“War Without End, Part Two”
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Michael Vejar
Season 3, Episode 17
Production episode 317
Original air date: May 20, 1996
It was the dawn of the third age… After a summary of Part 1, we open in 2278 with Sheridan in the throne room of Emperor Mollari seeing the capital city of Centauri Prime burning. Mollari coughs raggedly, and orders Sheridan back to his cell with instructions to make peace with whatever deity he worships.
In 2254, Ivanova and Cole—after being ambushed by a couple of B4 personnel and dispatching them—stumble across an access panel and start on Ivanova’s plan to sabotage the station.
Sheridan becomes unstuck in time, briefly fading in near Zathras in 2254 before winding up back in the Centauri cell in 2278, where he is joined by Delenn. She says she hasn’t told the Centauri anything and that their son is safe. This intelligence rather surprises Sheridan…
In 2254, Ivanova creates a fake hull breach alert, which gets the entire deck evacuated, allowing the B5 crew to work in peace.
In 2278, Sheridan explains that he’s from the past, and Delenn—remembering what happened in 2260—says she understands, and says only that they built something great, but at a terrible price. But the only way to avoid paying that price is to let the Shadows win, which would be, y’know, bad. They’re then taken to Mollari, they assume to their deaths.
However, they are brought to a darkened throne room and a very drunk Mollari. It turns out that his super-villain act from the end of Part 1 was just that: an act. He behaved that way for the benefit of his Keeper—a parasitic creature, belonging to allies of the Shadows, who control and monitor Mollari. The only way to put the Keeper to sleep is for Mollari to drink heavily. However the time it stays unconscious gets shorter with each binge. Mollari allows Delenn and Sheridan to escape, on the condition that they and their allies work to free his people.
After they leave, G’Kar, with his left eye covered by a bandage, enters. Mollari calls him “old friend,” and urges G’Kar to kill him before the Keeper can wake up. However, the Keeper awakens while G’Kar is strangling Mollari, forcing the emperor to return the favor.
As they’re being led to their escape vessel, Sheridan becomes unstuck in time again. Before he fades back to the past, Delenn urges him, “Do not go to Z’ha’dum!”
Vir walks into the throne room and finds the corpses of Mollari and G’Kar on the floor. He picks up the emperor’s medallion…
In 2254, Ivanova, Cole, and Zathras are bringing equipment from Epsilon III over to B4 from the White Star. Zathras rigged up a space suit for Sheridan to wear when he reappears in the hopes that it will help stabilize him. To Ivanova and Cole’s shock, this works, and Sheridan reappears in the suit.
Sinclair is also in an EVA suit, and he and Sheridan go outside to install some of the components. Ivanova triggers a fake fusion reactor overload, but the B4 crew’s response to that is to increase power, which causes a surge, which sends B4 into a time rift.
They come out in 2258—right when B4 appeared last. Zathras manages to stabilize everything, but they need to work quickly. Sheridan has become unstuck in time again and Sinclair looks like he’s twenty years older. He explains that, because he went through the time field once before, it’s still affecting him, even with the stabilizer. It’s why he didn’t want Garibaldi here, it would have affected him as well.
Sinclair works on the power core. Zathras looks for equipment to fix Sheridan’s stabilizer, but is captured by B4 security. He’s brought to Major Krantz, and then “meets” Sinclair and Garibaldi, who have just arrived from B5, answering the distress call.
Ivanova sneaks into CnC to boost the power and speed along the evacuation.
A figure in a space suit appears. Zathras gives the figure the repaired time stabilizer (just like we saw in “Babylon Squared”), and then the figure fades away.
Cole is shocked to see Sheridan—without his suit. He came back, and now has an intact stabilizer. It turns out that, when Sheridan reappeared, Delenn gave him her intact stabilizer and she took his busted one and put on the EVA suit.
Ivanova’s sabotage starts to take effect, and the Sinclair and Garibaldi of 2258 start leading the evacuation of B4. Debris falls on Zathras, and Sinclair tries to rescue him, but Zathras urges him to go and save himself so he can fulfill his destiny. After everyone’s gone, Delenn rescues him.
While doing his bit when EVA, Sinclair tries to send a message to the Garibaldi of 2258, but he’s out of range.
Sinclair reenters the station and takes his helmet off, and we get the scene we saw in “Babylon Squared” again, except we see Delenn this time.
