Babylon 5
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Babylon 5 (1993–1998), created by J. Michael Straczynski, is a science fiction television epic about Babylon 5, an Earth-governed space station built to promote harmony between interstellar civilizations. It is unusual in its focus on a story arc which dominates the events through its five-year run.
[edit] Season 1: Signs and Portents
- [Opening credits voiceover.]
- Jeffrey Sinclair: It was the dawn of the third age of mankind, ten years after the Earth/Minbari war. The Babylon Project was a dream given form. Its goal: to prevent another war by creating a place where humans and aliens could work out their differences peacefully. It's a port of call, home away from home for diplomats, hustlers, entrepreneurs, and wanderers. Humans and aliens wrapped in two million, five hundred thousand tons of spinning metal, all alone in the night. It can be a dangerous place, but it's our last best hope for peace. This is the story of the last of the Babylon stations. The year is 2258. The name of the place is Babylon 5.
[edit] Midnight on the Firing Line
- Jeffrey Sinclair: The best way to understand someone is to fight him, make him angry. That's when you see the real person.
- Londo Mollari: We should have wiped out your kind when we had the chance.
- G'Kar: What happened? Run out of small children to butcher?
- Kosh: They are alone. They are a dying people. We should let them pass.
- Sinclair: The Narn or the Centauri?
- Kosh: Yes.
- Susan Ivanova: Mr. Garibaldi, you're sitting at my station, using my equipment. Is there a reason for this, or to save time should I just snap your hand off at the wrist?
- Londo: The Council can go to hell! And the emergency session can go to hell! And you, Vir, you can go to hell too — I would not want you to feel left out.
[edit] Soul Hunter
- [An unknown ship on collision course with the station.]
- Susan Ivanova: This is not a clear and present danger? I must read the rule book again.
- Soul Hunter: The soul we save: not all, only the special ones. Leaders, thinkers, poets, dreamers, blessed lunatics.
- Stephen Franklin: It's all so brief, isn't it? Typical human lifespan is almost a hundred years, but it's barely a second compared to what's out there. It wouldn't be so bad if life didn't take so long to figure out. Seems you just start to get it right and then… it's over.
- Ivanova: Doesn't matter. If we lived 200 years we'd still be human, we'd still make the same mistakes.
- Franklin: You're a pessimist.
- Ivanova: I'm Russian, doctor. We understand these things.
- Delenn: They will join with the souls of all our people. Melt one into another until they are born into the next generation of Minbari. Remove those souls and the whole suffers. We are diminished, each generation becomes less than the one before.
- Soul Hunter: A quaint lie, pretty fantasy. The soul ends with death, unless we act to preserve it.
- Michael Garibaldi: I really hate it when you get heroic. Cuts into my business. A man's got to earn a living, you know.
[edit] Born to the Purple
- Londo Mollari: What do you want, you moon-faced assassin of joy?
- Londo: [to Adira] We Centauri live our lives for appearances, position, status, title. These are the things by which we define ourselves. But when I look beneath the mask I am forced to wear, I see only emptiness. And then I think of you, and then I say… to hell with appearances.
[edit] Infection
- Vance Hendricks: Stephen, there's a Martian war machine parked outside. They'd like a word with you about the common cold.
- Stephen Franklin: Tell them to make an appointment.
- [ISN reporter Mary Ann Cramer tries to press Sinclair for information, but Ivanova steps in front of her.]
- Susan Ivanova: Don't. You're too young to experience that much pain.
- Sinclair: You forgot the first rule of the fanatic: when you become obsessed with the enemy, you become the enemy!
- Mary Ann Cramer: Is it worth it? Should we just pull back? Forget the whole thing as a bad idea, and take care of our own problems, at home.
- Sinclair: No. We have to stay here. And there's a simple reason why. Ask ten different scientists about the environment, population control, genetics, and you'll get ten different answers, but there's one thing every scientist on the planet agrees on. Whether it happens in a hundred years or a thousand years or a million years, eventually our Sun will grow cold and go out. When that happens, it won't just take us. It'll take Marilyn Monroe, and Lao-Tzu, and Einstein, and Morobuto, and Buddy Holly, and Aristophanes…[and] all of this…all of this…was for nothing. Unless we go to the stars.
[edit] The Parliament of Dreams
- G'Kar: [singing]
- So many fishies, left in the sea
- So many fishies, but no one for me!
- I'm thinking of thinking of hooking a love
- Soon after supper is done.
- Londo Mollari: Do you know what the last Xon said just before he died? [clutches chest] AAAAGGGHHHH!
- . . .
- [A drunken Londo crawling across a dinner table and describing Centauri gods, leans toward Delenn.]
- Londo: Have I ever told you that you are very cute for a Minbari?
- [He crawls over to Garibaldi.]
- Londo: Oh! And you are cute, too, in an annoying sort of way. Everybody's cute. Everybody's cute! Even me. But in purple, I'm stunning!
- [G'Kar finds a black flower, sent as a sign that he is about to be assassinated.]
- G'Kar: And you have no idea how that got into my bed?
- Na'Toth: Ambassador, it is not my place to speculate on how anything gets into your bed.
- [Sinclair's pocketed link beeps, interrupting Catherine.]
- Catherine Sakai: I don't mean to alarm you, but your pants are talking to you.
- G'Kar: That hurt.
- Na'Toth: Ambassador, it was the only way to disable the paingivers. I had to hit them as hard as possible, as often as possible, and still make it appear as though I were beating you into another incarnation.
- G'Kar: And you didn't enjoy it in the least?
- Na'Toth: I didn't say that.
[edit] Mind War
- [G'Kar tries to dissuade a skeptical Catherine from her flight to Sigma 957.]
- G'Kar: Let me pass on to you the one thing I've learned about this place. No one here is exactly what he appears. Not Mollari, not Delenn, not Sinclair, and not me.
- [Garibaldi harbors a very rude thought towards Bester.]
- Bester: Anatomically impossible, Mr. Garibaldi. But you're welcome to try.
- Talia: Do you know what it's like when telepaths make love, Commander? You drop every defense, and it's all mirrors: reflecting each other's feelings deeper and deeper…until, somewhere along the line, your souls mix. And it's a feeling so profound it makes you hurt. It's the only moment in a telepath's life when you no longer hear the voices.
- [Bester has explained the details of the Psi Corps program that made Jason Ironheart what he is]
- Bester: It was a calculated risk!
- Susan Ivanova: Good old Psi Corps. You guys never cease to amaze me. All the moral fiber of Jack the Ripper! What do you do in your spare time, juggle babies over a fire pit? Oops, there goes another calculated risk!
- Psi Cop Kelsey: You're not helping the situation.
- Ivanova: Lady, you are the situation!
- Catherine Sakai: While I was out there, I saw something. What was it?
- G'Kar: [pointing to a nearby flower] What is this?
- [Upon closer inspection, an insect is visible.]
- Catherine: An ant.
- G'Kar: "Ant"!
- Catherine: So much gets shipped up from Earth on commercial transports, it's hard to keep them out.
- [As Catherine is talking, G'Kar carefully picks up the ant.]
- G'Kar: I have just picked it up on the tip of my glove. If I put it down again and it asks another ant, "What was that?", how would it explain? There are things in the universe billions of years older than either of our races. They are vast, timeless. And if they are aware of us at all, it is as little more than ants…and we have as much chance of communicating with them as an ant has with us. We know. We've tried. And we've learned we can either stay out from underfoot, or be stepped on.
