Babylon 5 was a groundbreaking TV series, and one that in its own way has helped reshape the face of SF TV

The TV Series

Index:

The Gathering (pilot)

Season 1: Signs and Portents

Season 2: The Coming of Shadows

Season 3: Point of No Return

Season 4: No Surrender, No Retreat

Season 5: The Wheel of Fire

The Gathering

After the end of the Earth-Minbari war (see In the Beginning) it was proposed that a space station be built to act as neutral territory to better enable diplomatic solutions and prevent another war. The Babylon Project was set up and a space station built, unfortunately Babylon 1 was destroyed by terrorist action. The same fate befell Babylons 2 and 3, while Babylon 4 simply ‘disapeared’ shortly after commissioning. Babylon 5 was the last attempt and was co-sponsored by both the Earth and Minbar governments. It would be run as an Earthforce station but subject to overview by an advisory committee comprised of representatives from the main galactic powers – Earth, Minbar, Centauri Republic, Narn Regime and the mysterious Vorlons. In addition the League of Non-Aligned Worlds would maintain representatives on the station and have access to the Advisory Council.

Commander Jeffrey Sinclair (Michael O’Hare), a hero of the war and a participant in the Battle of the Line – Earth’s last ditch defence against the superior Minbari forces, was chosen by the Minbari to take charge of the station. This was a surprise to all parties, and an indication that the Minbari had a hidden agenda. Shortly after his arrival on the station, Sinclair is accused of attempting to poison the newly arrived Vorlon ambassador, Kosh (Wayne Alexander). Vorlons inhabited encounter suits when in the presence of other races, and nothing was known about their appearance or their physiology, however with the aid of station telepath, Lyta Alexander (Patricia Tallman) – who was also the ‘witness’ who incriminated Sinclair, Dr Kyle was able to provide a cure and the true perpetrator revealed as a rogue Minbari faction (using alien technology (think holographic camouflage) to look like Sinclair) just before the Vorlon fleet blew the station away.

In the pilot the Minbari were vaguely androgynous with Ambassador Delenn played by an actress (Mira Furlan) with prosthetics to make her look more masculine and her voice deepened by an electronic effect. The station was also missing its ‘Cobra Bays’ which would explain why it relied on its defence grid when the Vorlon fleet attacked.

Season 1 “Signs and Portents”

Set a year after the pilot, this would allow for the addition of Cobra Bays and their squadrons of Starfury fighter ships, the series introduced new characters, Lt Commander Susan Ivanova (Claudia Christian), Dr Stephen Franklin (Richard Biggs) and Talia Winters (Andrea Thomson) replacing Laural Takashimi (Tamlyn Tomita) (no explanation), Dr Kyle (recalled to Earthdome as head of Xenobiology) and Lyta Alexander (recalled to Earthdome (or more likely the Psi Corps facility on Mars) for debriefing after her ‘experience’ of Kosh) and revamped the look of the alien ambassadors with Delenn ditching her prosthetics and regaining her own voice (Minbari were now ‘sexed’ and gained a blue ‘stain’ on their heads), Londo Mollari (Peter Jurasik) of Centauri was made a little younger and had the customary Centauri hair style tidied up a little, G’Kar (Andreus Katsulas) of the Narn had a change of lipstick (not really noticeable) and Kosh gained a flashing vocoder panel. The ambassadorial staff were beefed up with the addition aids Lennier (Bill Mumy) to Delenn, Vir (Stephen Furst) to Londo and Na’toth (Caitlin Brown) to G’Kar. The only remaining ‘human’ lead from the pilot other than Sinclair was Michael Garibaldi (Jerry Doyle) the head of security with a flawed past.

