Category: Season 4

Garibaldi returns to Mars to meet his new employer, pharmaceutical baron William Edgars. Lise is worried about Garibaldi’s presence on Mars, but his business is with Edgars. Edgars subjects Garibaldi to an unexpected loyalty screening using a telepath, making Garibaldi even edgier about his new boss. On the station, Franklin is racing the clock to revive the telepaths victimized by Shadow technology, but can’t seem to break through the Shadows’ defense systems until Lyta visits medlab and scans one of the victims, reviving him harmlessly for a short while. Having passed Edgars’ test, Garibaldi is finally let in on the big secret – Edgars wants to keep the Psi Corps from taking control of Earth Alliance, and he fears that Sheridan’s open rebellion against Earth will force the president to give Psi Corps free reign, creating a permanent police state. Garibaldi’s assignment is to trap Sheridan by any means necessary – and Garibaldi’s proposed means of accomplishing this is to take Sheridan’s father hostage.

written by J. Michael Straczynski
directed by John Lafia
music by Christopher Franke

Cast: Bruce Boxleitner (Captain Sheridan), Claudia Christian (Commander Ivanova), Jerry Doyle (Garibaldi), Mira Furlan (Delenn), Richard Biggs (Dr. Franklin), Bill Mumy (Lennier), Jason Carter (Marcus Cole), Stephen Furst (Vir), Jeff Conaway (Zack Allan), Patricia Tallman (Lyta Alexander), Andreas Katsulas (G’Kar), Peter Jurasik (Londo), Denise Gentile (Lise Hampton), Mark Schneider (Wade), Efram Zimbalist, Jr. (William Edgars), Shelley Robertson (Ms. Constance), Kenneth Cortland (Patient), Sandy Grinn (Patient #2)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

More and more Earth ships switch sides to join Sheridan’s fleet, including his old command, the Agammemnon. While visiting his old ship, Sheridan receives a call from Garibaldi, a warning that Sheridan’s father has been seized and taken into custody, and an offer of help. Against the advice of Ivanova, his former first officer on the Agammemnon, and probably even his own common sense, Sheridan agrees to Garibaldi’s terms to come to Mars, alone, only to find that it’s a trap. Sheridan is captured and brutalized by Earth Force, and in exchange for this demonstration of reliability, Edgars tells Garibaldi the whole truth – he’s not trying to keep the Psi Corps from gaining power, he’s trying to ensure the extinction of all telepaths. Even though Garibaldi agrees to help Edgars, he himself has unwittingly been gathering intelligence for Bester and the Corps. And perhaps worst of all, Bester reminds Garibaldi of something he’s forgotten.

written by J. Michael Straczynski
directed by Mike Vejar
music by Christopher Franke

Cast: Bruce Boxleitner (Captain Sheridan), Claudia Christian (Commander Ivanova), Jerry Doyle (Garibaldi), Mira Furlan (Delenn), Richard Biggs (Dr. Franklin), Bill Mumy (Lennier), Jason Carter (Marcus Cole), Stephen Furst (Vir), Jeff Conaway (Zack Allan), Patricia Tallman (Lyta Alexander), Andreas Katsulas (G’Kar), Peter Jurasik (Londo), Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. (William Edgars), Richard Gant (Captain Edward McDougan), Denise Gentile (Lise Hampton), Marjorie Monaghan (Number One), Diana Morgan (Alison Higgins), David Purdham (Captain James), Ricco Ross (Captain Frank), Mark Schneider (Wade), Walter Koenig (Bester), Harlan Ellison (Psi Cop)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Sheridan’s interrogation begins, conducted by a man named William who has the options to call in guards, inflict pain through Narn pain-givers Sheridan is forced to wear, or otherwise use whatever means are necessary to break the captain and force a confession that his secession of Babylon 5 from Earth was committed under alien influence. William begins to disorient Sheridan’s concepts of time and truth and trust…or perhaps not.

After being fed a poisoned sandwich and vague information about his father, Sheridan resists William’s psychological attacks, and persuades a Drazi hostage not to assist the interrogator even if it almost certainly signs the Drazi’s death sentence…or perhaps not.

William wants Sheridan to put his signature on the confession, but when Sheridan resists the state’s attempts to break him, he finds out that the entire interrogation could be nothing more than a maddening show designed to drive him out of his mind.