In B4’s CnC, Sinclair tells everyone to head back to the White Star. He’ll set everything up and rejoin them. Cole refuses to accept that, because if it was automatic, he wouldn’t have to stay behind. He plans on going to the past and not coming back. Sinclair confirms that, and Cole says he’ll go instead, but Sinclair says it has to be him. He reveals that the letter he got at the top of Part 1 was in his own handwriting from 900 years previous. He has to go because he’s already gone.
Zathras then speaks to Sheridan, Sinclair, and Delenn alone. He’s referred to all three of them as “the one” at different points, and Zathras explains that in Minbari culture, everything is in threes—three castes, three languages, the Grey Council is nine (three times three), etc.—and that includes the one. Sinclair is the one of the past, Delenn is the one of the present, and Sheridan is the one of the future. They form the beginning, middle, and end of a great story.
Sinclair and Zathras stay on B4 while everyone else disembarks to the White Star. Using a triluminary, Sinclair undergoes a transformation while remembering several past incidents that hinted at this.
On the White Star, which goes through the time rift to 2260, Delenn explains that human and Minbari souls became intermingled a thousand years ago—and her own transformation was to restore the balance. But Sinclair couldn’t present B4 to the Minbari as a human, because the Minbari of the past wouldn’t accept that.
Cole figures out the rest of it: Sinclair transforms himself into a Minbari and brings B4 to the fight a thousand years previous, accompanied by Zathras and two Vorlons, and identifying himself as “Valen.”
Nothing’s the same anymore. Sinclair turns out to be Minbari Jesus Valen. This goes a long way toward explaining why Valen’s prophecies tended to come true…
Get the hell out of our galaxy! Sheridan disappears completely from the White Star, but then reappears in the future—but inside his future self’s body. It’s unclear what happened to the Sheridan that was already there in the future.
Ivanova is God. Most of the damage done to B4 that forced the evac in “Babylon Squared” turned out to be by Ivanova. Go her.
The household god of frustration. Garibaldi only appears in this episode in archive footage from “Babylon Squared.”
If you value your lives, be somewhere else. Delenn’s actions since the start of the show all come into focus here, as she is a major mover and shaker toward Sinclair going back in time to become Minbari Jesus Valen.
In the glorious days of the Centauri Republic… As predicted by Lady Morella in “Point of No Return,” Vir is seen to be taking on the mantle of emperor after he finds Mollari and G’Kar’s dead bodies.
Though it take a thousand years, we will be free. G’Kar and Mollari appear to be friends now, or at least not mortal enemies. They kill each other, as predicted, but not at all the way we expected…
We live for the one, we die for the one. In a lengthy exposition dump that’s mainly there to show how J. Michael Straczynski adjusted his storyline once he lost his male lead at the end of season one, Zathras explains who, exactly, “the one” is—er, well, that is, are.
The Shadowy Vorlons. Two Vorlons accompanied Sinclair-as-Valen when he introduced himself to the Minbari, which probably helped sell the whole thing.
Looking ahead. Delenn has a flashforward to her watching Sheridan sleep, only to be interrupted by a woman’s voice. This scene will come to pass in “Shadow Dancing.”
We see the fullness of Mollari and G’Kar’s strangling of each other, first mentioned in “Midnight on the Firing Line” and foreseen by Mollari in “The Coming of Shadows.”
We have previously been told that Sheridan will die if he goes to Z’ha’dum, so Delenn’s urging of Sheridan not to go to there is understandable, though if he’s still alive seventeen years hence, he obviously doesn’t die—exactly. This will all be explained in “Z’ha’dum” and the first several episodes of season four.
The Keeper is of Drakh origin—we’ll see more of the Drakh in the future. Mollari’s acquisition of the Keeper will happen in very aptly titled season-five episode, “The Fall of Centauri Prime.”
G’Kar will lose his left eye in “Falling Toward Apotheosis.”
No sex, please, we’re EarthForce. Sheridan and Delenn will have a son. This rather surprises Sheridan. Also we get our first Delenn-Sheridan kiss, though it’s really only Sheridan’s first time kissing Delenn because time travel…
Welcome aboard. Back from Part 1 are Michael O’Hare as Sinclair, Tim Choate as Zathras, and Kevin Fry as the Centauri guard. Back from “Babylon Squared” is Kent Broadhurst as Krantz, while Bruce Morrow plays Krantz’s second-in-command. Choate will return in “Conflicts of Interest,” while O’Hare will return (via archive footage from “And the Sky Full of Stars”) in the movie In the Beginning.