- Catherine: That's it? That's all you know?
- G'Kar: Yes. They are a mystery. And I am both terrified and reassured to know that there are still wonders in the universe…that we have not yet explained everything. Whatever they are, Ms. Sakai, they walk near Sigma 957. They must walk there alone.
[edit] The War Prayer
- Susan Ivanova: You're a vicious man.
- Michael Garibaldi: I'm Head of Security. It's in the job description.
- [Vir pleads with Londo for a young star-crossed Centauri couple.]
- Vir Cotto: But they love each other!
- Londo Mollari: Love. Pah! Overrated.
- [Londo fetches a set of three pictures of Centauri women.]
- Londo: Here. Look. These are my three wives: Pestilence, Famine, and Death.[N]
- . . .
- Londo: They inspired me! Knowing that they were waiting for me is what keeps me here — 75 light-years away.
- Londo: Something my father said. He was old, very old at the time. I went into his room, and he was sitting alone in the dark, crying. So I asked him what was wrong, and he said, "My shoes are too tight, but it doesn't matter, because I have forgotten how to dance." I never understood what that meant until now. My shoes are too tight, and I have forgotten how to dance.
- Delenn: Human ways are often unfathomable. But in time, one learns to live with them.
- G'Kar: If one has an exceedingly strong constitution.
[edit] And the Sky Full of Stars
- Jeffrey Sinclair: Everyone lies, Michael. The innocent lie because they don't want to be blamed for something they didn't do, and the guilty lie because they don't have any other choice.
- [A mysterious man accuses Sinclair of selling out to the Minbari at the Battle of the Line.]
- Sinclair: We never had a chance. You say we could have won, but you weren't there, you didn't see them! When I looked at those ships, I…I didn't just see my death — I saw the death of the whole damn human race!
- Knight Two: Then why did they surrender?!
- Sinclair: I don't know! Maybe the universe blinked. Maybe God changed His mind. All I know is that we got a second chance!
[edit] Deathwalker
- Talia Winters: All the clearances seem to be in order, and the pay is very generous. However, there's something I still don't understand.
- Kosh: Understanding is a three-edged sword.
- Kosh: Ahh. You seek meaning.
- Talia: Yes.
- Kosh: Then listen to the music, not the song.
[Ivanova addresses a Drazi ship threatening to fire on the station.]
- Susan Ivanova: Vakar Ashok, our gun arrays are now fixed on your ship. They will fire the instant you come into range. You will find their power most impressive… for a few seconds.
- [A gloating "Deathwalker" Jha'dur reveals the secret of her immortality drug.]
- Jha'dur: You and the rest of your kind take blind comfort in the belief that we are monsters, that you could never do what we did. The key ingredient in the anti-agapic cannot be synthesized. It must be taken from living beings. For one to live forever, another one must die. You will fall upon one another like wolves. It will make what we did pale by comparison. The billions who live forever will be a testimony to my work. And the billions who are murdered to buy that immortality will be the continuance of my work. Not like us? You will become us.
- [Sinclair and Garibaldi are discussing the actions of Kosh during this episode]
- Sinclair: They say God works in mysterious ways.
- Michael Garibaldi: Maybe so. But He's a con man compared to the Vorlon.
[edit] Believers
- M'Ola: No one knows what is written in the stream [of Time] until the waters surround him.
- Kosh: The avalanche has already started. It is too late for the pebbles to vote.
- Stephen Franklin: May God save us from false religion.
- Jeffrey Sinclair: Who asked you to play God?
- Franklin: Every damn patient who comes through that door, that's who. People come to doctors because they want us to be gods. They want us to make it better…or make it not so. They want to be healed and they come to me when their prayers aren't enough. Well, if I have to take the responsibility, then I claim the authority too. I did good. And we both know it. And no one is going to take that away.
- Sinclair: Sometimes doing the right thing doesn't change anything.
[edit] Survivors
- Jeffrey Sinclair: Lieutenant Commander Ivanova, escort Major Kemmer off the Observation Dome.
- Susan Ivanova: With pleasure. [to Kemmer] You are going to resist, I hope.
- Sinclair: You're more trouble than a toilet full of snakes, but I couldn't run this station without you.
- Michael Garibaldi: Commander, I sense a huge pay raise coming my way.
- Sinclair: Hah. Dream on.
[edit] By Any Means Necessary
- Jeffrey Sinclair: You should never hand someone a gun unless you're sure where they'll point it.
[edit] Signs and Portents
- Susan Ivanova: I've always had a hard time getting up when it's dark outside.
- Jeffrey Sinclair: But in space, it's always dark.
- Ivanova: [morosely] I know. I know.
- Morden: What do you want?
- Londo Mollari: To be left alone!
- [Londo leaves the lift and quickly walks away.]
- Morden: Is that it? Is that really all, Ambassador?
- [Londo sighs, then turns around.]
- Londo: All right. Fine! You really want to know what I want? You really want to know the truth? I want my people to reclaim their rightful place in the galaxy. I want to see the Centauri stretch forth their hand again, and command the stars! I-I want a rebirth of glory, a renaissance of power. I want to stop running through my life like a man late for an appointment, afraid to– to look back, or to look forward. I want us to be what we used to BE! I want…I want it all back, the way that it was! Does that answer your question?
- [He turns and walks off.]
- Morden: [smiling] Yes. Yes, it does.
[edit] TKO
- Rabbi Yossel Koslov: Without forgiveness, you cannot mourn. And without mourning, you can never let go of the pain.
[edit] Grail
- [Sinclair watches Garibaldi wolf down his food.]
- Jeffrey Sinclair: They say food tastes better if you chew it first.
- Michael Garibaldi: Don't talk, I've seen you eat. Does the term "Doppler effect" ring a bell?
- [Lennier tells Aldous about the Minbari's warrior and religious castes.]
- Aldous: These two sides of your culture, do they ever agree on anything?
- Delenn: Yes. And when they do, it is a terrible thing. A terrible power, as recent events have shown us. Let us hope it never again happens in our lifetime.
- [Jinxo's ship goes through the jump gate without triggering his "curse" — the destruction of yet another Babylon station.]
- Garibaldi: No boom?
- Sinclair: No boom.
- Ivanova: No boom today. Boom tomorrow. There's always a boom tomorrow.
[edit] Eyes
- Michael Garibaldi: Protests are as much use with the Vorlons as fairy wings on a cement truck.
- [Ivanova confronts Psi Corps specialist Harriman Gray.]
- Susan Ivanova: Mr. Gray. I'm grateful the Psi Corps has given you a purpose in life. [She looks him directly in the eye] But when that purpose includes scanning my mind to prove my loyalty, it's not only an invasion of my privacy, but my honor! As for fear, if you enter my mind for any reason, I will twist your head off and use it for a chamberpot!
- Garibaldi: If I knew who God was, I'd thank her.
[edit] Legacies
- Jeffrey Sinclair: Branmer's life was more significant than his battles. Let the warrior caste praise his courage in war, and let the rest praise him for what he truly was—a man of peace.
- Neroon: You talk like a Minbari, Commander. Perhaps there was some small wisdom in letting your species survive.
- Sinclair: We like to think so.
- Susan Ivanova: There's nothing more annoying than Mr. Garibaldi when he's right.
[edit] A Voice in the Wilderness, Part 1
- [Sinclair comes upon Talia waiting for a tube car.]
- Talia Winters: It seems like every time I get into the tube, Mr. Garibaldi's there! It's like he knows!
