Bester arrives to try to retrieve the refugee telepaths. Garibaldi confronts Lochley. Delenn chooses a bodyguard for Londo.

Lyta's power has limits, though even she doesn't know exactly what they are. Could she have held off all of Bester's men? Is she telekinetic, or was she simply activating nerve endings as Bester speculated?

What's the significance of Lyta removing her Psi Corps badge as she joined Byron's song? Is she officially resigning her fake Corps membership ("Moments of Transition?") If so, does that mean that the entire contract with Bester is canceled, or just that she's giving up the benefits of supposed Corps membership? Will she be considered a rogue when Bester returns in sixty days? Or did she just remove it to be polite and avoid offending the others?

Lyta has all the makings of a cult member: she feels abandoned by the world, she appears to have a need to follow someone (be it Kosh or Sheridan or Byron,) and she's used to complying with others' demands without question (as Byron pointed out in "The Paragon of Animals.") Byron's group appears very much like a cult: a small group of people who feel they're different than everyone else (in this case, of course, they are) and a charismatic leader who's willing to sacrifice himself for his cause and to give personal attention to each of his people. He's even holding out the hope of a promised land in the form of B5 (and eventually a homeworld.)

Now that G'Kar is Londo's bodyguard, who will represent the Narn on the Alliance advisory council? Does G'Kar retain his position as ambassador? If not, isn't appointment as Londo's bodyguard a rather substantial demotion?

Originally posted by Gamblor187
Are the B5 books worth picking up?

jim

Franklin discovers one race's centuries-old secret. Byron and Lyta reach an understanding.

Byron said he didn't know who had taken revenge for the attack. That's odd, considering that he has previously said, in "The Paragon of Animals," that his people don't hide their thoughts from one another. Perhaps Lyta was the murderer; she's the one person who has been consistently shielding herself from him, and she certainly didn't seem to share his nonviolent philosophy.

How widespread among the refugee telepaths was the desire to retaliate violently? Byron said not all of his people were in favor of the idea. Are the majority of the refugees dedicated to nonviolence? If not, would his presence have prevented the attacks? His strong sense of self-importance lead him to believe he could have stopped the murder, but that's not necessarily true -- it might have happened over his objections had he been there.

Given the Psi Corps' intense interest in telekinetics ("Mind War") they're not likely to take kindly to the news that Byron is harboring at least one teek. And it appeared that Byron had given Peter some kind of telekinetic training (Peter said he'd been practicing just like Byron told him to) which suggests more than a passing familiarity with telekinesis on Byron's part.

Originally posted by Bandoman
Jeez, I'm only up to "Paragon of Animals". I need to catch up.

Byron's telepaths present the Interstellar Alliance with an ultimatum. Londo and his bodyguard visit Centauri Prime.

The aliens were almost certainly allies of the Shadows. They're also almost certainly behind the attacks on Alliance ships, which bear some resemblance to the Shadows' tactics: random strikes of no seeming military value, designed apparently to demoralize the Alliance and cause conflicts within its ranks. They also appear to have the ability to turn invisible, a signature Shadow technological trick.

Are the aliens related to the Drakh, or are they a totally different Shadow ally? If the latter, how many ally races did the Shadows have?

Are the aliens telepathic as well as telekinetic? Ironheart implied that only telepaths can be telekinetic ("Mind War.") But of course that might only apply to Vorlon-induced telepathy. As Byron told his people, on some worlds telepaths evolved naturally, and those worlds might have evolved telekinesis. It's also possible that the aliens stopped the knife from hitting Londo via some technological means, rather than via psi power.

Lord Vole might have also been behind the previous attempt on Londo's life ("Strange Relations.")

The militant faction of telepaths is much more likely than Byron's faction to hold Garibaldi hostage ("The Deconstruction of Falling Stars.") They aren't opposed to the use of violence to get what they want, and they're loose on the station; Byron's people will, by his own admission, eventually be reached and arrested unless the Alliance decides otherwise in the meantime.

