him to
betray Sheridan and Delenn. But the keeper will awaken as G'Kar
strangles Londo, and the two will die at each other's hands,
leaving an astonished Vir to pick up the imperial emblem.
Unanswered Questions
* Who was at the door in Delenn's flashforward? (See [22]Analysis)
* Was one of the Vorlons accompanying Sinclair Kosh? Was the other
the Vorlon who later spoke to Rathenn on Minbar in part 1? The two
encounter suits were the same as that Vorlon's.
* Why was there an explosive discharge when Sinclair touched
Delenn's suited hand?
* What became of Zathras? Did he have a hand in the planning of the
Great Machine?
* Is Sheridan's vision of the future inevitable?
* What is the price of victory over the Shadows, and why was Delenn
so dismayed about it?
Analysis
* How did Sinclair get the chrysalis machine? Did the Vorlons supply
it? It seemed to do a much more thorough job on Sinclair than it
did on Delenn; in appearance, at least, Valen was a pure Minbari,
not half-human.
An odder explanation is that Sinclair got it from Delenn, who got
it (indirectly) from Valen; in that case, the machine was never
actually invented.
* When and how did the Vorlons board Babylon 4? There were two
Vorlon ships next to the station when the Minbari cruisers
approached it; did they come back in time with Sinclair, or did
the Vorlons of a thousand years ago know where and when B4 would
appear? Perhaps Sinclair called them.
* Delenn's transformation took several weeks. Presumably Sinclair's
was comparable. Did it take that much subjective time to travel
back 1000 years, or did the station sit unnoticed in the past
until Sinclair was ready? If the former, then the Vorlons must
have boarded the station while it was in transit through time
(assuming they gave Sinclair the machine.)
* Why did Sinclair choose to call himself Valen? Was it simply
because of the contents of his letter? In that case, nobody ever
actually invented the name; it was chosen because it was the name
he ended up using.
* Did the Grey Council realize that they'd captured Valen at the
Battle of the Line? Most likely not, or Delenn's counterpart
wouldn't have ordered her to kill him if he remembered what
happened ([23]"And the Sky Full of Stars.")
* On the other hand, if Delenn's transformation was really in part
an attempt to restore the balance upset by Sinclair's change a
thousand years earlier, then Delenn must have known about Valen's
true nature for quite some time. Perhaps she alone recognized
Sinclair's true identity at the Line, but couldn't tell the rest
of the Council, who almost certainly would refuse to believe what
she'd discovered.
* Why did the machine transform Delenn into a hybrid human and
Minbari, while Sinclair (from all outward appearances) was
transformed into a full Minbari? Did Delenn choose to only
transform herself halfway? If so, has she truly restored the
balance between humans and Minbari, or is there still something
left to do?
* Besides Delenn and the people on the White Star bridge, how many
others know Valen's true identity? If it became widespread, the
information might seriously alter the face of Minbari religion;
learning that their greatest spiritual leader was actually a
member of a race many of them hold in contempt would probably test
the faith of many Minbari.
* Sinclair flashed back to the Soul Hunter telling him that he was
being used, presumably by the Minbari ([24]"Soul Hunter.") Exactly
what did he mean by that? Perhaps there was a Soul Hunter present
at Valen's death, and Sinclair was familiar to them already. Or
maybe the Soul Hunter found out about Sinclair's eventual identity
when he peered into Delenn's mind.
* Probably of less significance, Sinclair's other memory was of
Neroon ([25]"Legacies,") who eventually ended up on the Grey
Council. What impact, if any, that had on Sinclair's tenure on
Minbar is unknown. Given Neroon's dismissal of the reason for the
Minbari surrender at the Line ([26]"All Alone in the Night") it
seems any respect he had for Sinclair was short-lived, and that if
the Council did know of Sinclair's true identity, Neroon didn't
believe it. Neroon was also Sinclair's prosecutor in comic issue
3, [27]"In Harm's Way."
* Now that Sinclair has travelled back in time, the accuracy of
Valen's prophecies is probably at an end. Valen could predict the
start of the Shadow War, and the breaking of the Grey Council,
because he'd lived through it, but anything after his departure to
the past is a complete unknown to him (unless, of course, the
Vorlons have some way of telling him.)
* The appearance of two Vorlons next to an unfamiliar Minbari might
not have been such a shock to the Minbari warriors who found
Sinclair. In [28]"In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum," Delenn claimed that
the previous Shadow war marked the last time the ancients walked
openly among the younger races. So it's entirely possible that the
appearance of a Vorlon was, if not commonplace, then nothing
resembling miraculous.
