Review: Revisiting Babylon 5 Season 5, Episode 16: “And All My Dreams, Torn Asunder”

Written by J. Michael Straczynski Directed by Goran Gajić

In the first half of the final season, much of my frustration was in how the episodes were written. Even J. Michael Straczynski (JMS) had many of the same frustrations. But as the writing snapped back into place for the second half of the season, my frustrations switched from the quality of the writing to the choices of the characters. In other words, we were back to familiar Babylon 5 ground.

Much of my frustration is with Sheridan. And for that matter, I can probably include Delenn, because at this point, the two of them are working closely in tandem. Still, Sheridan is the president of the Interstellar Alliance, so the buck stops there. And yet, he continually shifts blame to others in this episode, particularly towards the end, even though he had plenty of opportunity to make other choices.

Take, for example, how he chooses to play things out with the accusations against the Centauri. The whole council hearing format is a total mess. Either let Londo be in the room, or don’t. The whole notion of giving him the evidence separately from the rest of the council never sat right with me, especially when they hold the most damning evidence until he actually is standing right there, having denied everything. Who thought this was the right way to do things? Especially when they are fairly certain that Londo is not involved?

It goes back to my strong disagreement with the decision to keep Londo in the dark. I understand the point that he was an inadvertent leak to the faction on Centauri Prime that is driving the attacks. I understand the point that if Londo was made aware of the evidence, he would make every effort to figure out what was happening and therefore put his life at risk.

However, I have to point out that once Londo is confronted with the evidence that the Centauri are behind the attacks, he does exactly as predicted. He goes to Centauri Prime to uncover the truth. And knowing that Londo’s life is in danger, G’Kar goes with him once again as bodyguard. So they are in the precise situation that they were supposedly trying to avoid.

So wouldn’t it have made more sense to read Londo into the situation as soon as possible, get his input and involvement, and support his efforts to uncover the truth? Especially since he is an expert on the Centauri, the royal court, and who knows how many other details that the Alliance can only speculate about? Perhaps nothing would have changed, since the Regent and other Centauri “in charge” would make the same demands and choices, but at least Londo wouldn't have been intentionally isolated by his supposed allies.

It feels like there should at least have been some kind of conversation between Sheridan, Delenn, G’Kar, and Londo when all was said and done. Or even between Londo and G’Kar. Just a moment taken to explain to Londo what they were thinking and why they basically ambushed him. One might assume he and G’Kar discussed this at some point on their journey to Centauri Prime, because otherwise they should have been on much worse terms. Keeping in mind that the Centauri accused the Narn of staging the attacks, so one would think there would be some issues to address.

There’s also Sheridan’s decision to put a vital Ranger mission in the hands of Garibaldi. Let’s set aside that Garibaldi has been acting strange lately, from the perspective of his friends, even if most of them aren’t aware that he’s off the wagon. Why wouldn’t this vital mission go through Delenn? Or, since he’s already on the station and included in the situation, Lennier? Putting Garibaldi on the task seems out of place. At the very least, for something so important, one would expect a little more redundancy.

And yet…would it have truly made much of a difference? It was, at best, a delaying tactic. And it also assumed that the Centauri would actually cooperate. Given the fact that the Centauri are the clear aggressors in the situation, sooner or later, it was going to come down to a declaration of war.

Yet in the end, Sheridan refuses to take any responsibility for letting the situation get to this point. To be fair, many of the circumstances were out of anyone’s control, because the Drakh are actively working to ensure the maximum damage to the Alliance. But even so, Sheridan blames the Alliance worlds for not being more patient or peace-minded. Even knowing that something going on with the Centauri is truly the cause, he blows up at the Alliance ambassadors. It’s exactly the wrong message to the wrong people.

It continues the process of demonstrating how managing the Alliance is a work in progress. Would things have gone more easily without the outside interference of the Drakh? Perhaps. Which is why I always come back to the decision to keep Londo out of the loop. Would Londo have found information that would have revealed the Drakh threat earlier? We will never know. (Of course, the Drakh being a secret threat is also necessary for the setup of Crusade, so there’s that.)

There are some other aspects of the episode worth noting. The scene between Garibaldi and Zach is a particularly difficult one to watch now, in retrospect. It holds a lot of meaning in terms of the Babylon 5 world, of course, but it also had another purpose. JMS knew that Jeff Conaway was struggling with addiction again during the production of the fifth season, and he purposefully gave Zach those scenes with Garibaldi as a wake-up call. It’s poignant to watch those scenes now, realizing what was going on behind the scenes. (Much of this is documented in JMS’ autobiography.)

If there is a scene that I think doesn’t quite belong, it’s when Franklin escorts Vir to a presumably more safe location. They are ambushed by some Brakiri, and Franklin actually plays Action Hero in the process of getting Vir out of the situation. It’s frankly ludicrous, because Franklin is exactly the wrong person for this. It would have made far more sense to have Lennier or, even better, a small group of Rangers or station security to do the job.

Ultimately, I think this episode is frustrating because it’s meant to be frustrating. We’re meant to see all the ways that war might have been avoided, and all the reasons why it probably would have happened regardless. We’re meant to disagree with much of what the characters do. And in the midst of it all, we’re meant to overlook that this is the first of the remaining major characters to leave Babylon 5 for the final time. It is, in fact, the beginning of the end.