Or perhaps not.

written by J. Michael Straczynski
directed by John Lafia
music by Christopher Franke

Cast: Bruce Boxleitner (Captain Sheridan), Claudia Christian (Commander Ivanova), Jerry Doyle (Garibaldi), Mira Furlan (Delenn), Richard Biggs (Dr. Franklin), Bill Mumy (Lennier), Jason Carter (Marcus Cole), Stephen Furst (Vir), Jeff Conaway (Zack Allan), Patricia Tallman (Lyta Alexander), Andreas Katsulas (G’Kar), Peter Jurasik (Londo), Raye Birk (William), Wayne Alexander (Drazi), Bruce Gray (Interrogator), Peter Brown (Minister)

Notes: This was to have been the original season finale of Babylon 5’s fourth year in the original five-year plan.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

A resistance strike team on Mars, working with Franklin, Lyta and Garibaldi, slip the Shadow-altered telepaths aboard a fleet of thirty Earthforce destroyers which have been ordered to head off the inevitable attack from Sheridan. The fleet is being commanded by General Lefcourt, Sheridan’s tactical instructor from the academy, and he assumes that his old pupil will emerge from hyperspace, which he does – but at that moment, Lyta signals the telepaths to awaken and interface with the computers aboard the destroyers, effectively shutting the fleet down. Sheridan’s fleet quickly jumps to Earth to liberate the planet from the reign of President Clark, who will destroy Earth if he cannot rule it himself. And before the crucial battle at Earth, Marcus slips away from Sheridan’s fleet to perform his final duty aboard Babylon 5.

written by J. Michael Straczynski
directed by John Copeland
music by Christopher Franke

Cast: Bruce Boxleitner (Captain Sheridan), Claudia Christian (Commander Ivanova), Jerry Doyle (Garibaldi), Mira Furlan (Delenn), Richard Biggs (Dr. Franklin), Bill Mumy (Lennier), Jason Carter (Marcus Cole), Stephen Furst (Vir), Jeff Conaway (Zack Allan), Patricia Tallman (Lyta Alexander), Andreas Katsulas (G’Kar), Peter Jurasik (Londo), Ungela Brockman (Earthforce NCO), J. Patrick McCormack (General Lefcourt), Marjorie Monaghan (Number One), David Purdham (Captain James), Carolyn Seymour (Senator Crosby), Julian Stone (Captain Mitchell), Maggie Egan (ISN Anchor), Karen Fineman (Kelley), Rick Kramer (Earthforce Officer), Kenneth Cortland (Telepath), Gary McGurk (President Clark)

Notes: Bloopers are exceedingly rare in Babylon 5, but according to this episode’s visual effects, unless Sheridan’s battle at Earth took several hours (which doesn’t seem to be the case), it was daylight on both hemispheres! When Sheridan’s fleet arrives, it’s daylight over the Indian and African continents. But very near the end of the battle, which only takes several minutes onscreen, the sun is shining on the familiar outline of the United States. The visuals don’t seem to support artificial sunlight either. Oops!

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Having liberated Earth, Sheridan hands himself over to Earthforce authorities, now under the command of acting President Luchenko of the Russian Consortium. But the new President isn’t the only person wanting to have a word with him – Bester and more than a few right-wing generals are lined up to take Sheridan’s head off at the first opportunity, but Luchenko offers him the opportunity to resign his Earthforce commission and grant his allies amnesty from any further prosecution. On Babylon 5, Susan is out of danger from the injuries she suffered in the attack by the Shadow-based Earth destroyers, but suffers from a raging guilt that her recovery came at the expense of Marcus’ life. Delenn assembles the League on Non-Aligned Worlds one last time, to ask them to dissolve that entity in favor of a new Interstellar Alliance which would hold all of the involved worlds as equal. Her next task is to go to Earth to convince the new President to join the alliance, provided that the new Earth government is willing to grant independence to colonies such as Mars, where Garibaldi is trying to free Lise from the Martian Mafia. Also free is Sheridan’s father, who meets his future daughter-in-law when Delenn arrives on Earth. What remains to be seen, after the wedding of Sheridan and Delenn, is if Earth will accept him as the first president of the new Interstellar Alliance.

written by J. Michael Straczynski
directed by Tony Dow
music by Christopher Franke

Cast: Bruce Boxleitner (Captain Sheridan), Claudia Christian (Commander Ivanova), Jerry Doyle (Garibaldi), Mira Furlan (Delenn), Richard Biggs (Dr. Franklin), Bill Mumy (Lennier), Jason Carter (Marcus Cole), Stephen Furst (Vir), Jeff Conaway (Zack Allan), Patricia Tallman (Lyta Alexander), Andreas Katsulas (G’Kar), Peter Jurasik (Londo), Joey Dente (Luko), Denise Gentile (Lise Hampton), Rance Howard (David Sheridan), Michael Potter (General Foote), Beata Pozniak (President Susanna Luchenko), Walter Koenig (Bester), Alex Coro (Max), Maggie Egan (ISN Anchor), Julie Ow (Med Tech)

LogBook entry by Earl Green