On the other hand, the two Vorlons were flying above encounter
suits; maybe they've been secretive all along, and even when they
walked openly among the other races, always hid behind masks. That
would make sense if they wanted to maintain the illusion of
angelic appearance, since as Kosh said in [29]"Matters of Honor,"
maintaining that appearance in front of a lot of people is a great
strain on a Vorlon.
* Did Babylon 4 travel through space as well as time, or did it
appear in what would later become Sector 14? If the latter, does
its appearance there have anything to do with the location of the
Great Machine?
* What is Londo's "keeper?" Who gave it to him? What exactly is it
forcing him to do, and why? The fact that it's invisible when
awake suggests that it's associated with the Shadows, who have
mastered the art of invisibility.
* Does Morden have a keeper too? Is that why the Shadows treat him
as an equal -- because they know he'll never betray their cause?
Or maybe the _Shadows_ are being controlled by some other party,
though that seems unlikely.
* "We all have our keepers," Londo says. Does that include Sheridan
and Delenn? Perhaps there's a connection between Londo's guest and
the dream sequence in [30]"All Alone in the Night," in which
Ivanova and Garibaldi both have birds on their shoulders.
* By granting a reprieve to Sheridan and Delenn, Londo may be
fulfilling one of his chances for redemption ([31]"Point of No
Return.") Morella told him he must not kill the one who is already
dead; perhaps that refers to Sheridan -- who certainly qualifies
as "the one" now in another context. Londo's greeting in part 1,
"Welcome back from the abyss, Sheridan," tends to support this
possibility, though of course it's not clear what Londo meant by
that.
Kosh's warning to Sheridan in [32]"In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum" and
[33]"Interludes and Examinations," "If you go to Z'ha'dum, you
will die," probably also ties into this, especially since, judging
by Delenn's plea, it seems that Sheridan has gone to Z'ha'dum at
some point in the intervening seventeen years. The "death" Kosh
referred to may simply be the death of innocence as noted by
Delenn, and not literal physical death.
Londo's death at G'Kar's hand may also be the last part of
Morella's prophecy; death may be Londo's greatest fear, or perhaps
death with the knowledge that he hasn't righted his wrongs.
* Londo's dream in [34]"The Coming of Shadows," in which he sees a
fleet of Shadow ships flying overhead while he stands alone in a
desolate wasteland, may be a vision of the Shadows' minions coming
to Centauri Prime as he says they did.
* Kosh's prediction to the Centauri Emperor in [35]"The Coming of
Shadows" appears to be literally true: For Centauri Prime, the war
has ended in fire.
* What were the Centauri, or perhaps someone else, trying to get out
of Delenn? She refused to answer their questions, she says; what
were they trying to learn? It appears the Centauri captured her,
which implies there's still a conflict of some kind going on, even
after the Shadows have been driven off. The presence of Londo's
keeper makes it unclear that the Centauri were the ones trying to
question her.
* "We created something that will endure for a thousand years,"
Delenn tells Sheridan. What will they create? And what happens in
a thousand years -- will the Shadows return again and break up
their creation, much as Valen's creation, the Grey Council, has
recently been destroyed?
* In the Centauri cell, Delenn tells Sheridan, "Our son is safe.
Nothing else matters." Why is David in danger, and what has Delenn
done to ensure his safety?
* What could possibly happen to G'Kar in the intervening seventeen
years to cause Londo to refer to him as an "old friend?" Londo, of
course, may simply have been speaking facetiously -- but in that
case, what was G'Kar doing in the Centauri palace?
* Is death at G'Kar's hands Londo's greatest fear, and thus his
final chance for redemption ([36]"Point of No Return?") Or is his
fear more abstract than that, the fear that his death dream will
come to pass as he's envisioned it?
* When Londo sees himself strangled by G'Kar in his dream, does he
know that it's at his own request? How much of the context of his
death does he know already?
* In [37]Babylon Squared," the crewman who sees the blue-suited
figure appear in the hallway tells Krantz, "It's back." Presumably
the B4 crew had seen Sheridan appearing and disappearing, since
Delenn had only recently switched places with him.
* Delenn appears in the hallway in the present time (or rather, the
same timeframe she'd reached via the White Star,) so in that
specific instance there was no time-shifting, just movement
through space. How did she do that? Perhaps, as she implied in
Part One, the Minbari have the technology for rudimentary time
manipulation, so she used something from the White Star.
* The woman at the door in Delenn's flashforward causes her to drop
the snowglobe in shock. Very few people would cause someone as
poised as Delenn to do that. One of them, though, and one whose
arrival has been foreshadowed, would be Anna Sheridan.