- Jeffrey Sinclair: Talia, Mr. Garibaldi is many things, but he's not omniscient.
- [The tube opens, revealing a grinning Garibaldi, then closes again.]
- Talia: I think I'll take the stairs.
- Sinclair: I think I'll join you.
- [Surprising her in a hallway, Minbari Draal reiterates a lesson to his former student Delenn.]
- Draal: The third principle of sentient life is the capacity for self-sacrifice: the conscious ability to override evolution and self-preservation for a cause, a friend, a loved one.
- [As a survey shuttle limps back to Babylon 5, Ivanova has words with its crew.]
- Susan Ivanova: On your trip back, I'd like you to take the time to learn the Babylon 5 mantra: "Ivanova…is always right. I will listen to Ivanova. I will not ignore Ivanova's recommendations. Ivanova…is God. And, if this ever happens again, Ivanova will personally rip your lungs out!" Babylon Control out. [sighs to herself] Civilians. [looks up] Just kidding about that God part. No offense.
- [Londo is cheering up Garibaldi with a tale.]
- Londo Mollari: The next day, I woke up, I saw her in the light of day, sleeping against my arm, and I decided I would rather chew off my arm than wake her up.
- Michael Garibaldi: Aw, that's sweet.
- Londo: No, no! She had a voice that could curdle fresh milk.
- [Sinclair and Ivanova try to retrieve the machine-ensconced alien while the planet quakes around them.]
- Ivanova: Commander, we don't have a lot of time. We're cut off from the way we came in, we don't know if we can find another way back to the ship before we run out of air…
- Sinclair: We can't leave him like this!
- Ivanova: I know, I know. It's a Russian thing. When we're about to do something stupid, we like to catalog the full extent of our stupidity for future reference.
[edit] A Voice in the Wilderness, Part 2
- [Captain Pierce of the EAS Hyperion and an alien ship trade ultimatums, then sign off.]
- Ivanova: Worst case of testosterone poisoning I've ever seen.
[edit] Babylon Squared
- Delenn: Summoned, I come. In Valen's name, I take the place that has been prepared for me. I am Grey. I stand between the candle and the star. We are Grey. We stand between the darkness and the light.
- [Major Krantz threatens to take Zathras off Babylon 4.]
- Zathras: Zathras not of this time. You take, Zathras die. You leave, Zathras die. Either way, it is bad for Zathras.
[edit] The Quality of Mercy
- [Ivanova barges into Dr. Franklin's illicit free clinic. He is bent over a notepad, distracted.]
- Stephen Franklin: You can start by removing your clothes.
- Susan Ivanova: Not without dinner and flowers.
- Jeffrey Sinclair: I'm still waiting for an explanation, gentlemen.
- Londo Mollari: Yes. And I'm prepared to give you one, Commander, as soon as the room stops spinning.
- Sinclair: This station creates gravity by rotation. It never stops spinning.
- Londo: Well, you begin to see my problem.
[edit] Chrysalis
- Londo Mollari: But this…this, this, this is like… being nibbled to death by, uh…Pah! What are those Earth creatures called? Feathers, long bill, webbed feet…go "quack".
- Vir Cotto: Cats.
- Londo: Cats! I'm being nibbled to death by cats.
- [Londo chats with Morden in the garden.]
- Londo: There comes a time when you look into the mirror, and you realize that what you see is all that you will ever be. Then you accept it, or you kill yourself. Or you stop looking into mirrors.
- [In a Zocalo bar, watching ISN as Vice-President Clark assumes the Presidency, Sinclair turns to find Kosh behind him.]
- Kosh: And so it begins.
[edit] Season 2: The Coming of Shadows
- [Opening credits voiceover.]
- John Sheridan: The Babylon Project was our last, best hope for peace. A self-contained world five miles long, located in neutral territory. A place of commerce and diplomacy for a quarter of a million humans and aliens. A shining beacon in space, all alone in the night. It was the dawn of the Third Age of Mankind… the year the Great War came upon us all. This is the story of the last of the Babylon stations. The year is 2259. The name of the place is Babylon 5.
[edit] Points of Departure
- [Narrating a status report as B5 acting commander, Ivanova reflects on scenes of chaos she's been trying to manage.]
- Ivanova: I can only conclude that I'm paying off karma at a vastly accelerated rate.
- [Dr. Franklin tells Ivanova about Garibaldi's coma.]
- Ivanova: Well then, I'll say a prayer for him tonight.
- Stephen Franklin: He's agnostic.
- Ivanova: Then I'll say half a prayer.
[edit] Revelations
- [Londo rants before the Babylon 5 Advisory Council about the missing G'Kar and Delenn.]
- Londo Mollari: There, you see! One deserts his post without any explanation, the other one picks the most breathtakingly inconvenient moment possible to explore new career options, like becoming a butterfly!
[edit] The Geometry of Shadows
- Elric: There is an old saying: "Do not try the patience of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger."
- Elric: We are dreamers, shapers, singers, and makers. We study the mysteries of laser and circuit, crystal and scanner, holographic demons and invocation of equations. These are the tools we employ, and we know many things.
- John Sheridan: Such as?
- Elric: The true secrets, the important things. 14 words to make someone fall in love with you forever. 7 words to make them go without pain, or say good-bye to a friend who is dying. How to be poor. How to be rich. How to rediscover dreams when the world has stolen them. That is why we are going away—to preserve that knowledge.
- Sheridan: From what?
- Elric: There is a storm coming, a black and terrible storm. We would not have our knowledge lost or used to ill purpose. From this place we will launch ourselves into the stars. With luck, you will never see our kind again in your lifetime. I know you have your orders, Captain. Detain us if you wish. But I cannot tell you where we are going. I can only ask you to trust us.
- [Ivanova accidentally becomes the Green Drazi leader by grabbing the former leader's sash.]
- Ivanova: You're saying just because I'm holding this right now, I'm Green leader? But I'm human!
- Former Drazi Leader: Rules of combat older than contact with other races. Did not mention aliens. Rules change…caught up in committee.
- [Departing Babylon 5, Technomage Elric advises Londo.]
- Elric: You are touched by darkness, Ambassador. I see it as a blemish that will grow with time. I could warn you of course, but you would not listen. I could kill you, but someone would take your place. So I do the only thing I can — I go.
- . . .
- [Finally, Elric gives Londo the requested "endorsement".]
- Elric: I see a great hand reaching out of the stars. The hand is your hand. And I hear sounds–the sounds of billions of people calling your name.
- Londo: My followers?
- Elric: Your victims.
[edit] A Distant Star
- [Dr. Franklin watches Ivanova as she storms off with his recovery-enhancing "food plan".]
- Susan Ivanova: All my life, I've fought against imperialism. Now, suddenly, I am the expanding Russian frontier.
- Stephen Franklin: But with very nice borders.
- Sheridan: An old friend of mine once quoted me a [sic]… ancient Egyptian blessing: God be between you and harm in all the empty places where you must walk.
- Sheridan: I wish I had your…faith in the universe. I just don't see it sometimes.
- Delenn: Then I will tell you a great secret, Captain. Perhaps the greatest of all time. The molecules of your body are the same molecules that make up this station, and the nebula outside, that burn inside the stars themselves. We are starstuff. We are the universe made manifest, trying to figure itself out. And as we have both learned, sometimes the universe requires a change of perspective.
[edit] The Long Dark
- [Garibaldi and Sheridan consider the dessicated body from a failed cryogenic tube.]