Sheridan still sits behind the "Earth Alliance" placard at Council meetings. Is he the Earth Alliance representative? If not, who is, and why wasn't that person present at the council? Given that Sheridan is still held in contempt by some people back on Earth, it seems like an unacceptable conflict of interest for him to represent both Earth and the Alliance as a whole.

The telepath situation continues to deteriorate. The attacks on Alliance ships continue. Londo and G'Kar find an old friend in a nearly forgotten place.

The increased weapons production is presumably being used at least in part to back the attacks on Alliance ships. But a sustained increase of 15 percent in the manufacturing output of a technologically advanced race like the Centauri would produce a lot of weapons and supplies. Is someone stockpiling arms for a larger conflict? Are other races' production facilities being similarly coopted?

The Centauri may be easier to use for such purposes than many other races because of their unquestioning acceptance of monarchy, as Londo demonstrated; if the order to increase production looked like it came from the Royal Court, most Centauri probably wouldn't question it in public.

The telepath situation becomes critical and Bester attempts to take control, triggering a strong reaction by Garibaldi.

The militant telepaths made poor use of their talents in combat. They appeared to rely on verbal communication. Granted, none of them had military training (or at least, it wasn't stated) but for a group whose stated purpose was being able to make free, unrestrained use of their telepathic abilities, it's odd that they didn't do so when it would have been of some tactical advantage.

Were all the militant telepaths really killed? Sheridan had only Byron's statement that the identicards and confessions represented all the militants. Byron didn't have any reason to want to lie, but was he able to extract confessions from all the parties responsible for the violence? All the confessions and cards were probably those of violent telepaths, but Sheridan had no way of knowing that it was a complete set, despite Byron's promise that Sheridan would have everything he needed to be sure.

Does Garibaldi's conditioning prevent him from revealing its presence to people who might be in a position to either remove it or take revenge on Bester for him? He appeared to be having some difficulty asking Franklin about circumventing it. Could he, for example, tell Lise about it? If not, how will he explain his return to the bottle?

Originally posted by Chew
Today's Episode: "Phoenix Rising"

Originally posted by dstrauss
This was the episode that was filming the day my wife and I visited the B5 set. It was very cool to see a little glimpse of how the show I loved was really made.

Originally posted by Josh-da-man
Yes!

Unlike "Star Wars" and "Star Trek" books, (most) of the Babylon 5 books actually function to fill in holes in main story. So an upcoming episode or movie isn't going to contradict anything you read in the novels, and might even build on it a bit. These books are just as much a part of the overall story as the filmed episodes.

The JMS-approved books are:

"Shadow Within" by Jeanne Cavelos (Tells the story of what happened to Anna Sheridan, Morden, and the rest of the crew of The Icarus when they landed on Z'Ha'Dum.)

"To Dream in the City of Sorrows" by Kathryn Drennan (Written by JMS's wife, this follows Sinclair's adventures after he left Babylon 5 and went to Mibar to train with the Rangers.)

The following books are three trilogies, all written from outlines supplied by JMS.

The Psi-Corps Trilogy by Gregory Keyes
1. Dark Genesis: The Birth of the Psi-Corps
2. Deadly Relations: Bester Ascendent
3. Final Reckoning: The Fate of Bester

The titles of these books are pretty self-explanatory.

Legions of Fire by Peter David (The Centauri Prime Trilogy)
1. The Long Night of Centauri Prime
2. Armies of Light and Dark
3. Out of the Darkness

The Centauri Prime Trilogy picks up where the fifth season left off. It also picks up the David Sheridan storyline that was brought up in "War Without End."

The Passing of the Technomages by Jeanne Cavelos
1. Casting Shadows
2. Summoning Light
3. Invoking Darkness

This trilogy involves the Technomages (last seen in Season Two, leaving the galaxy before the Shadow War). In this series, you will learn about the origin of the Technomages and more of their secrets. This trilogy ties in with the aborted "Crusade" series, so if you wish to remain absolutely spoiler-free, you should probably wait to read this until you've seen "Crusade." But since "Crusade" was scuttled after only thirteen episodes were filmed, there isn't much to spoil.

