The Pilot and Episode Guide.
Note: The episodes in this guide are listed in the order recommended by J. Michael Straczynski, as aired on the Sci-Fi Channel in April 2001, and not in the order as transmitted on TNT, or in the order of the video tape set.
Although some minor inconsistences and a few problems remain (the change in uniforms is one), this viewing order solves most of the problems which were noticeable in the original airing order, and, it must be said that "Racing The Night" is a superb first episode to the series. - far superior to "War Zone".
A Call To Arms [Pilot Movie]
It is the eve of the fifth anniversary of the formation of the Interstellar Alliance, Michael Garibaldi who has been the head of a top secret project to construct a new destroyer-class starship, combining Earth, Minbari and Vorlon technology, collects President Sheridan for a secret test run of the new ship. However the test run is neither successful nor secret.
Unknown to Sheridan or Garibaldi, an outcast technomage called Galen is watching them. Galen uses the technological magic of his order to contact Sheridan secretly, warning him that the Drakh - the surviving servants of the Shadows - are preparing to launch an attack on Earth. Galen sends Sheridan a vision about a planet called Daltron 7, and also a vision of Babylon 5. Sheridan immediately sets off for Babylon 5 at top speed with Garibaldi in tow, sketching a handful of faces from his vision...faces of people he has never met.
After arriving at the Station, the faces from Sheridan's vision begin to appear - Dureena Nafeel, a skilled thief, and the last known survivor of Zander Prime - a world destroyed by the Shadows. Captain Anderson, an Earthforce officer who like Sheridan and Dureena, has been contacted by Galen through mysterious visions. Sheridan puts a plan in motion to stop the Drakh from attacking Earth, however Anderson points out that his Earthforce heavy cruiser may not be enough to stop the Drakh if they now command abandoned Shadow technology.
Sheridan, Dureena and Anderson quietly slip away to the testing grounds for the two new destroyers and proceed to hijack both ships. Soon the Excalibur and the Victory are en route to Daltron 7, but on arrival find an annihilated world and a dead Drazi. The Drazi left a recorded message with a warning - the Drakh have managed to obtain the last Shadow Planet Killer, the most powerful of all the Shadow weapons, and it is this that the Drakh intend to use on Earth, as an act of vengeance.
Sheridan convinces Captain Lochley to warn Earth of the approaching attack as the Excalibur and the Victory race to lead the battle. But when the Drakh assault on Earth is over, and the Planet Killer is destroyed, the retreating Drakh leave behind their revenge, a biogenetically engineered virus - also leftover Shadow technology. The virus has an incubation period of about five years, after which it will essentially wipe out the human race.
There is only one hope, to search the galaxy for the ancient places that the "First Ones" inhabited, in the hope that somewhere in the remains of their ancient cities, there may be a sealed vault with the answer. The Excalibur is the ship sent out on this mission, but there is only five years in which to find the cure...
Racing The Night
[original episode number
109]
On a world that appears to be dead, the crew discovers equations for propulsion, energy creation, alloy-making - almost everything but medical technology. Strangely, these equations are not complete. To add to the mystery, Dr. Sarah Chambers discovers dozens of flakes of DNA from around 30 different alien species from over the last 50 years. Dureena in her explorations also makes some disturbing discoveries.
A IPX technician is
mysteriously killed, and his body is vivisected. Other attacks follow,
prompting Galen to send a holographic homunculus out as bait. leading to the
discovery of the desperate lengths one race went to stave off
death...
Some memorable quotes:
The Needs of
Earth
[original episode
number 111]
Captain Gideon receives an important message from the Rangers: an alien race, the Moradi, are searching for a criminal they cannot retrieve easily. Hoping to gain knowledge that will help the Excalibur avoid several years of searching, Gideon agrees to find the criminal Natchok Var, who has stolen several datacrystals filled with important information.
There are several hitches to Gideon's plan, Natchok Var has been captured by bounty hunters on Praxis 9. Praxis 9 is a planet with a poisonous atmosphere. Dureena Nafeel has been there before and knows Praxis 9 well enough to sneak Gideon and herself into the main dome. But there is more about Praxis 9 that Dureena knows, that she does not discuss with anyone.
On rescuing Natchok Var, Gideon discovers that the knowledge the alien protects isn't going to be given up lightly, and that not all treasure troves are what they first seem.