Trivial matters. This obviously continues from Part 1, and also finishes telling the other side of the story told in “Babylon Squared.” Indeed, large chunks of this episode consist of footage from that first-season episode, mixed in with new material.
Sinclair sends a message to the Garibaldi of 2258 to watch his back, a reference to Garibaldi being shot in the back in “Chrysalis,” an event still in the security chief’s future.
Before his transformation, Sinclair remembers the Soul Hunter telling him that the Minbari are using him and Delenn saying that the Minbari were right about him, both from “Soul Hunter,” and Neroon telling him he talks like a Minbari in “Legacies.”
We first heard Valen described as a Minbari not born of Minbari—and also that no one knew where he came from—in “Passing Through Gethsemane.”
There are many inconsistencies with “Babylon Squared.” Delenn is wearing a different-colored outfit from the one we saw on her sleeve in the prior episode. The B4 crew’s capture of Zathras does not match what Krantz described in the prior episode (this was a conscious choice, as filming the scene as described would have added three minutes to an already-overcrowded script, so J. Michael Straczynski just bagged it). In “B2,” Krantz never mentions the explosions of the Shadow ships and subsequent EMP that we saw in Part 1, which doesn’t really track. The moaning of the EVA-suited figure in “B2” was definitely male, though this episode has it be Delenn in the suit. No mention was ever made in “B2” of two of B4’s personnel being taken out by two people in black outfits.
The echoes of all of our conversations.
“Come on, grab what you need—we’re running out of time.”
“Cannot run out of time. There is infinite time. You are finite, Zathras is finite, this—is wrong tool. No, not good. Never use this.”
—Ivanova trying and failing to rush Zathras.
The name of the place is Babylon 5. “No one ever listens to Zathras.” One of the difficulties with aggressively plotting out a five-year storyline for television is that sometimes changes happen due to circumstances beyond your control, like actors leaving the show. In particular, J. Michael Straczynski’s storyline was given a punch in the solar plexus by Michael O’Hare’s departure at the end of season one. Not all of Sinclair’s role in the overall storyline—most particularly his going back in time to become Minbari Jesus Valen given how much of that was seeded in season one—was something that could be just transferred to another character.
This two-parter is an attempt to get the storyline’s breath back following that gut-punch (he says, abusing the metaphor). On the one hand, you can see that some of the fixes are wielded with a very large hammer; on the other, you gotta admire the fact that Straczynski mostly pulled it off.
His solution to Sinclair no longer being “the one” all by himself, since both he and Sheridan can’t be “the one” is very Catholic. (While he is an atheist, Straczynski’s family is Catholic, and he was likely raised in that tradition.) By throwing Delenn into the mix, we get a three-as-one thing, which is very Creator-Child-Spirit (not to mention the “rule of three” that is a truism in writing). And Minbari culture has already, as Zathras said, been established as doing lots of things in threes. You can still see the spackle, but at least it covers the hole.
The solution to the much older Sinclair seen in “Babylon Squared” is very elegant, since the possibility of being rapidly aged by the temporal rift was seeded in that first-season episode with the death of that poor never-named Starfury pilot. So that part, at least, works out, though the whole, “It happened just the way I remembered it” thing doesn’t really make much sense from only two years on the way it would have from two decades on.
And then we get the always-intended revelation that Minbari Jesus Valen is a time-displaced (and chrysalis-transformed) Sinclair, finally paying off all the hints we got throughout season one.
But the best part of this whole two-parter is the revelation of the full story behind Mollari and G’Kar killing each other. It’s absolutely brilliant, since everything we know about these two in general and Mollari’s premonition in particular points to the two of them ending their years of acrimony with a final double-murder. So to reveal that it’s a mercy-killing on G’Kar’s part to free Mollari, and that Mollari’s violent response is solely due to the reason for the mercy-killing is a masterstroke. It’s completely unexpected, especially as it starts with Mollari referring to G’Kar as his old friend. While the revelation in Part 1 that the good guys will win the Shadow War is a bit of a spoiler, this apparent rapprochement between two old enemies is a magnificent bit of foreshadowing, adding still more complexity to an already-complex dynamic between the two most interesting characters on the show.
On the one hand, saving these dual revelations for the last episode would’ve made for a banger of a finale. On the other hand, putting it midway through like this (a) means we don’t have to wait until four years after he left the show to find out Sinclair’s final fate, and (b) is a great tease for the future of the Mollari-G’Kar dynamic, which will get so much more interesting in season four. (B) works so much better as a bit of dramatic foreshadowing than it would have as the culmination of the storyline.
