If “Sic Transit Vir” was a bit of a light episode to come down from the previous ones, “A Late Delivery From Avalon” continues that trend.  In addition to the main plot, we have antics concerning the Post Office, as well as a slightly more serious plot about Sheridan recognizing the weakness that was exposed by the Night Watch plot and taking steps to fix it.  This is probably one of my favorites of the lighter, less plot heavy episodes of the season.

We start with Ivanova and Sheridan welcoming a ship through the jumpgate.  They discuss the fact that they need the money that ship docking fees bring in, and Sheridan points out that they will also need to work on building a broad base of support to keep the station safe, instead of relying solely on the Minbari(though that is a great start since their ships are the most powerful).

We jump from the more serious and continuity driven plot to the silly plot of the episode where Garibaldi has to contend with a seriously rude and sarcastic Post Office employee.  Garibaldi had a package come in from Earth but is aghast at the fee to take custody of his package. The employee explains that he is using back channels to keep the mail flowing and that means costs have to go up for the consumers.  We have never seen the post office on B5 but it makes sense that it has one.  

The title plot kicks in as the ship begins to dock, we see an older man dreaming about running down a hallway.  He opens several terrifying doors, before he finds a longsword at the end of the hall and that seems to calm him.  Before we get any more detail we jump to credits. 

Coming back we drop in on Dr. Franklin and Marcus.  Marcus has alerted the good doctor to a disease outbreak amongst the lurkers, mostly because he is the only one of the main characters that spends much time with any of them.  When they get back to Medlab they have a small conversation about the pin that the Rangers wear as well as the somewhat scary sounding training that they undergo.  The two are still chatting when they come across the stranger from the ship. He is wearing armor, wielding a sword and in the middle of stand off with station security.  The man then declares that he is Arthur King of the Britons.  This inspires Marcus to try and talk him down, which Franklin allows.  Marcus successfully convinces Arthur to go with them quietly to Medlab. 

Franklin busies himself with trying to figure out who the man is, and Arthur chides him for his doubts.  Arthur claims to not know how he got there, saying the last thing he remembers was lying wounded on the field of battle from a fight against Mordred.  A barge had appeared and he was taken and healed, and that they told him he would sleep for a while and then return when he was needed. 

Franklin and Marcus fill Garibaldi and Sheridan in on everything. Everyone pretty much agrees that he cannot be Arthur, though Marcus holds out hope.  He points out that Sheridan spent an entire day with Jack the Ripper after all. Franklin disagrees, responding that “Arthur” is speaking modern English. While they debate it, Arthur manages to escape Medlab and begin questing.

Arthur quickly goes to Down Below, and finds a sobbing old woman.  He gallantly agrees to retrieve a picture of her late husband that was stolen because the frame was valuable.  He confronts the men, observed by G’Kar.  After he handily defeats the first wave of henchmen more arrive, and that moves G’Kar to assist Arthur in defeating them.  They return the picture to the woman and then decide to celebrate at a bar.  This is one of my favorite G’Kar scenes, and I love how cathartic he found a simple fight to be, compared to fighting the Centauri or the Shadows.  Also he is an entertaining drunk. 

Garibaldi diverts from looking for Arthur to try and break in to the post office, dragging along a reluctant security officer to help him.  A cute detail is that the security officer that did not flinch when fighting off boarding Marines, is much more worried about getting into “real trouble” because they are messing with the Post Office.  The postmaster catches them in their attempt and adds the costs of the lock they destroyed to Garibaldi’s bill. 

Arthur and Garibaldi are continuing their conversation and Arthur brings up the fact that his last battle was his fault and that he carries guilt over what happened to his knights. This causes him to flash back to his nightmare where he is looking out a door at explosions.  This time we get a glimpse of what he is looking at and see Minbari and Earth fighters attacking each other.  G’Kar snaps him out of it, and he continues his tale, talking about a battle that started out of a misunderstanding.  Marcus interrupts and tries to take Arthur away, though G’Kar defends him, before passing out.  

Ivanova and Sheridan get a scene where they propose a new agreement with the League of Non-Aligned Worlds, offering their services and asking for help in the defense of the station. They point out that many of the nations are at war with each other, and they will be in need of a neutral place to negotiate peace when the time comes.  This whole plot gets a pretty short shift and is almost completely resolved off screen, with most of the nations signing on to the Babylon Treaty. 