* Why does Delenn urge Sheridan to avoid going to Z'ha'dum? If he
has already gone there by the time she is thrown into the cell
with him, then Kosh's prediction about Sheridan dying if he goes
there is wrong, or at least not as immediate as it originally
sounded. On the other hand, the fact that they have a son is good
evidence the two of them will become much closer; perhaps the
arrival of Anna Sheridan (if that's who's at the door in Delenn's
flashforward) will complicate their relationship, and it's to
avoid finding out about Anna that Delenn tells Sheridan to stay
away from Z'ha'dum.
* Are the flashforwards completely random, or might there be
something guiding people to visions of certain events? The Vorlons
appear to have some perception that extends beyond time; perhaps
they are manipulating that perception when it appears, even
briefly, in others.
* The assumption at the end of the episode seems to be that by
successfully pulling Babylon 4 back in time, the crew has averted
the Shadow attack on Babylon 5 in eight days, in which Ivanova
sends out the distress call heard in part one. Does that mean that
Sinclair's flashforward to the firefight aboard B5 has also been
averted? What about Lady Ladira's vision of the destruction of
Babylon 5? ([38]"Signs and Portents") If all those glimpses of the
future are no longer true, how much validity do the remaining ones
have? Each of them could be from a completely different possible
future, none of which will end up ever taking place.
* Was Zathras supposed to tell Sheridan, Delenn, and Sinclair about
The One? Were Draal's instructions simply to not reveal anything
until prompted by Sinclair?
Where did he come up with the term, and with its definition? If he
knows Sheridan is The One who will be, he must have been using the
Great Machine to peer forward in time (not unreasonable, given its
obvious time-bending abilities.) Will Draal be able to do the same
and offer insights into the events to come? Zathras implies that
perhaps he can do things even Draal can't, and that may be one of
them.
* The distinction between the three members of The One echoes the
migration of Minbari souls. Sinclair, after his transformation,
appears to be fully Minbari, and is The One who was. Delenn is
halfway between human and Minbari, and is The One who is. Sheridan
is completely human and is The One who will be. Perhaps it's
symbolic of a shift of power from the Minbari to humanity.
Notes
* Inconsistencies with [39]"Babylon Squared" (B2). See also [40]jms
speaks.
+ Not an inconsistency per se, but in B2, there was no mention
by Krantz of the explosion of the Shadow bomb or the presence
of possibly hostile personnel on the station, which he
definitely knew about in WWE2. If it's not an inconsistency,
why didn't he mention it to Sinclair?
+ In B2, Krantz told Sinclair that Zathras was first seen in a
conference room. "There was a flash, and there he was,"
Krantz said. In this episode, Zathras was discovered in a
supply room by security guards.
+ Zathras tells Sinclair and Krantz that The One has stopped
B4's motion through time to let the crew get off. But in
WWE2, the station appears in 2258 by accident after Major
Krantz unexpectedly powers up the time equipment. And the
idea of faking a power drop in the fusion reactor to cause
the crew to evacuate was Ivanova's, not any of The One's.
+ In B2, when The One appears in the corridor, there are
audible grunts of pain; they're clearly in a male voice, not
a female one.
+ When Sinclair returns to the station and removes his helmet,
the B2 version of events includes a computer voice intoning,
"Present time atmosphere now breathable." No such voice is
heard in WWE2, though arguably Delenn was meeting him just
inside an airlock, and the suit computer was referring to the
fact that there was no longer a vacuum outside.
+ Delenn puts her hand on Sinclair's shoulder in B2, and her
arm is draped in a red robe. But in WWE2, she's wearing much
darker colors.
* Another possible inconsistency: Delenn claims that Sinclair's
transformation began the migration of Minbari souls to human
bodies that ultimately led to the end of the Earth-Minbari War.
However, in [41]"Points of Departure," Lennier claims that the
soul migration has been going on for roughly two millenia, twice
as far back as Sinclair took Babylon 4.
* The voice at the door seems to be that of Bruce Boxleitner's
real-life wife, Melissa Gilbert, though of course that doesn't
imply anything about which character she'll be playing on the
show. However, she's been announced as a guest star in the
[42]season finale, so the flashforward may well have been only a
month or two ahead.
jms speaks
* YAAAAAAGGGGHHHHH.....
