Babylon 5: "Endgame"

Babylon 5: "Endgame". Season 4, episode 20 (13 October 1997).[1]

Covered briefly in Frank Garcia's "Babylon 5 Episode Guide," Cinefantastique 31.12/Vol. 32 No. 1 (June 2000): 98-99. See Babylon 5 entry for link to locations on line where the relevant Cinefantastique issues are likely to be archived.

In the Cinefantastique entry, we're told that "[...] Lyta awakens the telepaths" who've been altered and "smuggled onto an Earth fleet" and "triggers their cyberwebs. They disable the 30 [enemy] warships' computers," allowing a relatively bloodless victory. Later note a character's (Marcus's) return to Babylon 5 "with the dying Ivanova. Locating Dr. Rosen's alien healing device, Marcus uses the machine to transfer his life energy to save Ivanova" (p. 98).

The Babylon 5 wiki describes the action of the telepaths in more detail, ending its synopsis of Act II, <bloackquote> Even as explosions rock the spaceport, Sheridan relays a message to Alexander: "Do it." Alexander stands and looks out into space. Her eyes begin to turn black from the intense psychic exertion. Inside, Franklin explains what is happening right now. She is reaching out to the cryo units sent to the destroyers. She is touching each of them, awakening them. Reprogrammed to become the central core of a Shadow vessel, they instinctively get up and move towards a computer interface, so as to merge with it and take control. The insider is shocked at the callous way Franklin describes such horror, but Franklin is only this way because he has surrendered to the inevitable. Without the technology available back home on Earth, there is no hope of removing the Shadow implants, meaning they are as good as dead. By employing them in this way, they can serve in the most humane way possible. By taking over the computers, they can disable up to thirty destroyers without having to kill the crew, and perhaps open the way to free their comrades from their enslavement. Thirty lives to save over thirty thousand.[2]

RDE, finishing, 5Sep22