Marcus strolls into Medlab to let Franklin know that Garibaldi has been mollified concerning Arthur’s hijinks, but Franklin has to break him the bad news.  Arthur’s DNA was matched by the computer to an Earth Force member named David. Marcus insists that they cannot tell Arthur, and they argue over whether it is better to live a delusion or be confronted with an awful truth.  Meanwhile David/Arthur continues to have nightmares about the Minbari War. 

Franklin follows through and confronts Arthur with the file on David and we get an explanation of what drove him all the way to Camelot.  David was a decorated sailor, who fought in the Battle of the Line but was also assigned to the Prometheus before the war.  It was the ship that encountered the Minbari and accidentally started the Earth-Minbari War and it just so happens to be the fifteenth anniversary of that event. David was actual hand that pulled the trigger that started the war, or the sword that struck the adder from his delusion.  The confrontation causes David to spiral, and he gives voice to his overwhelming survivor’s guilt, before completely shutting down under the barrage of memories.  So great job doc.

Marcus and Franklin meet up again, and Franklin is apologetic about the outcome of his attempt to snap Arthur out of his delusion.  Marcus questions why David came all the way out to Babylon 5 in the first place.  They try to reason out what he was thinking of, comparing his statements to Arthurian legend.  Then they come up a slightly zany solution to the problem, when they ask themselves who the Lady of the Lake could be.  Thankfully Delenn rolls with the nuttiness, mostly because Minbari are all about this kind of thing, and comes to Medlab to take Excalibur from David, which seems to help the man immensely, bringing him out of his catatonic state.   

Garibaldi gives up and pays the postmaster, before using his bureaucratic knowledge to enact his revenge. He points out that before they broke away from Earth, the central government was paying for the postal employees room and board, and the rent on their office space.  Garibaldi graciously decides to overlook all of that in exchange for getting paid back for his package plus an additional credit.  

David is recovered but decides, thanks to his encounters with G’Kar, to leave and join the Narn resistance.  G’Kar will vouch for him, and he thinks that the man could be helpful.  Franklin is unsure but decides to give his blessing.  After G’Kar and David leave, Marcus emerges claiming to hate goodbyes but wanting to be there.  They discuss the legends some more, and Marcus has some fun with deciding which character would be which Arthurian character, starting with Kosh as Merlin. He continues to pester Franklin, claiming that the doctor is Percival, himself as Galahad,  Sheridan as Arthur, Ivanova as Gwain, and they imply that Garibaldi would be Mordred. 

I really like this one, even if its light tone veers off course for Arthur once we get to his extreme PTSD.  The G’Kar team up is fun, and more importantly I think it helps to flesh out Marcus. Clearly David is seen by Marcus as something of a mirror image, right down to their accents.  You could argue that the only difference between them is that Marcus found a real order of knights to join.  He is just as tormented by survivors’ guilt, and he ran away from his culture and everything he knew to try and outpace it.  As we saw in “Ceremonies of Light and Dark” he is not quite at peace, but having that external validation helped him not to fall as far as David did.

Next week we swing back to the Shadows, and get some more information on what they are up to, as well as getting the delightful treat of a second Bester appearance in one season with “Ship of Tears”.

As always the series is available to stream on Tubi for free, with ads.    

Where do I know them from?

• Michael York as David/Arthur is an easy one.  The man has a tremendous resume but as a millennial I think he is most ingrained for me as Basil Exposition of the Austin Powers films. 
• Michael Kagan as the postmaster has had a long career of one episode appearances in many many shows, but I remember him from his appearance on The West Wing as the FBI director. 

The Good

• King Arthur! Teaming up the G’Kar to fight street criminals! What do you need a roadmap?
• I also like the smaller details of Ivanova and Sheridan trying to keep the mission of Babylon 5 going without Earth.  

The Bad

• The Babylon Treaty plot is not really given much time.
• Garibaldi’s abuse of his cop powers to get his way is not as funny as it used to be.

Arc Points (Spoilers Ahead)

• Sadly we never hear anymore about David and his adventures on Narn. Then again you cant just get Michael York to come back for a quick cameo. 
• Marcus demonstrates his overtly romantic view of the world here, a trait which will continue to get him into trouble. 
• G’Kar helping out David and then accepting him into the resistance could be evidence of his awakening.  In past seasons he really did not spend much time helping non-Narn characters.