Well, I *finally* finished writing the two-parter, "War Without
End," which is probably the toughest thing I've written for the
series to date. Given everything that has to fit in here, and the
fact that it's the other half of the B4 storyline (this ain't a
spoiler, that'll be common knowledge in ads and the like), it
became a pretty difficult job, moreso than when I'd originally
thunk it up. It's kinda like cramming 20 pounds of potatoes in a
10 pound bag...but I *think* I got it all in, even though the
initial drafts came out at about 7 pages too long. As I commented
to one person, "I'm definitely dancing on the edge of my ability
here." But I'm pretty sure I pulled it all off...and I think folks
are going to be quite pleased.
But *man* that was tough....
Now, having written 16 and 17, only 5 scripts remain to be written
for this season. And there's still an awful lot to fit in before
the big season ender, which I suspect will raise quite a few
eyebrows.
* In my last general posting to rastb5, I mentioned that from time
to time, I'd try to post the occasional "letter to home" just to
keep folks up to date on matters Babylonian. Now that I can catch
a breather, I figured I'd take this opportunity to do so (though
since it's 3:15 a.m., this'll likely be short).
"catching a breather" refers to the script situation. I've just
finished writing 316 and 317, the two parter, "War Without End,"
which was a very difficult task, given the amount of story and
logistics that had to be put into it. While writing "Babylon
Squared," to which this is the flip-side, I figured, "Oh, sure,
yeah, I can get this all in on the other side, no problem," but
when it came time to do it, it got awful tight, but finally I fit
it *all* in. (Well, all except one teeny, tiny sentence, about
where Zathras was first seen, and how, 'cause to do what I'd first
had in mind would've taken another 3 pages, and I didn't have
that, so that one element I'll have to just deal with later
somehow. But that's it.) Hopefully, one need never have seen B2 in
order to watch and follow WWE. (Which was one of the hard parts,
since B2 may or may not be aired prior to this, all the background
information *had* to be in the episodes, so that's a lot of
background to include.)
This now leaves 5 episodes to be written for this season. At this
point, Lyta should factor strongly in one or two of these, there
will be some direct confrontations between our side and the
shadows, then a really nasty final episode for year three.
* "One would find it hard to believe that episodes like "Severed
Dreams", "I&E","A Late Delvery From Avalon" and of course, WWE
could be written by the same guy. The pace, dialog, everything are
adapted so well for each episode."
Suddenly I'm having an identity crisis....
I like to try different styles for different moods. I also like to
vary the tone of the show; one will be more comedic, as with Sic
Transit Vir, others much darker, like Ship of Tears. I enjoy
trying new things, risking a bit, failing on occasion, but
learning in the process.
* As I wrote the episodes prior to WWE2, I kept leading up to that
first kiss, over and over, but deliberately never quite getting
there. I knew that when it came time to do it, I wanted to do it
in just the way you describe...it would and wouldn't be a first
kiss, both at exactly the same time. So there's the moment
everyone's been waiting for, but not in quite the way anyone had
expected.
* I knew everyone would be waiting for that first kiss, so I made
sure it was different, that it was a first kiss for one of them,
but not the other, that it was natural and totally unforced and
surprising. So for Sheridan, his first kiss of Delenn was actually
his second (by a long ways), and his second, when it comes, will
be her first.
Just can't do anything the conventional way on this show....
* _Did you write WWE at the same time as B2?_
No, I didn't write them at the same time, but I did a basic
outline of what the follow-up (WWE) would be, so it'd all match up
when the time came to show that half of the story.
* 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....
* _Did Sinclair's departure from the show cause changes in the B4
storyline? Was it originally meant to go into the future?_
No, B4 was never intended to go forward in time. The aging was
done pretty much as intended. And the Soul Hunter meant they're
using him to create their old Leader. Still tracks. I'll have more
to say about all this after everyone's seen the episode.
* The curious thing...the interesting thing...is that in just about
everything I've ever written, yes, I generally follow where I want
to go, end up where I want to end up, but once I get *into* it,
once the characters come alive on the page, I inevitably find
better ways of doing things, stronger and more muscular paths to
the story, more interesting side roads.
Also, this original story was worked out in 1986/87; that's nearly
ten years ago. In those ten years, I've become -- or like to think
I've become -- a better writer, learned more, written more, picked
up some new tools I didn't have then. So you have a situation
where the writer in 1996 looks at the writer in 1986 and says,
"No, listen...there's a better way. Yes, we'll still get to
Disneyland on time, you'll still have plenty of time to ride the
haunted mansion...but if we go *this* way, we can stop off and
also see Knotts Berry Farm, and the Winchester Mystery Mansion,
and maybe even Hearst Castle on the way."
The destination is still the same..but I've found a *lot* more
interesting ways of getting there. Which, after all, is what an
outline is for: a safe home base that allows you to wander off,
knowing that you can always return to it if you get lost.