This first season was pretty slow at times and comprised mainly of stand alone stories though elements of the great arc were introduced in the very first episode and built upon as the season progressed. During this season we learnt that Sinclair had a ‘hole’ in his memory, during the Battle of the Line he ‘blacked out’ while preparing to ram a Minbari ship only to regain consciousness after the Minbari surrender (see In the Beginning for full details). We also learnt that Delenn was more than just an ambassador, she was a member of the Grey Council (the ruling body of the Minbari, set up by the legendary Valen, a Minbari not born of Minbari) and was there to monitor Sinclair; if he remembered what happened during the Battle of the Line she would have to deal with him.

We were introduced to the basics of intergalactic politics; the Narn were aggressive and had just won their freedom from Centauri slavery, The Centauri were a fading empire, the Minbari were comprised of three castes (Warrior, Religious and Worker) and while a powerful force, were secluded and secretive, while the Vorlons were very old, very powerful and very mysterious – heck Kosh even spoke in riddles. The Narn and Centauri were consequently at each others throats, the League of Non-Aligned worlds squabbled a lot, the Minbari remained aloof and the Vorlons were the Vorlons and when they spoke everyone jumped (at least they did if they understood what the Vorlons had said).

A two part story revealed that the dead planet, Epsilon III, which the station orbited was not quite so dead, as deep within its bowels there was the Great Machine, looked after by the last of its creator race (and then replaced by Draal one of Delenn’s mentors), the Great Machine was a great power within its own right, though tended to act as a repository for knowledge and otherwise keep itself to itself. This was followed by a return visit by Babylon 4, which had it was revealed, become unstuck in time while being taken by unknown forces (though the denouement of the episode revealed these forces to include an aged Sinclair and an off screen Delenn) to serve as a base for the forces of light in a great war against darkness.

A number of stories dealt with the Psi Corps and resident telepath, Talia Winters. Talia was rated a T5 commercial telepath but a confrontation with her old mentor, the victim of Psi Corps experiments to create a stable telekinetic, left her with minor (push a penny) telekinetic abilities. We were also introduced to her ex, who was also the result of a Psi Corps in emotional telepathy (empathy), and to Psi Cop Alfred Bester (Walter Koenig). At one point Talia was engaged by Kosh to scan a being, who was revealed to be a cyborg and who then gave Kosh a recording of Talia’s persona; Kosh said this was ‘for the future.’

The key problem faced by the station in the early part of the season was an organised fleet of raiders, who seemed able to attack ships at will and escape before Earthforce ships could arrive. However, midway through the season a visitor to the station would change this forever. The visitor was Mr Morden (Ed Wasser), a human, who upon arriving visited all the leaders of the alien races, he asked them all one question: “What do you want?”

Most races brushed him off as wasting their time, Delenn however manifested a warning sigil on her forehead and told him to go while Kosh told him to leave as ‘they’ were not for him? Only Londo answered the question, as in a fit of pique he told Morden that what he wanted was a return to the old ways, to when the Centauri Republic were powerful and feared not seen as a. Londo’s outburst was prompted by a political situation resulting from the Narn maintaining a colony on the edge of Centauri space; a colony that the Centauri believed to be spying upon them but which they were powerless to remove. Morden however took this as a genuine answer and unwittingly Londo had entered his race into a Faustian pact. Shortly after strange and unknown ships appeared and wiped out the whole of the Narn colony. The Shadows had returned.

Throughout the remainder of the season the Shadows gradually made their presence felt by secretly aiding the Centauri regain their former ‘glory’ and declare war on the Narn. Delenn became fixated on fulfilling a prophecy and suspicions of a conspiracy in Earthdome bargain to surface. The season ended with Garibaldi being shot (in the back by one of his own security team) while trying to foil a plot to assassinate President Santiago, Sinclair proposing to Catherine, ISN broadcast live footage of Earthforce 1, the presidential star ship, being destroyed in a tragic ‘accident’ and Delenn going into a cocoon!

Season one has laid the foundations for the story to come.