Next week: “Walkabout.”
The intercut bits of B2 really show how much more dynamic O’Hare’s acting was in that episode.
Is Zathras the best tertiary character in B5? Certainly one of the fan favorites.
Totally agree about Zathras! (though his brother(s) are just wacky – is that a spoiler?)
O’Hare going out the way he did as Sinclair/Valen was a fitting end to his contribution to B5. I think JMS handled that quite well.
It wasn’t really shocking that Sinclair was Valen (I’ll leave out your “Minbari Jesus”, though the allusion is apt…). I think a number of us kind of were going, “Hmm…maybe…?” When SInclair became Ambassador to the Minbari. Still, I think it was kind of cool to see him framed as he was, supported on either side by two Vorlons to make his pronouncement (Kosh and Ulkesh, perhaps?)
Yes, Zathras is a gift that just keeps giving.
I made/asked my wife to join me in a rewatch a decade+ ago (her only time). To this day when I’m stumped by a situation or an error, I’ll shake my head and say “Not the one,” and she’ll agree, “not the one.”
O’Hare’s mental health had been stabilized at this point, allowing JMS to bring him back. AFAIR, that included being medicated, which can make someone less dynamic. I’m just glad they got him back.
Yes, Zathras is a wonderful tertiary character. I love him in all his episodes.
When this first aired, it was a lot harder to see the plastered over cracks, because it had been two years since “Babylon Squared” aired. Very few people had the option of watching that either shortly before or after “War Without End” aired.
And no matter what Ulkesh said in Part One about Sinclair closing the circle, I think we’re actually seeing a spiral, with each iteration differing in some ways from the one before, probably going all the way back to a victory by the Shadows a thousand years ago and the shifting of B4 (or some other station) into the past. Each time, things turn out a little better. I think there are even some subtle differences between the future Sheridan sees and the one that eventually comes.
I’m not sure I totally agree, but that is definitely an interesting thought!
Kind of like “Groundhog Day”, or “Edge of Tomorrow”?
It may not be a representative sample, but everyone I knew who watched B5, recorded it on black VHS tapes and most of them rewatched “Babylon Squared” either before, between, or after this two-parter.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
As a counter-point: I did have a collection of VHS tapes (and, later, DVDs) but have never watched B^2 and WWE back-to-back, partly because I don’t particularly care what colour Delenn’s sleeve is/was. This is not a criticism of those who do care about those kinds of details; I just don’t tend to focus on them. On the cosmetic details, it’s Garibaldi’s hair that always marks the difference between original and new footage for me. But that would have been harder to work around.
For me the logical/story gaps are more prominent, particularly the fact that in B^2, Zathras says the jump forward was intentional, to let the crew leave, which is not the case in WWE. Moreover, Zathras has no obvious way to know what the “local” time is at that point at all.
But even that didn’t really detract from the overall experience. My impression at the time, not knowing the behind-the-scenes details, was that the bits worked together pretty well.
But Garibaldi’s longer hair was only in the flashforward that’s now established as a possible alternate future, and we don’t know exactly when it would have happened. So there’s flexibility there.
“For me the logical/story gaps are more prominent, particularly the fact that in B^2, Zathras says the jump forward was intentional, to let the crew leave, which is not the case in WWE.”
Zathras is trying to win the B4 crew’s trust. It makes sense to me that he’d fudge the facts a little to make his arrival seem more benevolent and less like a screwup. As for his time sense, he’s been the tender of the Great Machine for nearly a century, so he may well have perceptions or insights we can’t grasp.
Well, according to WWE, if the fall of B5 happened, it was going to happen 8 days after they first received the transmissions. Garibaldi probably wasn’t going to re-grow his hair in a week. But that’s a risk of flash-forwards in an on-going series and it doesn’t bother me. I’d rather have a mismatch in appearances than a clumsy attempt to “fix” it (like he suddenly decides he needs to start taking hair growth supplements). It just crosses my threshold of things I can’t not-see, whereas Delenn’s sleeve color doesn’t even really register for me unless I’m looking for it.
Oh, I forgot it was so soon.
“Very few people had the option of watching that either shortly before or after “War Without End” aired.” Very few, except for those of us who taped the whole show on VHS. And certainly I doubt JMS or anyone would have guessed that we’d be here 30 years later doing a rewatch and discussing in such detail, with people from around the world.