* Foreshadowing is tough, because it implies the audience is going
to BE there x-years down the road to Get It, and you have to risk
the audience going "huh?" one time too many and wandering
away...but nothing good comes without risk.
* _Why "War Without End?"_
As Delenn says, the war is never entirely over...there are always
new battle to be fought. If it ain't the shadows, it's the shadows
over Earthdome of a more human nature.
* "When dealing with an ep with a lot of flashbacks or reused
footage (WWE, especially part 2), how much freedom does the
director have? Does he/she have to match the style of the
previously show footage (in terms of angles, close ups, pacing,
etc), or is there more room for the director's own style?"
In the case of WWE, you had to match lighting and composition
pretty closely. That's about the only time it's really become an
issue.
"(one more question: if someone other than you had written
"Babylon Squared", would they have to be paid royalties for the
reuse of parts of that episodes script and footage in "War Without
End"?)"
Anyone who writes a scene which is reused gets residuals. Doesn't
matter if it's me or anybody else, as a Writers Guild member, it's
guaranteed and required. Also the actors, the director, and others
get re-use fees of varying amounts depending on how long the
sequence is.
* The Garibaldi scenes in part 2 were all from the first season.
* _Zathras looked familiar. Was the character created by the actor?_
Well, Zathras appeared in Babylon Squared, so you might have seen
him there. Beyond that...no, the actor came to what was written on
the page and made it come to life, but didn't invent the
character. I just sorta thunk him up. It's what I do.
* _Londo looks older, but Sheridan and Delenn don't._
No, both Sheridan and Delenn *are* made up older. If you
particularly look at Delenn out in the light of later scenes in
WWE2, you can DEFINITELY see the difference. With Sheridan, it's a
greying of the hair, and some lining on the face. Londo, though,
if you recall, is much older than Sheridan to begin with.
* It was a good sendoff. (At one point, Bruce said to me over lunch,
with Michael sitting with us, "Hey, so how come HE gets to go off
and become the next best thing to God and I get the crap kicked
out of me?" I shrugged. "Seniority.")
* The scenes with Zathras pinned under the strut were the same
scenes from B2, we didn't reshoot that material.
The hardest shot was matching the lighting and composition in the
central corridor *exactly* for the Ivanova-on-the-link scene, and
the walk by seconds later by Garibaldi and Sinclair. That came out
pretty seamless.
* _Why does Krantz have a leather strap on his uniform, when there
weren't leather straps in "The Gathering?"_
The leather strip was also present when we shot the original,
Babylon Squared, in year one. I was kinda thinking at the time
that the change was gradually being introduced in various
divisions of Earthforce. Krantz is from the Marines division, I
believe (note the brown uniform), from that part which functions
sort of like the Army Corps of Engineers, overseeing the building
of space stations and the like. Since it takes time to introduce a
uniform change across divisions and light years, I figured some
might have them earlier than others, or to try them out. So I gave
Krantz the leather strip.
* _The B4 insignia looks like a 3._
Those aren't 3s, those are Bs in which there's a stylized 4.
* _[43]About the "Babylon Squared" inconsistencies_
Yes, the conference room thing is a glitch, in that I had the way
to do it, but it would've meant adding about 3 minutes to the
episode, and I just couldn't fit it in.
(It basically would've involved him being hidden in the room when
there's a timeflash.)
Ivanova et al *were* working actively to get the crew to evacuate,
using the fake reactor reading. If they hadn't really cared about
it, they would've let the station continue running through time to
its destination, or the present; they fought to stop it so they
could let the crew get off.
No, Delenn hadn't been appearing/disappearing before this, but
Sheridan *had*, so it's reasonable to assume he was seen. Also, we
don't know how much time passed between the sighting we notice,
and the alert to Krantz.
We couldn't match the clothing properly, so we dispensed with it.
* I know about the sleeve...and actually she didn't touch him in
WWE2. It was one of those days when it was a hideous production
schedule, and I wasn't on set, and it slipped by everybody else.
* The element I couldn't quite fit into War....
In B2, Krantz says they found Zathras when there was a flash, and
he appeared in a conference room.
Now, I sketched out that scene when it came time to actually write
the whole WWE two-parter. What happened, basically, was that
Zathras was passing by a room where he saw the one piece he still
needed to finish his repairs on the time stabalizer. He slips in,
as best he can, unnoticed...the meeting goes on as he goes under a
table to get the piece of equipment...he finishes just as there's
another time-flash...as it ends, momentarily disoriented, he's
discovered, and captured.
This would've matched what was in B2, as I'd intended.