There were eighteen original Babylon 5 novels published, but these eleven are the only ones you need to concern yourself with. The other seven, which I haven't listed, are of varying quality and are not considered canonical.

Originally posted by Gamblor187
Do I have to read the books in order? Obviously, the first two books take place before The Centauri Prime trilogy, but the ones in that trilogy are the books that I'm most interested in, especially since I'll probably finish with the season 5 DVDs this weekend.

jim

I know I've been absent for a while now, but there are reasons, especially in regards to B5:TMoS. In a project of this nature, and this size, there's stage one (let's do this) stage two (let's make everybody's deal) and stage three (making it). We're hip-deep in stage two just now, and it's taking a freaking long amount of time to get through it all. Stage two is also the most unnerving and nerve-wracking stage when there's a lot of money involved, as there is in this situation.

So every day is a case of "Are we there yet?" and being told yes...almost.

I swear, it's the kind of thing that could lead a monk to murder.

Thing of it is...there's a LOT happening right now in the B5 universe, on a multitude of fronts, some of it in response to TMoS, some of it coming up completely on its own. All I can say at this moment is that if you've been waiting for new stuff in the B5 universe, you may be getting your wish in spades very soon.

Soon, I promise, all will be made clear. I don't like being Mr. Mysterioso on this, but if I say too much, the-powers-that-be will use my head to make a 2.35:1 sized hole in the wall.

Originally posted by Gamblor187
TMoS???

Originally posted by Chew
More details please! Did you meet anybody? Was Koenig there that day?

Some of the crew are caught with the Brakiri as they celebrate their "Day of the Dead," a remembrance of the recently deceased. A pair of famous entertainers visits the station. Harlan Ellison as the voice of Zooty.

There are two possible explanations for the visitations. First, one of Lochley's suspicions may have been correct, that the whole affair was an illusion or a trick of some kind. A sufficiently powerful telepath might have pulled memories of Dodger, Adira, Zoe, and Morden from the people in the Brakiri section. The memories of Morden would more likely have come from Londo than from Lennier, of course. Zoe's message from Kosh could have been based on Lennier's memories; Lennier almost certainly knew about the close relationship between Kosh and Sheridan.
The other possibility, of course, is that what appeared to happen really did happen: the dead returned.

If the Day of the Dead can be taken at face value, then given Lyta's description of being inside someone's mind at the time of death ("The Paragon of Animals") and Byron's description of the echoes of a sentient mind persisting in nearby objects after death ("A View from the Gallery") it seems that there's more going on with death in the B5 universe than meets the eye.

It's possible that the echoes mentioned by Byron never actually go away, and that a powerful enough telepath can pick them up long after the fact. In that case, the Day of the Dead may be the result of group telepathy on the part of the Brakiri (several telepaths joining together can produce greatly amplified powers, e.g. in "A Race Through Dark Places.")

Clues to another possibility are found in the Soul Hunters' practice of capturing the souls of the dying ("Soul Hunter.") Perhaps the Soul Hunters aren't the only ones doing so -- and whoever else is involved does it on a much larger scale and in such a way that they aren't noticed. In that case, the tunnel of light Lyta saw in "The Paragon of Animals" might simply be a representation of the dying person's mind being extracted for storage. And her belief that the living aren't supposed to know what's on the other side of that tunnel would be consistent with a clandestine Soul Hunter-esque group that wanted its presence to remain unknown. If that's what's happening, a natural question is, why? And why would that group allow some minds to escape on a day of significance only to the Brakiri? Perhaps the Brakiri are involved with the group somehow.

All the people who returned suffered untimely or violent deaths: Morden was decapitated on Londo's orders ("Into the Fire,") Adira was poisoned ("Interludes and Examinations,") Zoe committed suicide, and Dodger was killed in combat ("GROPOS.") Is that significant, or is it simply that people who die in such a manner are more likely to have unfinished business with the living?

Originally posted by Chew
I sure hope Bando catches up this weekend.