Season 2 “The Coming of Shadows”

Season 2 started with the revelation that Sinclair had been recalled and sent to Minbar as Earth’s first ambassador on that planet. We are told that the reason the Minbari surrendered to the Earth was that when the captured and tested Sinclair at the Battle of the Line, they found that he had a Minbari soul. Futher tests on other prisoners revealed that many had either whole or part Minbari souls. As Minbari did not kill Minbari the religious caste called the war off. This was then erased from Sinclair’s mind, resulting in his ‘hole’. The new commander of Babylon 5 was appointed by Earthdome and was not a popular choice with the Minbari. Captain John Sheridan (Bruce Boxleitner) was career military and was responsible for destruction of the Minbari battle cruiser the Dark Star during the war; this was the only victory Earth had and earnt Sheridan the name Star Killer amongst the Minbari.

Sheridan was responsible for the recovery of Garibaldi, comatose since last season, as he persuaded Dr Franklin to use an alien healing machine that the doctor had gained in the first season. The machine worked by transferring life force between subjects and could result in the death of the donor just as easily as the cure of the patient; Sheridan and Franklin took turns as donor and Garibaldi was healed.

Delenn emerged from her cocoon a hybrid between minbari and human. She now had hair and softer human features, while her minbari bone crest was smaller and her ears had moved accordingly. Delenn was unaware of the developments concerning Sinclair and had to adjust to the new commander.

The Narn-Centauri war escalated with the Centauri using illegal mass drivers to smash the Narn Homeworld and then seize control. The Narn government was overthrown and all its members, including G’Kar, were outlawed. G’Kar was granted sanctuary on Babylon 5 by Sheridan.

Back on Earth, Vice-President Clark assumed the presidency and began a policy of tightening Earth security. As a result of this an organisation known as the Nightwatch was established and allowed to openly recruit members of Earthforce. Initially enticed by the promise of a pay bonus for attending Nightwatch meetings, members were soon drawn into something somewhat darker. One such member was Zack (Jeff Conaway) who had replaced Garibaldi’s chief officer after Garibaldi discovered who had shot him. Meanwhile Sheridan was revealed to be highly suspicious of happenings back on Earth and, under the auspices of General Haig, was forming his own conspiracy of light; initially consisting of Garibaldi, Ivanova (who had served under Sheridan in the past) and Dr Franklin, who had been discovered as running an underground ‘telepath railroad’ helping ‘rogue’ telepaths to escape the clutches of the corrupt Psi Corps.

Drawn into Sheridan’s conspiracy were Delenn, who shared with Garibaldi the secret knowledge of an organisation of minbari and human agents lead by Ambassador Sinclair from Minbar, and Draal who promised the resources of the Great Machine.

Lyta returned briefly, went on to the Vorlon homeworld, Talia, was revealed to have been a spy for Psi Corps; the tragedy being that the actual spy was a second personality who then overwrote the personality of the Talia we knew. We also learn that Anna, Sheridan’s wife was on board the survey ship the Icarus, which was responsible for reawakening the Shadows. Also on board the ship was Mr Morden, and it seems that he is always accompanied by invisible Shadows.

Throughout the season, the Shadows made more appearances, though still hiding behind the Centauri military action. Meanwhile a starfury pilot, Warren Keffer (), attached to Babylon 5, had glimpsed a Shadow ship in hyperspace and was carrying out his own investigations. The Narn though under Centauri occupation were fighting a guerrilla war against the Republic and still had some capital ships left, scattered throughout the galaxy. G’Kar remained on B5, but began to suspect that an old evil was returning, one that was recorded in the Book of J’Qon; effectively a Narn holy book. The power of the Nightwatch continued to grow, with members being instructed to report any signs of anti-Clark sentiment and to deal with such acts of ‘sedition’, often in a violent way (think Nazis). Earth signed a non aggression pact with the Centauri, which put Sheridan in the line of fire as he was offering aid to a Narn destroyer at the time.