- Michael Garibaldi: Lousy way to die, huh?
- John Sheridan: Hmm. Last time I checked, there weren't too many good ways.
- [Newly unfrozen traveller Mariah Cirrus meets G'Kar.]
- G'Kar: Take my advice and go back to the time you came from. The future isn't what it used to be.
- [Sheridan and Ivanova close in on an invisible, ravenous alien.]
- Susan Ivanova: You got a plan?
- Sheridan: Let's try not to get killed.
- Ivanova: Brilliant.
[edit] A Spider in the Web
- Susan Ivanova: You know how I feel about telepaths.
- Sheridan: Do I ever. You threw one out a third-story window on Io.
- Ivanova: There was an ample pool below the window!
- Sheridan: I'll assume you knew that.
[edit] Soul Mates
- [As the last of Londo's wives arrives, they trade barbs.]
- Timov: Daggair! My, what a surprise!
- Daggair: A pleasant one?
- Timov: I wouldn't go that far.
- Vir: Madame Daggair, my pardons! This is unconscionable! I was at Customs. I don't know how I could have missed you!
- Timov: Believe me, Vir, if you knew her as well as I do, you wouldn't miss her a bit.
- Daggair: Oh, Timov, Timov, why do you always try to draw me into your little verbal fencing matches?
- Timov: Because I don't have a real sword handy.
- Londo Mollari: [enters room] Well, well, here you are!
- Timov: And here you are finally, where have you been?!!
- Londo: Affairs of state my dear.
- Timov: State of inebriation, I wager.
- Timov: The secret of our marriage's success, Londo, is our lack of communication. You have jeopardized that success and I would know why!
[edit] A Race Through Dark Places
- [Bester addresses the command staff after an attempt on his life by rogue telepaths.]
- Alfred Bester: They must be getting desperate to try something like this. They know we're onto them. Why else would they try to kill me?
- Ivanova: Is this a multiple-choice question?
- Bester: Would it interest you to know that I'm married, Mr. Garibaldi? That I have a five-year-old daughter? That on Sundays when I'm back home, we pack a picnic lunch and go out under the dome on Syria Planum and watch the stars come out? Hardly the description of a monster.
- Michael Garibaldi: Smooth! You're getting good at this. Keep working on it, and one of these days I might even be convinced that you're human.
[edit] The Coming of Shadows
- [G'Kar is outraged that Sheridan is allowing the Centauri Emperor to visit Babylon 5.]
- John Sheridan: Now, if this bothers you, I suggest you stay in your quarters, stick your fingers in your ears, and hum real loud until it's over! Unless you'd like to try something as breathtakingly rational as trying to open up a dialog?
- [Centauri Emperor Turhan talks to John Sheridan about life.]
- Centauri Emperor Turhan: No regrets then?
- Sheridan: A few. But just a few. You?
- Emperor Turhan: Oh, enough to fill a lifetime. So much has been lost, so much forgotten. So much pain, so much blood. And for what? I wonder…The past tempts us, the present confuses us, and the future frightens us. And our lives slip away, moment by moment, lost in that vast terrible in-between. But there is still time to seize that one last, fragile moment. To choose something better, to make a difference, as you say. And I intend to do just that.
- G'Kar: I was ready... I had the dagger in my hand! And he has the indecency to start dying on his own!
- [Franklin brings a message from the ill Emperor to G'Kar, who had planned to kill the Centauri leader.]
- G'Kar: How is the poor fellow? I was so looking forward to meeting him and opening up…a dialog.
- . . .
- [Franklin relays the Emperor's message.]
- Stephen Franklin: He said…"We're wrong. The hatred between our people can never end until someone is willing to say, 'I'm sorry'. And try and find a way to make things right again, to atone for our actions."
- [Garibaldi receives a recorded message from former boss Jeffrey Sinclair.]
- Jeffrey Sinclair: There's a great darkness coming, Michael.
- Emperor Turhan: I would very much like to have seen a Vorlon.
- [he closes his eyes; when he reopens them, Kosh is standing over him]
- Emperor Turhan: How will this end?
- Kosh: In fire.[N]
- Londo Mollari: [relaying the Emperor's "last words"] He said…"Continue. Take my people back…to the stars."
- . . .
- [outside Medlab, after the Emperor's death]
- Lord Refa: Mollari, what did he say? Really?
- Londo: He said…"You are both damned."
- Lord Refa: Well, it's a small enough price to pay for immortality.
[edit] Gropos
- General Richard Franklin: [meeting Garibaldi] I had an Alfredo Garibaldi under my command during the Dilgar invasion. Excellent soldier!
- Michael Garibaldi: [smiles proudly] That was my dad.
- Gen. Franklin: [unimpressed] So much for genetics.
- Dr. Stephen Franklin: I'm a doctor! My duty is to heal!
- Gen. Franklin: Then heal humans! Stephen, I know you're fascinated by these alien creatures, but they're a threat to humanity. And they always will be. Help your own kind!
- Dr. Franklin: Life is life, whether it's wrapped in skin, scales, or feathers! Now if you respected these beings instead of constantly trying to murder them, you'd appreciate that!
- Delenn: We are all slaves to our histories. If there is to be a…bright future, we must learn to break those chains.
- John Sheridan: There's only one truth about war: people die. Killing is part of a soldier's job—we can't deny it. We can only live with it and hope the reasons for doing it are justified.
[edit] All Alone in the Night
- Lennier: Being asked to serve on the Council is a matter of soul, not of flesh. The change you've gone through, it shouldn't matter.
- Delenn: But it does, Lennier. I made a decision, and now I must face the consequences.
- [New Grey Council member Neroon confronts Delenn.]
- Neroon: You are an affront to the purity of our race!
- [On the Strieb ship, Sheridan has a strange dream about Babylon 5 and some of its denizens.]
- Dream Ivanova #1: Do you know who I am?
- Dream Garibaldi: The man in-between is searching for you.
- Dream Ivanova #2: You are the hand.
- [Sheridan turns to see Kosh.]
- John Sheridan: Why are you here?
- Dream Kosh: We were never away. For the first time, your mind is quiet enough to hear me.
- Sheridan: Why am I here?
- Dream Kosh: You have always been here.
- [Back on Babylon 5, Sheridan encounters Kosh.]
- Kosh: You have always been here.
- [Sheridan asks Hague why he trusts him with his secret effort to investigate the new Earth government.]
- General Hague: …you have an uncommon failing for someone in your position, Captain. You're a patriot. You believe as I do that when we put on this uniform, we took a solemn vow to protect Earth against threats from outside and from within. […] Your cooperation is essential, if we're going to take back our government.
- [Sheridan asks his staff if they want in on the conspiracy.]
- Ivanova: Wherever this goes, however it ends, we're with you.
[edit] Acts of Sacrifice
- Delenn: I was there when our war against Earth began, when our ship encountered an Earth vessel for the first time. Afraid of us, of the unknown, they fired. I saw our leader dying. I heard the cries for revenge, for blood, for death. In return we nearly exterminated an entire species. My people are tired of war, G'Kar!
- [Dr. Franklin takes exception to the Lumati's disdain for medical treatment of the infirm.]
- Correlilmerzon [through Taq]: It does not serve evolution.
- Stephen Franklin: Well, my job isn't serving evolution — it's serving humanity, even when the patient isn't human.
- Correlilmerzon [through Taq]: Yes, but what happens when the inferior, saved from the process of natural selection, begin to outnumber the superior?
