brennen
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lurkers-guide



								<H1>The Battle of the Line</h1>


								<p>

								The following page is devoted to the events at the Battle of the Line

								as recalled by Sinclair during his drug-influenced VR experience in

								<a href="008.html">"And the Sky Full of Stars."</a>


								<p>

								See also

								<a href="023.html">"Points of Departure."</a>


								<H2><A NAME="UQ">Unanswered Questions</A></H2>


								<ul>


								<li> How did the Minbari appear out of nowhere?  (see <A HREF="#AN:2">

								     Analysis</A>)


								<li> Why is Sinclair important to the Minbari?


								<li> Why was he tortured?


								<li> What was the talisman held up in front of him?  (cf <A HREF="017.html">

								     "Legacies"</A>, <A HREF="020.html">Babylon Squared</A>")


								</ul>


								<H2><A NAME="AN">Analysis</A></H2>


								<H3><A NAME="AN:1">The Minbari singled out Sinclair for capture before

								     he prepared to ram their cruiser</A></H3>

								<ul>


								<li> All the Starfuries around Sinclair are destroyed with one, sometimes two

								     Minbari beams.  However, a fighter spent several seconds on

								     Sinclair's tail and fired over <em>twelve</em> laser beams at him,

								     all of them missing.


								<li> The only two Starfuries that suffered a damaging shot before being

								     destroyed were also the only two that made notable flight

								     maneuvers: Alpha-7, who was out in front, and Mitchell, who peeled

								     off after the attacking fighter and went on to shoot at a cruiser.

								     The Minbari may have been listening in on their ship-to-ship

								     chatter, deliberately damaging those two ships in the process of

								     determining which was the one they wanted.


								<li> Once his squad had all been shot down, cruiser fire finally hit

								     Sinclair's Starfury, but it only damaged his engine strut.  Cruiser

								     fire had earlier <em>taken off</em> the engine struts of his

								     comrades.  After this, all enemy fire ceased.  Clearly the Minbari

								     could have destroyed him then if they'd wanted.


								<li> <B>Conclusion:</B> One fighter was sent to herd Sinclair away so

								     maximum-strength lasers could be used on his squad.  A disabling

								     shot was then fired at his engine strut in preparation for taking

								     him aboard.  <em>Then</em> Sinclair set up for his ram.


								</ul>


								<H3><A NAME="AN:2">Minbari Cruisers are impossible to detect before

								     they're close enough to open fire</A></H3>

								<ul>


								<li> Sinclair's squad took neither defensive nor offensive action when

								     Alpha-7, in advance of the rest, was destroyed by cruiser fire.

								     There was nothing for them to do but take note that enemy

								     transmissions were present and drift forward until visual contact

								     was made.


								<li> When first spotted, the cruisers had already matched velocities

								     with the Starfuries and killed their engines.  They were also

								     perfectly positioned so that pilots would have to attack into the

								     sun.  This, with Sinclair's exclamation, "It's a trap!" definitely

								     paints the battle as an ambush.  The means of hiding remains a

								     mystery.


								</ul>


								<H3><A NAME="AN:3">Something significant may have happened</A> to

								     Sinclair just before the cruiser captured his ship.</H3>

								<ul>


								<li> Recall Sinclair's earlier accounts of his experience, he always

								     says "something passed in front of my eyes."


								<li> A wisp of smoke is mentioned in the <A HREF="008.line.synop.html#manip">

								     Line synopsis</A>.  This effect is hard to catch without a

								     freeze-frame VCR, but once it's been identified it's impossible to

								     miss, even at normal speed.  If it was something significant, then

								     Sinclair's change in expression and throwing up of arms may have

								     been in reaction to that rather than to the looming cruiser.


								</ul>


								<H3><A NAME="AN:4">The scenes of Sinclair standing within the

								     grey council circle were not two different events, but the same

								     event remembered twice</A></H3>

								<ul>


								<li> The <A HREF="008.line.synop.html#GC:1">first Grey Council scene</A> is

								     the only one Sinclair remembers out of order from the rest, and

								     comes right after he has been given a dangerously higher amount of

								     the mind- affecting drugs.  The <A HREF="008.line.synop.html#GC:2">

								     second scene</A> comes a while after the drugs were boosted, and he

								     remembers it in order with the rest of his experiences.


								<li> The important elements of the first scene are all present in the

								     second: confronted by grey figures, shouted questions, getting

								     zapped.  However, the zapping is incomprehensible in the first

								     scene: why dramatically appear to Sinclair only to knock him out

								     again immediately thereafter?  In the second scene, there is a

								     clearer reason - he had just seen the face of a Council member.