At the conclusion of the season two revelations were made. The first was the discovery of the Shadows. Keffer once more encountered a Shadow ship in hyperspace, and before it destroyed his starfury was able to video it. Back on the station Sheridan was the victim of an assignation attempt by the Centauri, when a bomb was put in the core shuttle car he was travelling in. Forced to jump from the shuttle he was left falling, slowly towards the gardens of Babylon 5; the core shuttle runs down the centre of the station, while below the interior gardens (a source of oxygen and food on the stations) slowly rotate. Sheridan’s fall was slow, but the impact would have been lethal. He was saved by Kosh, who leaving his encounter suit revealed an angelic being that flew up an guided him down safely. Interestingly each race present saw a different though similar being from their mythology, except for Londo who saw nothing. With Kosh revealed, or so we believed, ISN then broadcast the video Keffer recorded of the Shadow ship, the recording had been retrieved from hyperspace and ended with the Shadow ship firing straight to camera…

The story is now getting interesting.

Season 3 “Point of No Return”

This season starts with a bang. Earthdome officials arrive on B5 to question the ambassadors about the strange and mysterious ship that was recorded on video. None of them have seen a ship like this before, although both Delenn and Londo know ‘who’ it is and keep quiet about it. Only G’Kar has anything to say, pointing to a drawing in the Book of J’Qon; it is a Shadow ship.

An escape pod arrives at B5, it contains Marcus Cole (Jason Carter) who is revealed as one of Sinclair’s agents; the Anla Shok, the Rangers. Delenn and Garibaldi reveal the existence of the Rangers to Sheridan and Marcus reveals that a Ranger training complex has been blockaded by Shadow forces. He only managed to escape at the cost of many lives, and he needs help to free them. Sheridan agrees but says he has no ship: that isn’t a problem as the Rangers have – The White Star. Sheridan takes the White Star, a prototype ship combining Vorlon and Minbari technologies, and they succeed in blasting a way through the blockade so the Rangers can escape. Before they can leave, a Shadow ship arrives and engages the White Star. For the first time a ship takes on the Shadows and wins, albeit by a technicality.

Throughout the season it becomes apparent that not only is there corruption within Earthdome, indeed through the use of the Great Machine Ivanova retrieved evidence that Santiago’s assassination was arranged by Clark, but that it includes the Psi Corp and there is a link to the Shadows themselves. It seems that this deal includes supplying the Shadows with telepaths, who are then merged into Shadow ships, providing a living computer system. Sheridan is able to rescue a shipment of telepaths who are being shipped in cryogenic suspension, but is unable to free them as they have had Shadow tech implants inserted causing them to bond to whichever computer system they are nearest when they awake.

Clark meanwhile is tightening security and cracking down on contact with alien governments. Martial law is declared and the Nightwatch is ordered to take over B5. Needless to say that the Nightwatch are stopped, betrayed by Zack who finally realises what they are becoming. Lyta returned (upgraded we find out) working for Kosh

Midway through the season a two part story sees Sinclair return to the station, and take Sheriden, Delenn and Marcus back through time in the White Star (via a portal maintained by the Great Machine), their mission is to secure Babylon 4 and take it back in time. It seems the forces of Light mentioned when B4 popped up in the first season were the Minbari, Vorlons and their allies against the Shadows in the last Shadow war. It is revealed that the Shadows had nearly beaten the forces of Light, but Babylon 4 appeared, a gift from Valen, and it became a staging post around which the allies could reform and finally beat the Shadows back. Whilst in the unstable time field Sheridan and Delenn both experience a flash forward in time; Sheridan finds himself and Delenn a captive of Londo, while Delenn is disturbed by a visitor at while she watches Sheridan sleep. At the conclusion of this story we see that Sinclair has gone back in time with B4 and using the machine that Delenn used for her change, has become a Minbari; Sinclair was Valen.

Delenn breaks the Grey Council and B5 secedes from Earth. The Shadows step up their campaign, openly attacking ships and encouraging members of the Non-Aligned worlds too fight amongst themselves. In a bid to draw support against the Shadows, Sheridan forces Kosh to commit the Vorlon fleet to an attack. The Vorlons do engage the Shadows and in retaliation Morden and ‘friends’ visit Kosh, and kill him. The Vorlons replace Kosh, but his replacement (Ulkesh though he says to call him Kosh) is much more aggressive.

