meteordust | Babylon 5 - S1E08 - And the Sky Full of Stars

Babylon 5 has so many episode titles that are beautiful and evocative. I remember people making lists of their favourites. And when you get to a title like this one, you expect it to signal something special. I was not disappointed. I know Babylon 5 is all mytharc, but this episode felt very mytharc.

* Revisiting the Battle of the Line, where Sinclair desperately tried to ram a Minbari cruiser, and blacked out for 24 hours, waking to learn of the inexplicable Minbari surrender. Now remembering fragments from that missing day, and how he was taken aboard the ship, and that the Grey Council was there, and so was Delenn.

* Like I said earlier, it's impossible to have avoided osmosing certain spoilers. But I don't know the full context, so most of it is still a mystery, and one I'm eagerly waiting to see unfold.

* Unexpectedly jarring: Garibaldi reading a printed newspaper.

* Sinclair is 39?! Oh, fuck off, passage of time. Commanders are old people!

* Haunting conversation of the episode:

Delenn: "Were you involved in the war, doctor?"

Dr Franklin: "Towards the end, when things got bad for our side, those of us in xenobiology were told to hand over our notes on your people, to be used in genetic and biological warfare."

Delenn: "And did you?"

Dr Franklin: "I took an oath that all life is sacred. I destroyed my notes rather than have them used for killing."

Delenn: "Thank you."

Dr Franklin: "What about you, ambassador? What did you do during the war?"

Delenn: "A topic for another time."