- Susan Ivanova: You know, I think we should all be moving on by now…
- Franklin: I don't believe that any form of sentient life is inferior to any other.
- Correlilmerzon [through Taq]: Yes. We often hear that argument from inferior species and their sympathizers.
- [Sheridan asks Delenn for help in providing covert assistance to Narn civilians without the approval of EarthGov.]
- John Sheridan: …Ambassador, I've learned the hard way that governments deal in matters of convenience, not conscience. If they fall behind, it is up to the rest of us to make up the difference. If we don't, who will?
- [Ambassador Correlilmerzon insists on sex to cement the Earth-Lumati alliance. Ivanova does a bizarre song and dance which she claims is human-style sex.]
- Susan Ivanova:
- Boom! Shabba-labba-labba.
- Boom! Shabba-labba-labba.
- Hey there, hey there, three bags full!
- You come here often? Yes! I do!
- . . .
- I slept with you the other night.
- You didn't call, you didn't write!
- I think you did it just for SPITE!
- Oh! Yes… oh, yes! Oh, YES! OH! YES!
- Tell me about your portfolio!
- Oh, YES! YES! YES! YES!
- Lie to me about your family…
- . . .
- [She finishes with a shriek and a compliment.]
- Correlilmerzon: What do I do now?
- Ivanova: Old style, you roll over and go to bed. New style, you go out for pizza, I never see you again.
- [Ivanova gets a parting gift and note from Correlilmerzon.]
- Sheridan: What's it say?
- Ivanova: "Next time…my way."
- Sheridan: Commander, is there something you'd like to tell me?
[edit] Hunter, Prey
- [During the search for Dr. Jacobs in Down Below, Franklin and Garibaldi muse about disappointed expectations.]
- Michael Garibaldi: Maybe somebody should've labelled the future "some assembly required".
- John Sheridan: Are we just toys to you? Huh? What do you want?
- Kosh: Never ask that question!
- Sheridan: At least I got a response out of you. So what'll it be, Ambassador?
- Kosh: I will teach you.
- Sheridan: About yourself?
- Kosh: About you. Until you are ready.
- Sheridan: For what?
- Kosh: To fight legends.
[edit] There All the Honor Lies
- [Ivanova rants about EarthGov's decision to sell B5 merchandise.]
- Susan Ivanova: Welcome to Babylon 5, the last, best hope for a quick buck!
- John Sheridan: Commander—
- Ivanova: Oh, this is demeaning! I mean, we're not some…some deep-space franchise! This station is about something. [N]
- [Lawyer Guinevere Corey interrupts the questioning of Minbari witness Ashan.]
- Guinevere Corey: May I ask what you were discussing here?
- Sheridan: The only thing that matters—the truth.
- Guinevere Corey: Ah, yes. The favorite song of the legally ignorant.
- [Londo sputters outrage over a B5 Emporium "Londo Mollari" doll.]
- Londo Mollari: It's a mockery! It doesn't even have any, uh…attributes.
- Sheridan: Attributes?
- Londo: Do I have to spell it out for you?
- [Londo gestures downward. Ivanova and Sheridan stare at Londo, then at each other.]
- Sheridan, Ivanova: Ohh!
- Ivanova: I see. So you feel like you're being symbolically cast—in a bad light.
- Sheridan: Well put.
- Sheridan: I– I never thought there could be anything worse than being all alone in the night.
- Delenn: But there is. Being all alone in a crowd.
- . . .
- Delenn: In the service of their clan, they're ready to sacrifice everything–their individuality, their blood, their life.
- Sheridan: Their honor? Oh, we've had plenty of that ourselves. Conspiracies of silence, because the larger ideals have to be protected. But you can't have larger ideals if the smaller ones get compromised. It's like building a house without a foundation, Delenn—it can't stand!
- Ashan: We are not responsible. It was the leaders of our clan who decided to act without asking the Council or anyone else in the government–not us. Yes, it was foolish—
- Lennier: No, not foolish. It was tragic.
- [Londo goads a hung-over Vir.]
- Londo: Good, Vir—you're sobering up! I can see the synapses beginning to fire behind your eyes! A frightening sight, I might add.
- [Ivanova hands Sheridan a teddy bear from the new gift shop.]
- Sheridan: Ba-Bear-lon 5? Oh, he's a cute one. [Notices the initials on the shirt.] J.S.?
- Ivanova: John Sheridan.
- Sheridan: Oh, this is supposed to be me? [Suddenly turns grim.] I want it off my station. I want 'em all off my station. I want the whole place yanked out, boxed up, and shipped out by 0800 tomorrow. Is that clear?
- Ivanova: I'll get right on it.
- Sheridan: Oh, and…[Takes the bear.]
- …
- [Warren Keffer responds to a report of a UFO outside the station.]
- C&C: Babylon Control to Zeta-One. Any trace of that unidentified object?
- Warren Keffer: Negative, Babylon Control. I don't see a…
- [Said teddy bear hits his Starfury's viewport for a moment before drifting away again.]
- C&C: Zeta-One, have you encountered unidentified object? Can you describe it?
- Keffer: Negative, Babylon Control. I don't think so. Not on a bet. Heading back to the barn.
[edit] And Now For a Word
- Stephen Franklin: You know, what the folks back home don't understand—the ones who've never left Earth—is just how dangerous space can be. Aside from incidents like this, just the everyday reality of living your days and nights in a big tin can surrounded by a vacuum. I remember my first time on a transport on the Moon-Mars run. I was just a kid, maybe 17. A buddy of mine was messing around and zipping through the halls. And he hid in one of the airlocks. I don't know, I guess he was going to try to scare us or something. I don't know. But just as I got close, he must have hit the wrong button, because the air doors slammed shut, the space doors, opened, and he just flew out into space. And the one thing they never tell you is that you don't die instantly in vacuum. He just hung there, against the black, like a puppet with his strings all tangled up—or like one of those old cartoons where you run off the edge of a cliff and your legs keep going. You could see that he was trying to breathe, but there was nothing! And one thing I remember when they pulled in his body—his eyes were frozen. [long pause] A lot of people make jokes about spacing somebody, about shoving somebody out an airlock. I don't think it's funny. Never will.
- [ISN reporter Cynthia Torqueman interviews G'Kar about the old Narn-Centauri war.]
- G'Kar: My family lived in G'Kamazad, one of the larger cities on Narn. My father…"served" in a Centauri household during the last years of the rebellion. I was barely a pouchling at the time. My mother was ill, unable to escape through the underground, so we all stayed. It was a difficult time. We were striking deep into Centauri resources. Things were tense. One day my father spilled a cup of hot jala on the mistress of the house and…and she had him killed. They took him out, tied his hands together, and hung him from a jalwah tree for three days. I came to him the last night, against my mother's orders, and he looked down at me. He said he was proud, and to go and fight, and be all the things he never was. Then he died. The next morning I ran away and killed my first Centauri.
- Cynthia Torqueman: Why do you think they invaded back then?
- G'Kar: Why does any advanced civilization seek to destroy a less-advanced one? Because the land is strategically valuable, because there are resources that can be cultivated and exploited, but most of all…simply because they can. You have experienced much the same on your own world. There are humans for whom the words "never again" carry special meaning. As they do for us.
- [various answers to Torqueman's final question: "Given the danger, at the end of the day…is it worth it?"]
