We have hit Season 3, widely regarded as the best season of the whole show! I am also among those who consider it Babylon 5 at it’s height.  If you think of Babylon 5 as one long story from Season 1-5 then it makes sense that Season 3 is where the action is.  Before we dive into that action from a narrative standpoint, we need a smaller episode to set the table for the season, and to keep everyone up to date.

Part of that continuity is the very opening shots showing the repair work being done to fix the damage from “The Fall of Night”.  We also get a small recapish scene between Sheridan and Kosh, where it really feels like Kosh is letting his guard down a bit with Sheridan now that the captain knows about his secret.  I enjoy it when Kosh gets a bit silly and his responses of “good” to Sheridan’s complaints about Vorlons are pretty fun. 

We get our first action scene of the season with a Drazi ship evading some space turrets.  The Drazi pilot manages to eject a smaller ship before being blasted to bits, and the mysterious stranger on the smaller ship manages to make it to the jump gate and sets his destination as Babylon 5. 

There are new credits! The differences between Season 1 and Season 2’s openings were small, mostly just having Bruce Boxleitner deliver the lines.  For Season 3 we get Ivanova echoing her final lines from Season 2, which talk about the Babylon project failing.  We also get shocking footage of two starfury fighters attacking each other.  It was certainly a departure if you were one of the fans watching as it all rolled out. If you watch the whole sequence, it also mildly spoils the fact that our mysterious stranger is Marcus Cole, played by Jason Carter, and he is now in the main cast. 

Sheridan and Ivanova have been pulled to meet a VIP from Earth at customs, and Sheridan whines about it.  The man introduces himself as David Endawi from EarthForce Special Intelligence, and he is apologetic and polite about the delay.  He is on the station to try and figure out any information that is available about the Shadow ship that killed Lt. Keffer.  He asks Delenn directly, and she does her Minbari thing of lying without really lying, telling him she has never seen a ship like that before.  Sheridan confronts her and she admits that based on descriptions that it is indeed a Shadow vessel.

Garibaldi delivers the unconscious Marcus to the new and improved Medlab set, and he leaves before Franklin reveals the pin that identifies Marcus as a ranger, though you would think that Garibaldi would have recognized the basic outfit.  Marcus manages to give the good doctor the slip while his back is turned. 

Londo gets a scene with Morden where he decides to cut ties.  Londo is pretty excited about the prospect of getting rid of Morden and the Shadows, and letting his people go and rampage through the galaxy on their own.  Morden starts to leave, but he gets a reminder from a Shadow to make a follow up appointment. 

Mr. Endawi having struck out with Delenn begins making his polite inquiries to other ambassadors starting with Londo.  Londo is awestruck by the image, but is less than helpful telling the confused Endawi that he has seen ships like it in a dream, flying overhead of the palace back on Centauri Prime.  

Marcus meanwhile arranges a clandestine meeting with Lennier and Delenn to ask for their help.  They move off to a more private setting to discuss it, and get jumped by local criminals, where Marcus shows off the fighting skills of the Rangers, and his toy a Mibari Fighting Pike, which can collapse down into a small soda can size.  Eventually everyone makes it to a conference room, where Ivanova reveals that she knows all about the Rangers and how they operate.  Marcus then lets everyone know that he came from a Drazi planet called Zagros 7 where some Rangers are trained. The colony has been surrounded by Centauri blockade mines, and he his asking for their help to break the blockade and rescue the trainees.  Sheridan agrees and Delenn and Marcus indicate that they have some resources that will help.

Morden and Londo have their follow appointment where they divide the galaxy between them.  Morden also lets slip that it was the Shadows that are behind the mines at Zagros 7 and that he is now using Lord Refa, to help him with the Centauri Republic.  

Sheridan and the others get introduced to the White Star, a brand new Vorlon-Minbari hybrid warship.  They put the ship at his command, and they set off for Zagros 7 to rescue the colony.  As they travel Marcus and Ivanova have a small conversation about how he joined up.  Marcus tells the story of his brother and his colony being killed by the Shadows.  The White Star arrives to the planet and they make quick work of the mines before a Shadow ship arrives to attack.  Delenn is mystified when the Shadow ship misses them.  Sheridan guesses that they are trying to figure out what race the White Star is from, and he uses that to lure them into a trap.  Using the Markab jump gate he does a techno babble thing that manages to destroy the Shadow ship.

Endawi continues his inquiries with G’Kar and gets more confusing information when G’Kar shows him an illustration of the ship in his holy book from 1000 years ago.  He describes how the Shadows set up a base on their planet and how G’Quan believed they were engaged in a war far from Narn.  

Plots collide when Endawi, who has been suspicious about Sheridan’s absence, confronts the group when they get back from their mission.  Delenn jumps in with a plausible lie about the situation and he seems satisfied before leaving.  He goes straight back to Earth and delivers his report.  His superior is happy with the results and after he leaves she tells Morden and a random PsiCop that everything is fine as the Shadow ship is a mystery to everyone.  The PsiCop wants to use the fear of the situation to speed up “the program”, and we cut away.

We get a final scene where poor Dr. Franklin gets let in on the Shadows, the Rangers and the whole bit, so that now the whole main Earth cast are all in the loop.

Season 3 has begun! Next week we get introduced to some new recurring characters, and suffer a mad bomber in Convictions!

As always the show is available to watch for free on Tubi with ads. 

Where do I know them from?

• Jason Carter arrives as Marcus Cole! Babylon 5 is the single biggest thing he has done, as other than that he has bounced around low budget film, and one episode appearances. 
• Tucker Smallwood has had a long career in scifi and other works.  He was in Space Above and Beyond as Commodore Ross, and he was also the Sheriff in The X-files episode “Home”. 

The Good

• The episode introduces us to Marcus, the White Star, and gets everyone up to speed and it does it efficiently.  With how packed the season is, I appreciate how much table setting they cram in.

The Bad

• I feel like they could have done a better job integrating Franklin into the plot rather than just have him sit and get an exposition dump from Delenn, but it was a busy episode. 

Arc Points (Spoilers Ahead)

• Marcus arrives, and in this episode is quite serious and dour, with nothing to hint at his more whimsical oddball tendencies, that for me are the best part of his character.
• The White Star arrives too, and while they still have some work to do on the interior sets, it does make a great impression overall.
• Sheridan gets to prove that he is very good at taking on impossible odds once again, as this is the first time we have seen a Shadow ship destroyed.
• I quite like that Endawi is polite and efficient, and it seems that he is not in on any of the conspiracy going on back home.  A good reminder that there can be hard working, decent folks that are unknowingly helping a regime.