Delenn shows Sheridan, a fleet of White Stars, assembled and crewed by the Rangers, they are now ready to take on the Shadows. Sheridan proposes to Delenn, and in the way of her people, Delenn has to watch her intended sleeping. It is during this that Delenn is disturbed by …..Anna Sheridan.

Sheridan is distraught as he was told by Delenn and Kosh that she was killed by the Shadows. This is what they had thought, but Sheridan asks Dr Franklin to run medical checks, which indicates that Anna may have been merged with a Shadow ship. Kissing Anna, Sheridan realises that his wife is dead, and this is just her body. Accepting her invitation to the Shadow home world, Z’ha’dum, Sheridan hijacks the White Star, and takes them to the planet. Once there the Shadows’ representatives, including Morden, explain how the Shadows seek to build strength out of conflict and that Sheridan is in their way. Rather than kill him, and allow someone else to step up, they will take out his support network, unless he joins with them. As this discussion is taking place Shadow ships surround B5.

Sheridan draws a PPG (Phased Plasma Gun) and shoots his way out of the room and escapes passed the waiting Shadows into a corridor. Coming to a dead-end, overlooking the Shadow city, Sheridan triggers a program on the orbiting White Star, arming two thermonuclear bombs and setting the ship in motion. Sheridan then hears Kosh telling him to jump, and so he does, just as the White Star crashes through the Shadow city’s dome and detonates on impact.

Back at B5, the Shadow ships vanish, taking with them Garibaldi, who was piloting one of the starfuries scrambled to defend the station.

And so the third season ends.

Season 4 “No Surrender, No Retreat”

Sheridan is dead, and Garibaldi missing. Delenn is struggling to keep the loose coalition of races together, and Mordern turns up on Centauri Prime, looking as though he has terminal sunburn. Londo is shocked to learn that Emporer Cartagia has granted Morden’s “associates” a base on an island on Centauri Prime. G’Kar meanwhile has left in search of Garibaldi, but is captured by the Centauri and tortured by Cartagia. Something that Londo finds distasteful, and realising that Cartagia is mad, makes an agreement with G’Kar which leads to freedom for the Narns and Cartagia’s death.

Meanwhile on Z’ha’dum Sheridan is having a conversation with a mysterious being, and learns that part of Kosh, is living in him. The being is Lorien, the first one, and he offers Sheridan a choice.

Just as the coalition is about to collapse Sheridan arrives back at Babylon 5, accompanied by Lorien. Sheridan’s appearance is remarkable and greeted with almost godlike awe – no-one returns from Z’ha’dum. Garibaldi is also found, although unknown to all, including himself, he has spent some time with the Psi Corps.

Things are now getting serious, the Shadows and the Vorlons are openly attacking other races, but not each other. Ulkesh is a liability and so plans are made to deal with him, this takes the efforts of Sheridan, Lorien and Kosh as well as a barrage of PPG fire. In the conflict Ulkesh leaves his encounter suit and we see a very different Vorlon to the angelic form they usually employ. With Ulkesh’s death Kosh too dies, and Sheridan collapses. Lorien restores his life but confides with Delenn that he can only fan the flame and so Sheridan is on borrowed time; he has no more than twenty years.

With Sheridan back the war begins to escalate. The Shadows and the Vorlon are now openly attacking other races, and have now brought out the big guns; planet killers. The coalition is begins to counter attack, while Lorien leads a search for those few first ones (elder races) that did not go beyond the rim after the last Shadow war. A trap is then set and the Vorlon and Shadow fleets lured together. After a battle the Shadows and Vorlons sieze control of Sheriden and Delenn. They put their sides of the situation; they are first ones who took the responsibility of looking after the younger races, but the Shadows with their belief in chaos and the Vorlons with their need for order lost the plot. Unbeknown to either party, Lorien has broadcast this to all the other races, and when Sheridan tells Vorlons and Shadows both where to go, the other races close in on Sheriden’s ship and protect it from Shadow/Vorlon retaliation. Seeing this, the Shadows and Vorlons agree to go beyond the rim with Lorien and the other first ones, leaving the younger races to make their own choices.