- Michael Garibaldi: Absolutely. Sure, when things get tense out here, we have to be careful. Our search of the Centauri vessels we captured proved that they were bringing in weapons of mass destruction, offloading them outside the station, and sending them on to the front lines. Now that we know that, we can make sure it doesn't happen any more. We learn. It's what humans do.
- Londo Mollari: Misunderstandings aside, yes! I definitely think it's worth it. We must simply work harder to make sure we communicate with one another to prevent this sort of tragic situation from ever happening again! A violent attack by Narn forces is an unacceptable response to a peaceful protest by my government. And with the intervention of Earth, perhaps we can keep them from making a similar mistake in the future.
- G'Kar: I don't know any more. I used to think so, but now…
- Susan Ivanova: Yes.
- Delenn: Of course it is. For the simple reason that no one else would ever build a place like this. Humans share one unique quality: They build communities. If the Narns or Centauri or any other race built a station like this, it would be used only by their own people. But everywhere humans go, they create communities out of diverse and sometimes hostile populations. It is a great gift, and a terrible responsibility—one that cannot be abandoned.
- Senator Quantrell: Well…I guess we'll just have to see…won't we?
- Franklin: All right, Med 2—go, go! Look, if we weren't here right now, half the people in this room would be dead! Now that should be a good enough answer for anyone.
- Eduardo Delvientos: Sure! What, are you kidding? I have a retirement pension to make, you know?
- John Sheridan: Yes. But not for any of the reasons that you've probably been told. The job of Babylon 5 is not to enforce the peace. It's to create the peace. And this place was built on the assumption that we could work out our problems and build a better future. And that, to me, is the key issue. See, in the last few years, we've stumbled. We stumbled at the death of the President, the war, and on and on. And when you stumble a lot, you…you start looking at your feet. Well, we have to make people…lift their eyes back to the horizon, and see the line of ancestors behind us, saying, "Make my life have meaning." And to our inheritors before us, saying, "Create the world we will live in." I mean, w-we're not just…holding jobs and having dinner. We are in the process of building the future. That's what Babylon 5 is all about.
[edit] In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum
- Morden: If restoring the Centauri Republic means nothing to you, what does? What do you want?
- Vir Cotto: I'd like to live just long enough to be there when they cut off your head and stick it on a pike as a warning to the next ten generations that some favors come with too high a price. I would look up at your lifeless eyes and wave like this.
- [He gives Morden a mockingly cheerful finger waggle.]
- Vir: Can you and your associates arrange this for me, Mr. Morden?
[Vir gets up and starts walking away turns, and smiles] Vir: "Mr. Morden" [Waggle's his finger's cheerfully]
- [Franklin tells Ivanova what he sees when a patient dies.]
- Stephen Franklin: And then, just at the last, it's as if they look past you at something else, and the look on their face, it's like nothing you can describe. And then, just as they look past you—the moment that they look past you—you can't help but meet their gaze and just for an instant, you see God reflected in their eyes. [pauses] I've seen a lot of reflected gods today, Susan. And I'm wondering how we can keep believing in them, when they've stopped believing in us.
- John Sheridan: You ever studied ancient history? 20th century, World War II?
- Zack Allan: Well…not really. [grins] I always used to fall asleep in history class.
- Sheridan: The Germans had a secret code they used for all their important messages. It was called "Enigma". What they didn't know was that the British had cracked the code. One day, Churchill's people intercepted a message authorizing the bombing of a city named Coventry. Now, if they evacuated Coventry, the Germans would know their code had been broken, and switch to another system. If that happened, it could cost the Allies the entire war. If they didn't evacuate the city, hundreds of innocent men, women, and children would die. [N]
- Zack: So, what happened?
- Sheridan: They kept the secret. There was no evacuation. And on November 14, 1940, Coventry was destroyed. The dead were… piled up like cordwood! I—I've seen newsreels of Churchill visiting the ruins a few days later. And you can just see it in his eyes, the knowledge of what he'd done. Dark, haunted. All these years I've never been able to get that image out of my head.
- Zack: Well, I'm glad it's a decision I don't have to make. I don't think I could live with myself. How many lives is a secret worth?
- Kosh: If you go to Z'ha'dum, you will die.
- Sheridan: Then I die. But I will not go down easily, and I will not go down alone. [N]
[edit] Knives
- [Londo tells Vir about his friendship with Urza Jaddo.]
- Londo Mollari: In dueling societies, it is customary for each member to be given a fighting name by his comrades! They said I fought like a crazed leati, and so they called me Paso Leati! Urza was known as Skal Tura—the silent beast! Those were great times, Vir! We were young, proud, fierce, bursting to prove ourselves to each other and to the world. Our starships ruled the spaceways, and our power was rivaled by that of the gods only! Ah, Great Maker, it was good to be a Centauri then!
- Vir Cotto: Every generation of Centauri mourns for the golden days when their power was like unto the gods! It—it's counterproductive! I mean, why make history if you fail to learn by it?
- Londo: You know, Vir, you have what the Earthers call a negative personality.
- Vir: No, I don't.
- Londo: There, you see?
- Michael Garibaldi: I once saw an entire chorus line of purple wombats doing showtunes in my bathtub. Of course, I was pretty drunk at the time.
- Stephen Franklin: Well, anyone willing to command Babylon 5 has got to be slightly insane, but I don't think that you're ready for the asylum just yet.
- . . .
- John Sheridan: I prefer to be only slightly insane.
- Garibaldi: Don't we all.
- Vir: Londo, this is insane!
- Londo: Insanity is part of the times. You must learn to embrace the madness. Let it fire you.
[edit] Confessions and Lamentations
- Stephen Franklin: Something here doesn't add up, and unlike Mr. Garibaldi, I don't like mysteries.
- Delenn: They are in pain. Frightened. Dying. Minbari are taught that, at such a times, the afflicted should be ministered to, comforted.
- John Sheridan: They're not your own people, Delenn!
- Delenn: I didn't know that similarity was required for the exercise of compassion.
- [Delenn and Lennier are about to enter the quarantine zone.]
- Delenn: All life is transitory. A dream. We all come together in the same place at the end of time. If I don't see you again here, I will see you in a little while, in the place where no shadows fall.
- Sheridan: W—Delenn! [She stops and looks back.] When I do see you again…call me John?
- Delenn: She has separated from her mother. Please find her.
- Lennier: [looks around, somewhat lost] How?
- Delenn: [to Lennier] Faith manages.
- Delenn: [turning to Markab girl] What is her name?
- Markab Girl: Mama.
- [Delenn turns and looks at Lennier again]
- Lennier: Faith manages.
- Lazarenn: [dying] I'm sorry, old friend. I don't think I can stay any longer. Will you give my love to…
- [after the isolation zone is reopened and all the Markab are found dead]
- Delenn: John…John…
- [he holds her close as she sobs and wails for the dead]
- Sheridan: What happens next time?
- Delenn: What happens? What happens is that we honor the memory of those who are no longer with us by using what we have learned to save others. To exercise faith and patience and charity. To reach out to those who are afraid. If we can do that, then their passing will have had meaning and we will grow from it.
[edit] Divided Loyalties
- [At a Universe Today vendor station, Delenn haughtily dismisses humans' fascination with the press.]
- Delenn: Back home, when there is something you need to know, you are told just what you require and no more.
- . . .
- Delenn: … Minbari respect the privacy of others by not prying into their affairs. To express undue curiosity—
- Newsvendor Computer: Unable to insert "Eye on Minbari" section. Do you wish to accept edition anyway?