Some memorable quotes:
The Memory of
War
[original episode number
110]
Four months into its mission, Gideon finds a world for which he has long been searching. Although the race which once populated this world is dead, its edifices remain intact. But there is much more to this world than meets the eye.
Although Max is elated - perhaps he will now find some technology worth exploiting. But Galen is concerned. For a century, Technomages have been warned away from the planet. The one mage who refused to believe the warnings was destroyed after managing to send out a single message: genus locii, ("the spirit of the place.")
Not everything dead on this world remains dead, and when night falls, the "stalking death" strikes.
Some memorable quotes:
The Long
Road
[original episode
number 102]
The ends don't always justify the means. But don't tell that to Earthforce's Captain Daniels, whose strip-mining operation for a anti-viral agent threatens the rural colony on Regula 4. But these neo-Luddite settlers have an ace up their sleeve in the person of Alwyn - a rogue Technomage.
So far, Alwyn has delayed Daniel's operation with pyrotechnics and frightening manifestations, but a group of settlers has taken the fight out of his hands. When Gideon and Galen arrive, matters are starting to turn nasty.
Some memorable quotes:
Visitors
From Down The Street
[original episode number
112]
Two aliens are retrieved from a drifting life pod, but instead of showing gratitude when brought aboard Excalibur, they take a hostage and accuse Gideon of imprisoning, torturing and murdering their race - but when Matheson checks with Earth, there is no record of any contact with this species. Gideon learns from the male alien, Durkani, that his race's deep space probes have photographed Earth, and that some kind of spacecraft from Earth supposedly crash-landed on their world, causing a firestorm of speculation and paranoia.
Durkani and his colleague, Lyssa, have spent years investigating the rumours, the leads, and the scant evidence, until finally the authorities closed in on them and forced them to flee. Durkani believes that he and Lyssa were getting too close to secrets being concealed by the government - secrets pointing to a long-range plan for a takeover by the human race.
Of course Gideon doesn't believe a word of it - but when another member of the same species approaches in another ship, demanding that Durkani and Lyssa be handed over for summary execution, Gideon wonders if the two might be on to something very real.
Some memorable quotes:
The Well of
Forever
[original episode number
103]
"Mr. Jones," a monitor from the Bureau of Telepath Integration for the Senate Committee for Metasensory Abilities has arrived to test Lt. Matheson, to make certain he has not broken any of the new rules for telepaths. Gideon is concerned that this is the second time in six months, that Matheson has been subjected to this, but he is assured that the tests are necessary.
Galen shows the Excalibur's officers a stone that will lead them to the Well of Forever. Intrigued by the possibility that this place "where questions are answered" might be able to help with Excalibur's quest, Gideon agrees. As they travel farther off the beacon into hyperspace, they begin to discover new life-forms, including an embarrassing incident with the Fen. There are many problems to solve, Eilerson's greedy nature rises to the surface, and "Mr. Jones" wants to know more than he should about the Excalibur's destination. Which raises the question of who watches the watchers.
Some memorable quotes:
Each Night I
Dream of Home
[original episode
number 113]
Gideon is annoyed when the Excalibur is sent to rendezvous with a special courier for a top-secret mission by an Earth senator. Gideon and the crew are told nothing by the senator or his companion - a rather bland little plumber. The mystery deepens when the Excalibur is ordered back to Earth. But when the Excalibur encounters a disabled Starfury, Gideon decides to stop and rescue its nearly dead pilot: Captain Elizabeth Lochley.
After telling Lochley that he can't tell her anything about the mission, Gideon and Excalibur continue to Earth to pick up a very special person who will help them test the baseline for the Drakh Plague - Dr. Stephen Franklin. But as they begin to check the details for Dr. Franklin, the little plumber who will serve as Franklin's baseline, makes an unauthorized call. It's only to his sweetheart on Earth - but more than his sweetheart is listening to this transmission.
Some memorable quotes:
Patterns of
The Soul
[original episode number
105]
Earth diverts the Excalibur from its next investigation, in order to test a group of refugees from the Drakh War for the plague. The orders do not sit well with Eilerson, who is under pressure from IPX to report something profitable. They are even less popular with the refugees, whos suspicions of Earthforce's motives only grow when Chambers' tests confirm they were infected - but probably after they left Earth.