Unfortunately, it added several minutes of screen time that I
couldn't afford. I would've had to cut something somewhere else,
and that script was so tight it screamed as it was. So I had to
fudge how I did that and let the small inconsistency go. The only
other thing I could've cut, the one moveable piece, was Sinclair
trying to radio Garibaldi at the end...and I didn't want to lose
that.
* No, WWE couldn't have been 3 episodes. Yes, it had enough story
for it, and then some, but you can't take one storyline and
stretch it out that far. I wouldn't have done it even if I could.
I'd've had to introduce a B story just to break it up a little,
because 3 hours of just a straight line one-story plot is murder.
And that defeats the purpose of expanding it.
* _Will we see Garibaldi's reaction to finding out about Sinclair
being Valen?_
I think it'd be hard to just drop in Garibaldi's attitudes about
Valen without it having something to do with an episode; if it
doesn't move that particular episode along, it shouldn't be there.
So that sort of thing is tough to pull off, making the show more
unfriendly to new viewers.
* _Wasn't sending a message to Garibaldi a big risk? And why didn't
he tell Garibaldi before the shuttle left?_
I think his message to Garibaldi was a momentary lapse, it wasn't
something he'd planned, his emotions momentarily got in the way of
his reason. To do so would be dangerous, so it wasn't done by him.
* Throughout the episode, whenever there's a tachyon burst, pretty
much everyone has a timeflash of one sort or another (as also
mentioned in Babylon Squared).
* _Why did Delenn leave the White Star?_
Mainly just a feeling she had, best to check everything out for
herself, make sure things were going properly, since they were
getting right down to the wire. Also, in case Ivanova got into
trouble trying to get into C&C, she wanted to be closer to the
situation to help, if necessary.
* When Delenn takes off her stabilizer and puts it on Sheridan,
taking on his suit for whatever small protection it might offer,
at that point he stabalized and she became lost/unstuck in time.
So it was she who appeared in the last sequence there. She took
the risk to ensure saving Sheridan.
* 1. Since you've stated that the Babylon squared time travel
incident would be the only one for the entire series, is there any
way we might get answers to some of the questions that seemed to
be raised from the far future?
In a sense.
2. How much will sinclair's knowledge of the future affect what is
to come?
Sinclair has no further knowledge of the future; he knows only
what he saw up through and including the White Star.
3. The question I'm really dying for an answer to though, is this:
Hasn't this episode in a sense made a large part of the arc
anti-climactic? I mean, we now know that the forces of light are
victorious again, at least to some degree, we know of David (named
for sinclair?), we know what becomes of Londo etc. Whenever most
of the major characters are in a life threatening situation, we
now know that they survive it (it would seem).
We also "knew" that G'Kar would strangle Londo...what you didn't
have was context. As we saw in part two, context is everything,
and getting there is half the fun.
* It's a literary...I hate to say the word trick, but it's the most
descriptive. You show somebody the end right off the bat, as we
did with the Londo/G'Kar scene. But how do we get there? What
happens? Yes, the war is eventually won...but what *was* the
price? And what does it mean to everyone involved?
The best magic is when it's right there in your face, and you
can't see how it's being done.
* What happens with the future of Londo and G'Kar...is what you see.
Course, how they got there is the meat of the story.
* Showing the end of a story at or near the middle is a literary
device that's sometimes used by novelists that can be very
effective, if used properly. It shows you what happens, but leaves
open *how* you got there, and what it means.
* The storyline began millions of years ago.
We're coming in in the middle of the story.
But then, that can be said of all of us.
* _Does this blow the mystery of whether Sheridan goes to Z'ha'dum?_
Who said there was a mystery about Sheridan going to Z'ha'dum?
Kosh seems to treat it as a fait accompli; so does Sheridan. It
seems fated that he will go...the question is when, why, and under
what circumstances, with what results?
See, sometimes the story works in the shadows (so to speak)...and
other times we're right out in the open, we hand you the playbook
and tell you we're coming right up the middle. And *that's* when
you've got to really worry.
* Sheridan wouldn't know anything of what happened after he blipped
out of that future situation.
As for David, remember that Sheridan's father is also David.
* Sheridan's stabilizer basically broke into two major pieces, the
front section which fell off in the White Star, and the back half
which was still clipped to his belt, and later came off as Zathras
watched.
* _Is David the Third Age of Mankind?_
Not as such.
* _Will we see him?_
Well, I wouldn't want to preclude anything at this point.
* _Were the Minbari fighting amongst themselves before Valen
arrived?_
There was certainly some division among Minbari; Valen
straightened a lot of that out.