- Delenn: Uh… yes, yes I do.
- John Sheridan: "Eye on Minbari"?
- Delenn: It is good to know what your people are thinking and saying about my people. And, uh…[grins] I often learn things about my own world before I'm told "what I need to know and no more".
- [Lyta has tested all high- and medium-ranking station personnel — but one — for the traitor's psychic trigger.]
- Lyta Alexander: The further you go from the center of power, the less likely it is we're going to find the person that we're looking for.
- [She pointedly turns and looks at Ivanova.]
- Susan Ivanova: I suggest you move those eyes somewhere else…while you still have them.
- [Lyta pays Kosh a visit.]
- Lyta: I'm back. I can't stay. The Captain's made sure I can get away before the Psi Cops get here, but—I had to see you again, before my ship leaves. I never told them. I never told anyone. I hid it all away in the smallest, tiniest corner of my mind. They could've killed me and they still wouldn't have found it! Only at night, alone, would I open that small door in my mind where I kept the memory of you and listen to your voice—listen to you sing me to sleep. I hope I can come back again, but I don't know. Until then—Kosh—I want to see you again, just one more time before I go.
- [Kosh's suit opens, and Lyta is bathed in bright white light.]
[edit] The Long, Twilight Struggle
- [Londo learns of Refa's plan to use mass drivers to assault the Narn homeworld.]
- Londo Mollari: Mass drivers? They have been outlawed by every civilized planet!
- Lord Antono Refa: These are uncivilized times.
- Londo: We have treaties!
- Lord Refa: Ink on a page!
- [Draal tells Delenn and Sheridan about what he's discovered using the Great Machine.]
- Draal: Since taking up residence in the heart of this machine, I have explored its secrets, learned, and discovered that I can look into distant worlds, see and hear things you cannot begin to imagine! Along the way, I've learned some things about you, Captain! The loss of your wife—I know Delenn has told you about the coming darkness. And lately I've learned about your role in, shall we say, a "conspiracy of light" aimed at your own government?
- John Sheridan: I don't know what you're talking about.
- Draal: Yes, you do! Please, Captain, don't worry. Your secret is safe with me. They would have to dig down three miles into the surface of this planet to learn what I know, and no one who tried would survive the attempt! And now I have seen enough! I said a year ago that this place was to be left alone until the time was right. That time has arrived. Now that I know the full capabilities of this place, I am prepared to place them at your disposal!
- Sheridan: Are you proposing an alliance?
- Draal: One of the first! There will be more to come. This has been a hard and trying year for you, Captain Sheridan. It might be helpful for you to know that you are not alone, and that in the long, twilight struggle which lies ahead of us, there is the possibility of hope.
- [Londo demands that "Citizen" G'Kar be removed from further Council meetings. G'Kar rises to go.]
- G'Kar: No dictator, no invader can hold an imprisoned population by force of arms forever. There is no greater power in the universe than the need for freedom. Against that power, governments and tyrants and armies cannot stand. The Centauri learned this lesson once. We will teach it to them again. Though it take a thousand years, we will be free.
[edit] Comes the Inquisitor
- [Sebastian, the Vorlons' Inquisitor, surveys the Zocalo]
- Sebastian: Nothing changes. Corruption, immorality, chaos.
- [after a grueling interrogation of Delenn, Sebastian turns his attention on Sheridan]
- Sebastian: You said you didn't have to answer any of my questions. But there's no reason to exclude you from our deliberations. You're linked at the hip, just as bad as she is. But you're not just a dreamer. You're a soldier! How far are you prepared to go? How much are you prepared to risk? How many people are you prepared to sacrifice for victory? Are you willing to die friendless, alone, deserted by everyone? Because that's what may be required of you in the war that is to come!
- John Sheridan: Go to Hell!
- Sebastian: This is Hell, Captain, and you are its chief damned soul. What about the people you work with, the people you call friends? Are you willing to sacrifice them? What about your family? [He zaps Sheridan with his cane.] What about your God? [Another zap.] What about truth? [Zap.] What about blood? [Zap.] What about right? [Zap.] What about wrong? [Zap.] What about your future? [Zap.] What about faith? [Zap.] What about sin? [Zap.] What about Hell? [Zap.] What about death? [Zap.] What about etern…
- Delenn: ENOUGH! Your quarrel is with me! You were sent to investigate me! Let him go! If you want to take someone, then take me!
- Delenn: If I fall, another will take my place, and another, and another.
- Sebastian: But your great cause!
- Delenn: This is my cause--Life! One life or a billion, it's all the same!
- Sebastian: Then you make the sacrifice willingly? No fame. No armies or banners or cities to celebrate your name. You will die alone and unremarked and forgotten.
- Delenn: This body is only a shell. You cannot touch me, you cannot harm me. I'm not afraid.
- [after Delenn offers to sacrifice herself for Sheridan, who's being tortured by Sebastian]
- Sebastian: You can go. You've passed, both of you.
- Delenn: Passed what?
- Sebastian: How do you know the Chosen Ones? "No greater love hath a man than he lay down his life for his brother." Not for millions…not for glory…not for fame. For one person, in the dark, where no one will ever know or see. I have been in the service of the Vorlons for centuries, looking for you. Diogenes with his lamp, looking for an honest man willing to die for all the wrong reasons. At last, my job is finished. Yours is just beginning. When the darkness comes, know this: You are the right people, in the right place, at the right time.
- Sheridan: Mr…Sebastian, I did a little digging, based on what you told me. The records confirm you lived on Earth in the year 1888. The records also indicate that you vanished, suddenly, without a trace on November 11th, 1888. That's a very interesting date, Mr. Sebastian. The morning after the last of a string of murders in the East End.
- Sebastian: The city was drowning in decay. Chaos. Immorality. A message needed to be sent, etched in blood for all the world to see. A warning. In the pursuit of my holy cause, I…did things. Terrible things. Unspeakable things. The world condemned me, but it didn't matter because I believed I was right and the world was wrong. I believed I was the divine messenger. I believed I was…
- Sheridan: Chosen?
- Sebastian: [after a pause] I was…found by the Vorlons. They showed me the terrible depth of my mistake, my crimes, my…presumption. I have done four hundred years of penance and service, a job for which they said I was ideally suited. Now, perhaps, they will finally let me die.
- Sheridan: I think that might be wise.
- Sebastian: [turning to board a Vorlon transport] Good luck to you in your holy cause, Captain Sheridan. May your choices have better results than mine. Remembered not as a messenger, remembered not as a reformer, not as a prophet, not as a hero…not even as Sebastian. Remembered only…as Jack.
[edit] The Fall of Night
- [At a bar on the Zocalo]
- Lennier: Sometimes I get so close, and yet it seems I'm shut out of the important things.
- Vir Cotto: It's a useless feeling! The ambassador is definitely going through some changes. He even looks different!
- Lennier: Indeed! And now with the military starting to stampede over everyone and everything…
- Vir: People coming and going and secret meetings!
- Lennier: You never know what it's all about. Until later, when it's too late.
- Vir: And they never listen to us.
- Vir, Lennier: [in unison] Makes me nervous!
- [They turn and look at each other, then back to the bar again]
- Vir: Same time tomorrow?
- Lennier: Sure.
- [Keffer is describing a Shadow vessel to a fellow pilot, who has seen the same thing.]