While this confrontation is taking place, Londo and Vir are doing some house clearing, resulting in the destruction of the Shadow base, and the death of Morden. As a Vorlon planet killer arrives and takes aim at Centauri Prime, Londo begs for mercy, and decides that the only way to spare the planet is to offer his corpse as the last thing touched by the Shadows. Luckily for him Sheridan resolves the situation and the Vorlon planet killer leaves.

With this war over Sheridan turns his attention to the problems on Earth and uses the Great Machine’s transmitters to beam the truth across the galaxy, to counter the propaganda being spread by the now Clark controlled ISN. Unfortunately much of this is targeted at Sheridan himself, and designed to undermine his credibility. Despatching Marcus and Dr Franklin to Mars, Sheridan contacts the Free Mars resistance and offers them his support, if they in turn support him. Meanwhile back on the station, Garibaldi, who has resigned his commission, comes under the influence of William Edgars, the richest man on Mars who is also married to Garibaldi’s former sweetheart, and is convinced to assist in the capture of Sheridan.

Now on Mars, Garibaldi betrays Edgars and is met by Bester who tells him that all this was programmed into him. Garibaldi now realises that he has both betrayed the Captain, and caused handed the Psi Corps all of Edgars’ secrets (including bio-weapon that is targeted to Psi actives). Garibaldi contacts the resistance, and narrowly escapes execution; Dr Franklin insists that Lyta scan him, this reveals the truth about his programming. With Garibaldi’s knowledge of Mars security, they are able to rescue Sheridan and get him back to B5.

Delenn and Lennier responding to reports of unrest on Minbar, have a run in with the Drakh, a race allied to the now departed Shadows, and then have to forge an unlikely alliance to resolve things on Minbar, reforming the Grey Council. Meanwhile G’Kar and Londo join forces to forge a new InterStellar Alliance out of the races of the war coalition.

Responding to a trap laid by Clark, Ivanova and Marcus take a detachment of White Stars into a conflict with new Earthforce ships, ships that have elements of Shadow technology evident in their construction. During this conflict Ivanova is mortally wounded, leaving Marcus, who loved her, distraught. Before Sheridan’s fleet reaches Earth, Marcus takes Ivanova’s comatose body back to B5 and uses the alien healing device to return her to health, but at the cost of his own life…

The war now enters its final phase as Sheridan leads a fleet of rebel Earthforce destroyers in to liberate the Earth. To reduce the need to fire on Earthforce ships, the Free Mars resistance arranges for mysterious consignments to be loaded on all Earthforce ships when they take on fresh supplies. A daring raid is then staged on Mars, which cuts of any chance of Martian assistance to Clark’s forces. Then as the Earthforce ships react to Sheridan’s fleet, Lyta, boosted by Shadow tech enhancements reaches out to all the ships and wakens the sleeping Shadow enhanced telepath’s that where within Sheridan’s consignments. Once awake, they bond with their host ship’s computer and the resulting conflict incapacitates the ships; Sheridan has a clear path to Earth.

Realising that he has been defeated President Clark takes his own life, but not before turning Earth’s defences on the planet itself. Sheridan’s fleet, aided by some of Clark’s forces who changed sides are able to destroy most of the defence stations before too many lives are lost.

Back on Earth, Sheridan is congratulated by the new president, but in return for his freedom (he did commit treason after all) he must resign from Earthforce, something he does willingly. With a fly past of White Star ships, the newly formed InterStellar Alliance invites Earth to join, while Sheridan is made president of the Alliance.