* That divisiveness has been growing lately, culminating in the
breakup of the Grey Council which Valen formed. There's bound to
be some fallout....
* _Did the Council know Sinclair was Valen when they demanded he be
B5's commander?_
No, they didn't know at the time; most of them were still trying
to figure the whole damned thing out; some refused to accept it,
and if he was indeed bogus, wanted him killed to avoid becoming a
false prophet and undoing Minbari society; some *did* believe it
was him. This disagreement in a sense became the first loose
thread in unraveling parts of Minbari society.
* _Did Delenn know?_
She had suspicions starting from the Battle of the Line; we'll
have more on that later.
Yes, the Grey Council knows [now], but the general Minbari
population does not know.
* _Where did the chrysalis machine come from?_
The machine came up with Zathras from Epsilon 3. It first appeared
with Sinclair, then later got into Delenn's hands. So she still
has that version of it.
* Re: the Chrysalis device...it came from Epsilon 3. There was one
shot that should've been made more of, where we see a long box
with a silver triangle on one side being set up, and left.
Unfortunately, the shot didn't make much of it (you can see
Zathras putting it out there), and a later shot we dropped showing
it again because it wasn't properly featured and you couldn't
really tell what it was. There was so much in this episode that
had to be pulled off, in a short amount of time, that sometimes
things in the background don't get framed as they might be. But
that's where it came from: from Epsilon 3 to Sinclair to Delenn,
who still has it.
* It was on Epsilon 3, then taken into the past with B4, held on
Minbar until Delenn got it, and still has it.
* _And the triluminary?_
It originated on Epsilon 3.
* The Londo stuff is just incredibly powerful...very moving. As for
the voice...well, we'll just have to wait a bit, won't we?
* Re: G'Kar and Londo changing positions as Sinclair and Sheridan
have done, these two moving from certainty to uncertainty in
either direction, that ain't bad. That ain't bad at *all*. I like
symmetry, and both journeys are interesting explorations. What
I've been doing in complex terms, you explained in an
astonishingly few words.
* I seem to recall, after that Londo/G'Kar scene was shown the last
time, posting somewhere that folks now knew *what* has happened,
but they don't yet know the *context*. Very few picked up on that
and thought to actually reverse what they *thought* they were
seeing to what they *might* be seeing.
* Will you see Londo and G'Kar together later this season?
Hmmmm......
Yes and no.
* _Whose eye opened during the strangulation?_
The eye was of the keeper on Londo's shoulder, you can see G'Kar's
fingers gripping a part of it. It woke up.
* _About G'Kar's eye_
One of his eyes had been plucked out some time before.
* Londo does not currently have a Keeper attached to him.
* You needn't concern yourself with the keeper...for a while yet.
* Vir doesn't have a keeper. They would, of course, try to take care
of that detail afterward.
* It's not a shadow host, no, but one of the many things that work
for them.
* _Will we see Kosh in the past?_
Not exactly, not as you might think, but in a sense....
* Suffice to say that Kosh knew Valen from way, way back....
* _If Kosh recognized Sinclair as Valen, why were the Vorlons so
anxious to extradite Sinclair in [44]"The Gathering?"_
He could only recognize him once he actually saw him, and that
didn't happen until he arrived at B5, after which he wasn't in any
condition to talk to anyone until after things were over.
* _But surely they must have known he was B5's first commander?_
Bear in mind that there have been lots of folks named Sinclair in
the last 900 years; that we don't know how much Valen told anyone
about his prior life; that the Minbari had had little to no direct
contact with the Vorlons in well over a hundred years and likely
would not have told them what they found at the Battle of the Line
until such time as personal contact had been made again, which
only happened at Kosh's arrival...and there wasn't exactly time to
make a report after he rolled into B5 for the first time.
* _How did they know to meet Babylon 4? Prescience?_
Well, the other obvious solution, since the Vorlons were then out
and running around and actively involved in the war of that time
period, he just sent out a signal, and they got there first.
* _But they accepted the station right away._
Given that there's a massive war on, they just had their major
starbase destroyed, they were left without a platform from which
to stage the last part of the war...and here comes someone
offering a 6 mile long, perfectly empty and eminently useable base
for the last phase of the war, no charge...hell, I'd take him up
on it too.
* _Did B4 have more firepower than B5?_
Yeah, B4 had more firepower, and it had one thing B5
doesn't...engines that can move it forward if necessary.
* _Did the Minbari recognize the Vorlons?_
They'd recognize them from legends of their own past, yes. But
bear in mind that the Minbari and Vorlons had already been working
together in the war effort.