- Lt. Warren Keffer: It was jet black. A shade of black so deep your eye just kinda slides off it. And it shimmered when you looked at it. A spider big as death and twice as ugly. And when it flies past, it's like you hear a scream in your mind.
- [Lantze surprises the B5 staff with the true purpose of his visit.]
- Frederick Lantze: I'm here to sign a non-aggression treaty with the Centauri. Before I leave here, there will be an Earth-Centauri alliance that will guarantee peace for Earth. We will, at last, know peace in our time.
- [Sheridan is told that the Joint Chiefs have ordered him to apologize to the Centauri.]
- John Sheridan: I suppose this…apology is already written?
- Mr. Welles: No need. You can phrase the apology any way you see fit. As with everything else, it's the thought that counts.
- [Sheridan practices his apology to the Centauri government before a mirror.]
- Sheridan: I apologize. I'm…sorry. [sighs] I'm sorry we had to defend ourselves against an unwarranted attack. I'm sorry that your crew was stupid enough to fire on a station filled with a quarter million civilians, including your own people. And I'm sorry I waited as long as I did before I blew them all straight to hell! [pauses] As with everything else, it's the thought that counts.
- [last lines of the season]
- Susan Ivanova: It was the end of the Earth year 2259, and the war was upon us. As anticipated, a few days after the Earth-Centauri treaty was announced, the Centauri widened their war to include many of the Non-Aligned Worlds. And there was another war brewing closer to home. A personal one whose cost would be higher than any of us could imagine. We came to this place because Babylon 5 was our last, best hope for peace. By the end of 2259, we knew that it had failed. But in so doing, it became something greater. As the war expanded, it became our last, best hope for victory. Because sometimes peace is another word for surrender…and because secrets have a way of getting out.
- [ISN news shows Lt. Keffer's recordings of a Shadow vessel]
- Newscaster: When our ship encountered a distress beacon attached to an EarthForce recording device, these images, released exclusively to ISN, were found on that recording. Strategic analysts in Earth Dome have indicated they don't know who this new race might be, but promise to find out.
[edit] Season 3: Point of No Return
- [Opening credits voiceover.]
- Susan Ivanova: The Babylon Project was our last, best hope for peace. It failed. But in the year of the Shadow War, it became something greater: our last, best hope…for victory. The year is 2260. The place, Babylon 5.
[edit] Matters of Honor
- [Sheridan approaches Kosh to thank him for saving his life.]
- John Sheridan: You've been back and forth to your homeworld so many times since you got here, how do I know you're the same Vorlon? Inside that Encounter Suit you could be anyone.
- Kosh: I have always been here.
- Sheridan: Oh yeah? You said that about me too.
- Kosh: Yes.
- Sheridan: [slightly unnerved] I really hate it when you do that.
- Kosh: Good.
- [Ivanova chides Sheridan on his impatience over an arriving VIP on a mysterious mission.]
- Susan Ivanova: Leave it to you to try and take all the fun out of life. I mean, come on, where's your sense of mystery, of adventure?
- Sheridan: Are you trying to cheer me up?
- Ivanova: No, sir! Wouldn't dream of it.
- Sheridan: Good! I hate being cheered up. It's…depressing.
- Ivanova: So, in that case…we're all going to die horrible, painful, lingering deaths.
- Sheridan: Thank you. I feel so much better now.
- [Ivanova preempts Sheridan's belated revelation of the Rangers by detailing what he was going to say.]
- Ivanova: Captain, the day something happens around here and I don't know about it, worry.
- [Marcus shows off a brand-new ship to Sheridan and Ivanova.]
- Sheridan: My God! It's beautiful!
- Marcus Cole: Her name is the White Star. And she's yours, Captain.
- David Endawi, EarthForce Intelligence: This is quite irregular, Mr. Garibaldi! I was assured that Captain Sheridan or Commander Ivanova would be available!
- Michael Garibaldi: They got called away on urgent business.
- Endawi: What kind of business?
- Garibaldi: I'm not authorized for that kind of information.
- Endawi: But…you're the head of Security.
- Garibaldi: And what kind of head of Security would I be if I let people like me know things that I'm not supposed to know? [I mean,] I know what I know because I have to know it, and if I don't have to know it, I don't tell me, and I don't let anyone else tell me, either. Now look, we've tried most of the other ambassadors. Why don't you speak to G'Kar? Maybe he knows something about this ship.
- Endawi: Under the terms of our recent treaty, I am not authorized to have any official conversation with the Narn without Centauri approval.
- Garibaldi: So you'll ask unofficially. And I can give you reasonable assurances that the head of Security will not report you for doing so.
- Endawi: [slowly] Because you won't tell yourself about it.
- Garibaldi: I try never to get involved in my own life. Too much trouble.
- Endawi: [confused] This is a very strange place you have here, Mr. Garibaldi.
- Garibaldi: Thank you.
- [The White Star is fleeing a Shadow ship in hyperspace, and Sheridan has an idea for beating it.]
- Sheridan: Tell me, Commander…have you ever wondered what would happen if you opened a jump point while inside a jump gate?
- Ivanova: No! And neither should you! EarthForce experimented with the idea during the Minbari War. They called it the Bonehead Maneuver. [to Lennier] No offense.
- Lennier: [more curious than offended] None taken.
- [A clandestine trio on Earth consider the premature leak of a Shadow ship sighting.]
- Morden: Your government can dismiss this as an isolated incident.
- Psi Cop: I don't know. There's something about this idea of a threat to planetary security I find very appealing. As long as we keep the real truth to ourselves, there's no reason we can't use this situation to speed up the program here at home.
[edit] Convictions
- [Drazi missionaries ask a distracted Garibaldi about the recent sighting of their holy figure Droshalla.]
- Michael Garibaldi: Zack, do me a favor and explain the missionary, uh… position to these folks.
- [Lennier is in the arrivals area, stuck between two humans--one drunk, one sleeping on his shoulder.]
- Drunk: I said "Sheila," "Sheila," I says, "you change that vid channel one more time and I'm outta here, you got it?" Well, she did, I did, and here I am! You shoulda seen the look on her face, let me tell you! But it's great! I get to meet all kinds of people! I mean, look! Me sitting next to you, a Minbari! You know, us in that war and all. But I don't hold a grudge, no sir! You know what? I say live and let live! You know, look, I got hair, you got a bone! So where you goin'?
- Lennier: Home. I have been diagnosed with Netter's Syndrome. Since I have only seven days to live, I thought I would return home to put my affairs in order before the end.
- Drunk: Netter's Syndrome? I've had a few syndromes, but I've never heard of that one.
- Lennier: Neither had I. Apparently it's spread by physical contact.
- [The drunk realizes he's still got Lennier by the shoulder.]
- Drunk: Uh, I gotta make a call. [He gets up and walks away, while the sleeping human rolls off of Lennier's shoulder.]
- Lennier: [to himself] I will do penance later.
- [Ivanova has recruited Brother Theo and his monks to help locate a bomber.]
- Garibaldi: May I be the first to say that this is the nuttiest idea you've ever had.
- Susan Ivanova: Thank you.
- [Lennier wakes from a coma after saving Londo and Delenn's lives in a bombing.]
- Delenn: Welcome back! How do you feel?
- Lennier: As though a great many heavy objects had fallen on me. But I suspect I will live.
- [Londo and G'Kar are about to be pulled out of a bombed-out transport tube]
- Londo Mollari: There, you see? I'm going to live!
- G'Kar: So it would seem. Well, it is an imperfect universe.
- Londo: Bastard.</