Re: the time loop, yes I think there has to be an initial “A” timeline at some point, most likely with the Shadows’ victory in the previous Great War. Whether it’s a time spiral, or what I saw described once as a “sawtooth snap” in a discussion of fictional time travel I think that holds. This loop is mostly stable in that enough information is passed forward that coerces Sinclair to always travel back to become Valen, but one wonders if there are other changes that happen. I’m not sure what you mean by subtle differences between the future Sheridan sees now and what happens later, can you elaborate? We see some of what is going on in 2278 in the frame story of “In the Beginning” but I dont’ recall any contradiction with WWE2. What happens in the (canonical) Legions of Fire novels by Peter David that explore the events on Centauri Prime between 2262 and 2278 may be slightly different but only due to artistic license, as well as some dramatic expansion of the internal monologue and events around that (incredibly busy) night in the Centauri palace.
It’s been a while since I’ve seen the final version of that future, so I may be imagining things. Mostly, I’m having trouble imagining Vir being allowed to ascend the throne without a Keeper, and he certainly doesn’t seem to have one in “Sleep in Light.”
He must’ve avoided getting a Keeper until we reach a point where it would be less likely, plotwise?
Maybe he was kept away from Centauri Prime for some handwavey reason (some group trying to solidify their own power).
Maybe he didn’t ascend immediately, or there was another Emperor before him. I don’t recall the show being real clear on the historical order of succession.
I have wondered about this point, but there’s so much other confusing and contradictory stuff going on here that I’ve decided not to worry about it too much.
Ah, so all this is stuff that isn’t addressed in the show, but is in the Legions of Fire novels.
Hmm. Nicely summarized, thanks.
As a means of salvaging “Babylon Squared” I think this one is fine, but it does introduce some plot problems later on. Like, if Sheridan and Delenn know in advance that Mollari will have a Keeper on him, why doesn’t this occur to them as an explanation for his erratic behaviour upon acceding to the throne?
Also I wonder if the Minbari’s holy scrolls ever mention Valen’s weird hunchback manservant.
We see consistently that prophecy is an unreliable guide to the future. Valen’s prophecies are arguably the only ones which turn out exactly as intended, and that’s because they’re descriptions of past events.
Supposing that, several years after the disconcerting, confusing, and dreamlike experience Sheridan had which he recounted to Delenn at some unknown time with uncertain amounts of comprehensiveness and accuracy, Londo suddenly starts acting strangely. Do you assume it’s because he has a Keeper? He acts strangely in several episodes prior to getting it. But suppose you do pick the correct time. Londo is now Emperor of the Centauri Republic. What do you do about it? Do you risk changing the future you foresaw? Remember Londo saves them and their son is safe in that future. Do you expect that telling the people who gave Londo the Keeper will make them give up? Spare the Centauri people? If you do associate this Keeper with Captain Jack later, you know the Keeper can’t be removed.
If you did know, keeping that a secret might be the best response.
IIRC, JMS has said that Sheridan’s memories of his trip through time are somewhat dreamlike and fade. I think that was in response to questions about Future!Delenn explicitly telling him not to go to Z’ha’dum, but it applies to your question too. He may mostly have remembered the kiss and the fact that they have a son, while the rest faded out.
“It’s pronounced ‘eye-gor’.”
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
“Hump? What hump?”
Walk *this* way, Master.
These rewatches are the first I’m learning that “War Without End” (or its functional equivalent) would have been the series finale if Sinclair had remained the lead character. I only lurked casually back in the times– was this known back then?
Probably. JMS often hung out and answered question on the fan servers.
The issue with putting that insane cliffhanger ending with Sheridan at Centauri Prime in part one is that it has to pay it off at the very beginning of part 2.
On one hand, this means part 2 opens up with some of the most truly powerful iconic moments of the show’s entire run. On the other, this means the rest of the episode pales in comparison. It’s a series of back and forth EVA action set pieces while also trying to marry the new scenes with the old season 1 scenes. We do get the iconic Sinclair/Valen ending, but the episode’s middle acts definitely drag. Thankfully we get some Zathras gems to keep things lively and interesting. His ‘time is infinite’ speech is a marvel.