During this season it was unknown if there would be a final fifth season, so JMS accelerated the arc to conclude the obvious story threads. To complete the series a final episode ‘Sleeping in Light’ was made, but due to a last minute reprieve this was held over to the end of the fifth season, and a new final episode, ‘The Deconstruction of Falling Stars’ was made. This replacement episode was set in the future as a Ranger was reviewing key events since the forming of the Alliance, and through this we learnt how Sheridan’s legacy would be seen in hindsight. At the end of the episode it is revealed that the Earth’s sun is about to go nova and the Ranger has been transmitting the records to safety, Before the Sun blows, the Ranger becomes and energy form and enters into containment suit; in the future it seems we become the new Vorlons…

Season 5 “The Wheel of Fire”

This season very nearly didn’t happen, as a result some of its stories had already been told, and others which should have been started in the previous season were shoehorned into this one. As a result, this season, while still of high quality, is somewhat less satisfying than the previous two. In addition, Claudia Christian chose not to return and so Ivanova was written out and Captain Elizabeth Lochley (Tracy Scoggins) was written in. Incidently Lochley was revealed to be another ex wife of Sinclair much to Delenn’s (and the audience’s) surprise.

With Earth now free of Clark’s corrupt administration, Delenn pregnant with Sheridan’s son and the InterStellar Alliance taking its first steps, trouble is just around the corner.B5 becomes a sanctuary for a group of rebel telepaths, lead by the charismatic Byron (Robert Atkins Downes), while Alliance member races come under attack from unknown, and deadly, raiders. A bad situation is also made worse by Garibaldi’s lapse into alcoholism.

Byron becomes involved with Lyta, and we discover that the Vorlons were responsible for the development of telepaths throughout their ‘flock’ of races. In effect we see that members of these races were treated like lab rats, while they cultivated the psi gene. Byron’s efforts to secure a free planet for telepaths go disastrously wrong, resulting in a siege and the eventual sacrifice of Byron.

The attacks on the Alliance ships are revealed to be the result of Centauri ships, but as Londo discovers, they are not part of the Centauri fleet. It seems that in revenge for the defeat of the Shadows, the Drakh have come to Centauri Prime and have taken control of the Regent through a parasitic ‘keeper’ that has bonded to his central nervous system. Franklin and Lyta working under cover on the Drazi home world discover evidence that the Centauri ships behind the attack are being controlled by Shadow control units.

The White Star fleet rush to Centauri Prime, but are too late to stop a combined attack by Drazi and Narn forces. In the Centauri Imperial palace Londo comes into contact with the Drakh, who offer him a deal he can not refuse. He will be made Emperor and hostilities will cease, in return the Centauri will secede from the Alliance and act as secret hosts for the Drakh.

As the series draws to a close Sheridan relocates his family to Minbar, Lennier, consumed with jealousy tries to murder Sheridan and goes on the run and a gift from Londo, to be presented to Sheridan’s son when he comes of age, contains a hidden keeper. G’Kar and Lyta leave for deep space, as Lyta is finding herself alienated by her growing psi abilities and G’Kar is regarded as a religious figure by his own people due to his experiences with the Centauri. Garibaldi recovers from his return to the bottle with the aid of both Lochley and his future wife Lise Hamilton-Edgars.

The final episode of the series was made at the end of the fourth season and consequently includes Ivanova, but doesn’t include Lochley. It is twenty years after the founding of the Alliance and Sheridan’s life is coming to an end. A meal is held on Minbar for all their old friends. At the conclusion of the meal, it is announced that Delenn will take over as president, while Ivanova will assume command of the Rangers. When his time is nearly up, Sheridan ‘borrow’s a White Star and visits B5, just in time to say good bye as the station will now be decommissioned and destroyed. The final switch is thrown (by JMS in a cameo role) and while Sheridan watches, we see B5 self destruct. Taking his White Star to the area of space where the final confrontation with the Shadows and Vorlons took place, Sheridan is met by Lorien, who has come to take him beyond the rim.

Back on Mimbar, Delenn sits and watches the sunrise, beside her sits the spirit (we suppose) of Sheridan.