SUMMARY: For ten years since the Earth-Minbari war, Jeffrey Sinclair, is tortured by nightmares about the Battle of the Line. In this final battle in the Great War, young Sinclair inadvertently led his fighter squadron into a Minbari trap. His squadron was destroyed except for him.
Twenty-four hours later, the superior Minbari forces unexplainably surrendered to Earth. Unfortunately, Sinclair has no memories of what happened to him during those 24 hours.
Two mysterious humans, known only as Knight One and Knight Two , smuggle strange, experimental equipment aboard Babylon 5. They kidnap Sinclair and seclude him in a room deep inside the station.
Using advanced drugs and technology, the Knights connect Sinclair to cybernetic inputs that allow their images to
interact with the images hidden within Sinclair's memory. The Knights hope to replay and analyze Sinclair's final moments during the battle until they learn what happened to him during that mysterious 24-hour period.
Sinclair's absence is soon discovered by Ivanova and Garibaldi. They order an immediate search of every room on Babylon 5.
Delenn, the resident Minbari ambassador, is especially concerned by Sinclair's disappearance.
Meanwhile, the Knights probe Sinclair's subconscious immediately after he tried to ram his space fighter into a Minbari warship at the climax of the battle. They see Sinclair brought inside the warship with a tractor beam,
surrounded by the hooded figures of the Minbari Grey Council, including Delenn. She shoots him with a strange energy discharge, but Sinclair's memory of this pain is so strong that it shocks his mind and body free of the Knights' cybernetic restraints.
Sinclair escapes from the Knights. Security monitors quickly locate him stumbling along a corridor. Under Dr. Franklin's care, Sinclair soon recovers from his ordeal. Garibaldi arrests the Knights, revealing that they were part of an Earth-based supremacy group who suspected Sinclair of
conspiring with the Minbari. Suspicious of Delenn's friendship now that he remembers what she and the Grey Council did to him, Sinclair tells her that his memory is still unclear about what happened after the battle.
However, the Grey Council secretly advises Delenn that if Sinclair ever learns the truth, he must die.
BRASH REFLECTIONS:
Well, this episode, the first time I saw this, I wondered what the point was. Then I continued watching the series and saw how little by little this entire season was a build up for War Without End parts 1 and 2.
One question though. Why does Judson Scott always play the bad guys on these series.
I understand that Walter Koenig was suppose to be one of those guys instead of Bester originally. Would anyone happen to know which one?
I think it was the guy who interigate Sinclair inside of his mind.
The actors who play the two 'Knights' have appeared in quitea bit of TV. Christopher Neame, the one probing Sinclairs mind appeared in the 70's BBC show, Colditz.
The other guy, Judson Scott, appeared as Khan's sidekick Joachim in Star Trek II:The Wrath of Khan. Also as Visitor Lieutenant James in the V series.
Nit-wise...
At one point, the Christopher Neame bloke says that smart money said Sinclair would make Admiral. The money can't have been that smart - Earthforce has Generals, not Admirals.
Like the Barrayaran Service in Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga, Earthforce has combined all aspects of military service into one organization and also has a similar confusion about ranks. You'll notice that some characters have rank titles that are only in the Navy, such as Commander Sinclair.
Plus an Admiral is referred to by name at least once, most likely during the first season.
Ok according to the Babylon Project Earthforce Game Reference and a couple of other refence books for the show. Earthforce is a combined forces. There are "naval" ranks for those serving in fleet, while "marine" ranks for the groupos. There are some crossovers between the two as a Ground Forces officer can be assigened to a space station or ship eventually. Like the real military there are some similar names as well (ie both have a captain, both have a lieutenant rank) I am not sure if this helps but I thought I would mention it at least.
To back up Lolar, I can think of a few.
Colonel Ari Ben Zayn is more an 'Army rank'. Note his olive coloured uniform.
Major Ryan in the thirds seasons 'Severed Dreams' as well.
Thank you.
The Minbari in Delenn’s quarters tells her that if Sinclair should remember what happened on board the Minbari ship, he must be killed. However, in future episodes we learn that the Minbari surrendered because they discovered that Minbari souls are now being reborn into humans. How can Sinclair be killed, especially as they know for certain that he definitely has a Minbari soul?
I guess they decided that killing one mimbari soul was less objectionable than letting the truth get out.
Ruminations
- Sinclair: "Everyone lies" Then his speech on why and his orders to Garibaldi were some good words of wisdom.
Stephen: "What did you do during the war?"
Delinn: I led the assault to exterminate your kind... oh and I started the whole thing too.
- The tone of Delinn's question to Stephen, "did you," seems rather accusatory given her role in the war.
- Everytime someting occurs in someone's head, there seems to be a noticable heart beat in the background...
- Sinclair must never find out, if he does, he must die? They're going to kill Valen?
- Sinclair must never find out, if he does, he must die? They're going to kill Valen?
Well, they don't know Sinclair is/will be Valen at this point. They only know that he has Valens soul.
Having said that it does seem a very strange thing to have said - the Mimbari ended the war because 'no Mimbari has killed another' for at least 1000 years and humans were found to contain Mimbari souls (be part Mimbari). Hence they couldn't continue the war without killing part of themselves.
They seem, however, to be willing to ignore the reason why they stopped the war in order to hide the reason why they stopped the war. In hindsight (from as early as the first episode of season 2) this makes no sense at all.