* The Vorlons were called in after B4 arrived.
* When you see a LOT of vorlons together, that's when it's time to
run like hell.
* _How long did Sinclair live after going back?_
He lived close to a hundred years as a Minbari; they're a long
lived race, and they did all they could to maintain his health as
one of their truly great figures.
* Valen did not have any children. And there's some difference of
opinion over exactly what Valen's final fate was.
* There are some legends about Valen returning someday, but so far
they've been only legends, nothing more.
* The Valen aspect was set up in the first season, long before
anything was decided about Michael.
* I'd love to someday tell the story of Valen and Zathras in the
most recent shadow war. It's quite a tale, actually....
* _Is this Zathras' exit from the series?_
I'd love to see Zathras again somehow....
* I'm often tempted to create Zathras' brother, Mathras, or
somesuch, if only for the look of terror in their eyes when he
says, of Zathras, "Ah, yes...Zathras...was the quiet one in the
family...."
Who knows, it might be something I might do someday....
* _Is Zathras "the man in between" from Sheridan's dream ([45]"All
Alone in the Night?")_
No, Zathras isn't the man in the middle. Someone else is. And it
isn't/wasn't Sinclair, either.
* Valen only knew what Sinclair would've known. Zathras wasn't
speaking from what Sinclair had told him, but on the basis of
things he'd figured out on his own.
* Sinclair went back because he would always go back and always went
back; the "alternate" timeline phrase isn't quite correct... t's
more like the moment when the two possible wave forms of
*possibilities* must collapse into one probability or certainty,
both tugging at the same time. For instance, you've got
Shroedinger's cat, put into a box, with a 50/50 chance of a poison
gas capsule opening and killing the cat. At the instant before you
open the box, Shroedinger said, the cat is neither dead nor alive,
but *both*, until you open the box and the two possibilities
collapse into one. It isn't that the cat had two alternate
timelines, only that there were two possibilities fighting it out
to become the real one.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
* _What happened to Babylon 4?_
B4 survived the prior shadow war, but in very bad shape; didn't
last much longer after that.
* _Does the future with the Shadow attack no longer exist?_
Yes. Up until that moment, the total forces available to the
shadows were an unknown to us...sort of like Shroedinger's Cat, is
it alive in the box or is it dead? It could be either one. If they
didn't go into the past, didn't affect the outcome, it would be
one reality; if they did, then it'd be another. As soon as they
achieved one or the other of those two, the two possible results
collapsed into the one, singular possibility.
* _Will Delenn and Sheridan have to pay too high a price for their
victory and happiness?_
Depends on how you define "too high" a price.
* What they were after from Delenn was info relevant to that time,
some of it related to their son.
* The reason Delenn dropped the globe will be gone into by the end
of the season; as for "when will (you) no longer be confused?"
that's rather outside my purview. Have you considered meditation?
* _Was Delenn a passive observer in her flash?_
She more just saw it as a passive recipient, whereas he was
actively There.
* There's not much point to asking me "when are we going to learn
who Delenn saw in her flashforward." Or similar questions. I will
not throw away the impact of something happening in an episode by
blowing it out in a message. There have to be surprises along the
way. You'll see it when it happens.
* You'll have to wait and see who entered the room.
* Time travel isn't that easy, and at this juncture it will never
happen again in the B5 universe.
* Sheridan, by taking the actions he took to keep history on track,
has now pretty much assured that the events we see *will* happen.
* Events will unfold as we saw them. Sheridan might try to use his
knowledge to change things...but who knows, that may just bring
them about.
* Of course there's free will. But if I pull a trigger, and the
bullet flies out hitting someone in the head, what happens between
the moment of the trigger, and the impact, has nothing to do with
free will. Sheridan made the choice -- free will -- to do what was
done in WWE. There were two probable results, depending on whether
he did or didn't do as asked. Once he did that, the two
probabilities folded into one actuality (a la Shroedinger's Cat).
Which doesn't mean to say he won't *try* to change things....
* _What did Zathras mean when he said he was the oldest living
caretaker of the Machine?_
Just that Zathras has worked on the machine, and survived it, the
longest of all the others.
* _From George Johnsen, co-producer_
The Zathras tool is not a speed loader, but a wrench of some sort.
There is this wonderful electronic surplus store down the street
from the stage, and the place is swarming with art directors from
all over the basin. Our folks also frequent this place, and came
back one day with a box marked "interesting shapes $10". At any
other place in the world, this would be a box of recyclables at
best or a box of garbage at worst. In Hollywood, however........
it is a box of tools for Zathras!
[51][Next]
[52]Last update: June 2, 1997
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