Script-wise, you got to hand it to JMS. He mostly pulls it off, finding plausible solutions and ways to connect to the original “Squared” plot. Direction-wise, it’s not so clean. Vejar has a way more distinct, compelling visual style, and going from his scenes to the Jim Johnston-directed material from season 1 can be jarring at times (reminds me a bit of Trek when VOY did “Flashback” with Livingston trying to mimic the Meyer scenes from TUC).
It’s interesting that it’s Zathras who gives the “all is three” speech. You expect that kind of lesson from Minbari characters, Delenn certainly (maybe even Sinclair), but not the Epsilonian servant. Still, it’s a surprisingly adept explanation that almost manages to course-correct the real-life changes to the show’s plot. I would make the case, however, that Ivanova is just as central to the notion of the One and she could just as easily replace Sheridan’s role if circumstances ever required.
Sinclair’s ending is a mostly deserved victory lap for the character (and O’Hare). It makes perfect sense that it would be him to become the Minbari’s most revered holy figure. His diplomatic speech to Neroon in season 1 makes that abundantly clear. I can’t think of a more biblical ending shot than of him being flanked by two angelic Vorlons on each side to the awe of battle-weary Minbari soldiers looking for hope. And whether Sinclair had done it in season 3 or at the very end of season 5’s “Sleeping in Light”, the impact is still the same.
And finally we get the definitive Londo/G’Kar moment. Not only a testament to the actors and director, but also JMS for managing to find the necessary room for their conclusion in the midst of an insanely packed and paced two parter. It’s heartwarming to see the two former enemies coming to peace with themselves and each other, still carrying all the pain and baggage, but willing to set it aside for a final act of compassion. It’s up there with the best moments of the show.
One might see this entire venture into future ravaged Centauri Prime as a spoiler, but half the fun is seeing the road getting there. And the show wisely chooses not to answer everything over the next 17 years. Sheridan having some knowledge of the future is no guarantee he’ll make the right decisions to avoid it. As someone has once said: the future has not been written.
All in all this is a good attempt to deal with losing O’Hare, changing the originally conceived story line and papering over the cracks. JMS was angry about the costume mismatch with Delenn and
I don’t know if they thought O’Hare could manage his mental health when B Squared was shot. The major quibble I have is the “it’s a future that will come only if we don’t stop the Shadows” hand wave to explain the B5 being boarded scene. If the flash forward had been Garibaldi, that scene could have been worked into Severed Dreams, with Earth Force boarding B5. Have Earth deciding to wipe out the civilians on B5. Use Epislon 3 as an evacuation point for these civilians. Cut to Garabaldi saying that dieing in a firefight to save B5 was what he was born for and you cover that future flash. Lise wouldn’t have been there, but if they need her she could be introduced later. I don’t know what they would have used as a time flash for Sinclair, maybe he could have been immune because, as we find out here, there are 2 of him.
I have always wondered how MUCH Sinclair told the Vorlons of the future once he transformed. Did he tell OG Kosh that he was definitely going to die by doing what Sheridan asked? Did he hide it so Kosh could make his own decisions?
I am quite sure that nobody knew O’Hara mental issues at the time B-squared was shot. Maybe JMS has inkling but not the severity of it.
I always wonder –how the heck did “Cousin Brucie” show up in this episode? (2nd in command, B4). There are other B5 novelty guest appearances, but this one always floors me.
I didn’t grow up anywhere near the New York area, so I never knew of Bruce Morrow’s prior fame in Rock radio and promotion. I first saw him in 1980’s late night TV commercials, playing on a reputation I was entirely unaware of. I knew him only as some old guy with highly engineered hair and a louder Casey Kasem vibe.
His actual acting here is fine, if a little higher-energy than his superior officer’s. It was just surprising to me to see this instantly recognizable guy on the bridge of B4 – “wait, isn’t that…?” He’s apparently still plugging along at 89, so good for him.
He has a few acting credits in IMDB, but this may be the most live-action screen time of all of them.
I can only assume JMS had some sort of fond attitude toward him? Morrow owned some smaller TV stations around that time, so maybe there was a syndication angle?
Holy crap, THAT WAS COUSIN BRUCIE? I totally missed that!
—Keith R.A. DeCandido, embarrassed
I guess I’m really out of it, but – Who the heck is “Cousin Brucie”?
Hard to un-see it now, isn’t it? :-)
The really amazing thing here is that JMS actually rejiggers from an original plan where Delenn and Sinclair would have come back from 20 years in the future to take B4 back to help in an ongoing conflict, so not only is he reconfiguring from the change in lead performers, but from the original series plan (which would have taken two five-year arcs in two series to resolve with Babylon 5 ending with the station being invaded and destroyed).