								<li> There are some details present in the first scene that were absent

								     or different in the second, but these differences are

								     insignificant: one-by-one lights, oddly echoing voices, being shot

								     in the chest rather than the back, and...


								<li> ...Sinclair is in full uniform in the first scene.  This is flatly

								     impossible, since a fighter pilot wouldn't wear much more than

								     scrubs underneath a flight suit.  (In <A HREF="010.html">

								     "Believers"</A>, for example, Ivanova is seen putting her uniform

								     jacket back on after returning from a flight.)  However, this is

								     exactly the kind of detail that people tend to fill in by

								     subconscious "guessing" when memories are incomplete.


								</ul>


								<H3><A NAME="AN:5">The exclamation</A> <A HREF="008.line.synop.html#GC:know.you">

								     "I know you.  I know who you are.  I <em>know</em> you."</A> may be

								     the key to understanding that scene</H3>

								<ul>


								<li> Sinclair suffered a mind-wipe during his experience on the cruiser.

								     He was examined and confronted by a group.  Perhaps it was

								     necessary to prove to this group that the mind-wipe was effective.


								<li> If this is correct, then the scene reads in the following way:<br>

								     Sinclair is presented to the Grey Council.  "What do you want?  Why

								     are you doing this?  Who are you?", he asks, obviously having

								     forgotten the answers to all these questions.  He is now safe to

								     release.  But wait, he's pulled the hood off of a Council member,

								     and even worse, he vaguely recognizes her!  He's obviously on the

								     verge of remembering his experience, which won't do at all.

								     <em>ZAP.</em>


								<li> Under this interpretation, Sinclair's re-use of exactly those

								     words, again at the sight of Delenn's face, would make her

								     <em>certain</em> that he was reliving that same experience of

								     almost-remembering.


								<li> Alternately, it may be that <A HREF="008.line.synop.html#GC:know.you">

								     "I know you.  I know who you are.  I <em>know</em> you"</A> was

								     <B>not</B> uttered by Sinclair at the Line, but rather he said it

								     within the VR experience when confronted with a face that he

								     <B>now</B> recognizes, while deep within a long-unseen memory.


								</ul>


								<H2><A NAME="NO">Notes</A></H2>


								<ul>


								<li> The CGI of this sequence is incredibly detailed and subtle.  In

								     shots of Sinclair's face after the battle begins, exploding

								     Starfuries can be seen reflected in his visor.  Starfury wreckage

								     haunts the edges of some scenes.  Also, unlike normal B5 space

								     scenes, these images were deliberately crafted with much blurring

								     and streaking, to enhance the dreamlike feel.


								<li> When Sinclair's Starfury tumbles, the number 20 is visible painted

								     on top.  20 is also the maximum number of Starfuries visible at any

								     one time during this sequence.


								<li> The phrase "What do you want?", eerily repeated, occurs later in

								     the season.  (cf <A HREF="013.html">"Signs and Portents"</A>)


								<li> The triangle visible on Delenn's forehead is similar, though less

								     ornate, to the one on the forehead of the Councilman who appears in

								     her quarters at the end of the episode. (cf also <A HREF="013.html">

								     "Signs and Portents"</A>)


								</ul>


								<H2><A NAME="JS">jms speaks</A></H2>


								<ul>


								<li> Yeah, it was an off-the-cuff reference to General Billy Mitchell.

								     (Didn't really mean that much; just thought it wuz cool.)


								<li> Also, check the readout on Sinclair's screen as he's trying to

								     engage the enemy.  You'll see <A HREF="008.line.synop.html#NL">

								     "Negative Lock"</A> popping up.  One problem in fighting the

								     Minbari vessels is that they have a kind of stealth tech that makes

								     it very hard for our weapons to lock on.


								<li> The CGI won't look as good in slow motion because we step-printed

								     them deliberately, in order to give them a more dream-like

								     appearance.  For us, this wasn't about the ships, it was about one

								     of the men in the ship, which is why we kept him in sharp focus,

								     and went to step-printing whenever we went outside (and since we're

								     seeing this from his memory, clearly he wouldn't actually have

								     *seen* most of this, it's his *sense* of what happened).  You'll

								     get plenty of clear CGI in "Signs and Portents."


								</ul>


								<HR>

								Originally compiled by Matthew Ryan <i>matt@uhs.uchicago.edu</i>