Dureena discovers that others escaped her world before the planet-killer destroyed them - but now the plague threatens to finish the job. A borrowed security code helped Gideon uncover the refugees' past as military test subjects, but before he can offer any help, some of the refugees take Dr. Chambers hostage and demand to leave the planet ... thus running the risk of spreading the virus across the galaxy.
Some memorable quotes:
The Path of
Sorrows
[original episode number
104]
"Enter freely through the Path of Sorrows." A simple enough instruction, but one that baffled Excalibur's crew until Galen suddenly realises what it means. After upsetting Dureena, Galen uses her tears to open the door to this dark tower on this strange world. Inside the building there is a large globe that appears to contain a reptilian creature with a sad looking face.
Unwilling to leave it behind, Gideon has the globe transferred back up to the Excalibur for further study. The mysterious creature has the power to peer into the souls of those around it. It leads Gideon and a few other members of his crew into unwelcome forays down memory lane.
Some memorable quotes:
Ruling From
The Tomb
[original episode number 106]
The Excalibur with Captain Gideon is on hand at a Mars Conference on the Drakh virus. Annoyed at being called away from his job, Gideon finds himself butting heads with Captain Elizabeth Lochley, fresh from Babylon 5 to provide additional security at the event. And Lochley finds herself crossing swords with Carr, the Mars raised officer supervising the situation for Mars.
As the two captains learn how to co-operate - in more ways than one - a group of religious zealots plot to blow up the conference on behalf of God. Meanwhile, the whole affair prompts some soul searching on the part of shuttle pilot, Trace Miller.
Some memorable quotes:
The Rules of
the Game
[original episode number
107]
Captain Gideon arrives at Babylon 5 to negotiate for the rights to land on the Lorkan Homeworld (Lorka 7). The Brakiri ambassador refuses to allow it, so Lochley and Gideon attempt to negotiate directly with the two Lorkan reps on Babylon 5. However the Lorkans consider themselves to be morally superior to all the other galactic races and see the humans as an unwanted taint in the perfect picture they have of themselves. When Gideon persists, the Lorkans decide on a more permanent end to the debate.
Meanwhile, Max Eilerson's ex-wife, Cynthia Allen shows up with a request for help. Cynthia has borrowed money from the wrong people, so Max decides to fix things his own way. We learn that Max has just three loves, his work, his cat (Mr. Kitty), and his ex-wife.
Note: The cat, Mr. Kitty, mentioned in this episode, and shown as an inmemorian note at the end of the episode, was a reference to Straczynski's own cat of the same name. It died of leukemia (as a complication of feline AIDS) on May 17th 1999.
Some memorable quotes:
War
Zone
[original episode number
101]
Matthew Gideon is the newly-commissioned captain of the prototype destroyer, Excalibur, the one-of-a-kind ship that will spearhead the search for a cure to the plague unleashed by the Drakh. His first mission is to seize a downed Drakh craft on Ceti 4.
Meanwhile, Interplanetary Expedition's Max Eilerson, finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time, as the archaeological find of a lifetime, becomes the stage for a battle between the Excalibur and a band of grounded Drakh.
Some memorable quotes:
Note: This episode was made when the network decided that the original opening episode [Racing the Night], didn't explain the situation well enough for their target audience. So for this one they wanted large amounts of exposition. They also wanted it to start off with a fistfight, include a "cool" fighter jock, and contain video footage of the riots on Earth (something that was impossible to film within the series budget, forcing the produces to insert stock news footage.
Appearances
and other Deceits
[original
episode number 108]
Two visitors from EarthGov have come aboard Excalibur to make certain the right "impact" is made on the panicked people back on Earth. But their suggestions are little more than new colours for the wardroom and new uniforms, and Gideon is - to put it mildly - unsympathetic.
But Gideon is quick to do all he can to determine the race and culture which has created the ship that now lies derelict in Excalibur's path. But the sole survivor aboard the alien ship threatens the entire mission...
Some memorable quotes:
Note: This episode, the last one produced is said to contain numerous allusions to the interference the show suffered. This episode was also written in such a way as to enable the screening of the first five episodes produced (101 - 105) which feature different uniforms and a more spartan Excalibur.
Note: The series was terminated at this point. At the time, three additional scripts were finished, but not produced. The scripts were:
Both the above scripts written by J. Michael Straczynski, and both dealing with the mysterious ship seen in the "Path of Sorrows".
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