With that context, this two-parter really does a good job feeling like this was always the plan. It helps that the revised story works much better (IMO) than the original plan.
The version on Tubi doesn’t have a recap, but just goes right into the future Centauri Prime scenes.
I don’t think Londo and G’Kar were quite as reconciled in the future as you suggest. Yes, Londo called him “old friend,” but Londo calls lots of people that — and then he said “I’m as tired of my life as you are,” implying that G’Kar still has a negative opinion of Londo’s continued existence. It seems more like they’re allies of necessity than friends.
One thing that got glossed over in order to match up with the “Squared” footage was where those blue mock-2001 spacesuits came from. They don’t seem to match Earthforce suit design, and they’re certainly not Minbari. They were just there because they had to be there. (Also, the CGI of the spacesuited figures was terrible, though I guess it’s within the general quality range of TV CGI of the late ’90s when it came to animating human movement.)
I also didn’t think Tim Choate’s performance quite matched up between the old and new scenes. He’s developed Zathras’s voice more fully since then, so he’s a bit less Zathras-esque (Zathratian?) in the archive footage.
The blue EVA suits aren’t just mock-2001 style suit. The actual prop suit used in Babylon Squared and these eps was *literally* a leftover suit from 2010, the sequel to 2001: A Space Odyssey.
You can definitely see the seams from how much JMS had to revise from his original plan, but I always rather liked the way “The One” was handled.
I have a different recollection of what the original plan was, though. From the script books, we got an outline of the series arc as it was envisioned during the early portions of the first season. For the most part, the first season follows the original plan fairly well. Long story short, the series finale of Babylon 5 would have had the station destroyed by an attack by the Shadows and their allies. This was the original context for the “flash forward” scenes in “Babylon Squared” and the vision at the end of “Signs and Portents”. Sinclair and Delenn would have then used the Great Machine to go back, grab Babylon 4, and then B4 would have been the central location for a follow-up series called Babylon Prime.
This is pertinent because, in this iteration of the plan, Sinclair was never meant to go back in time to become Valen. Instead, it is heavily implied that the religious caste believes, because of the migration of souls plot point, that Sinclair is the reincarnation of Valen. Elements of the warrior caste do not believe this and ally themselves with the Shadows against Sinclair and Delenn. There are aspects of the first season that seem more aligned with that version of the story vs. what happened in the series thereafter.
To be fair, this information was/is fairly limited in distribution, being present in the 15th volume of a series of script books from years ago and now essentially out of print. But at any rate, I don’t recall where JMS said that the plan was for Sinclair to go back in time to become Valen in the series finale vs. WWE.
I’m with you (with fewer specific details). I distinctly remember thinking that Sinclair going back to become Valen was a brilliant original plan and being surprised to learn it wasn’t the original plan.
When it comes to retconning, my gold standard is J.R.R. Tolkien, who was so good at it that he made his retconning part of the story (his meticulousness when it came to retconning is also a big reason why The Silmarillion was never published in his lifetime). This isn’t that good. However, if I’d been watching this week-to-week back in the 1990s, I might not have even realized this wasn’t always the plan, since I wouldn’t have had the luxury of going back and watching Babylon Squared on demand (I doubt it’s something I would’ve taped—that first season was a bit of a chore).
Sure, there’s plenty of flaws to be found, but as an episode of television, it works better than the first part, and Michael O’Hare seems more comfortable as well (I don’t know how these two episodes were shot, so it might just be that I’m the one who’s more comfortable with his more subdued performance). Everyone else is great, especially Furlan, Boxleitner, and Jurasik. I know some people hate spoilers, but I for one am happier knowing that Londo will eventually climb his way somewhat out of the hole he’s dug for himself.
A revelation about future events is only a spoiler if the storytellers didn’t want you to know it in advance — because it spoils the experience they wanted you to have. If the storytellers specifically tell you what’s going to happen in the future, that’s called foreshadowing, or a flashforward.
I know the seams show a bit, but I don’t care. I love, love, LOVE this two-parter, especially the revelation about how Londo meets his death at G’kar’s hands, Zathras’s speech about the Three, and the final revelation of Sinclair actually being Valen (which I think works much better than merely having the Religious Caste THINK he’s Valen’s soul reincarnated).
This was a mic drop episode for me when it aired in 1996.