Why did the Minbari surrender at the Battle of the Line, on the very eve of victory? The answer would change the galaxy forever.
Babylon 5: In the Beginning
Babylon 5: The Gathering
[The opening monologue to the episode, done in voiceover. This is the special edition version; for continuity purposes, two lines were removed from the original.]
I was there at the dawn of the Third Age of Mankind. It began in the Earth year 2257, with the founding of the last of the Babylon stations, located deep in neutral space. It was a port of call for refugees, smugglers, businessmen, diplomats and travelers from a hundred worlds. It could be a dangerous place, but we accepted the risk because Babylon 5 was our last, best hope for peace. Babylon 5 was a dream given form, a dream of a galaxy without war where species from different worlds could live side by side in mutual respect. Babylon 5 was the last of the Babylon stations. This is its story.
[to a man with a very attractive looking alien woman] I wouldn't. You know the rules about crossing species. Stick with the list.
MMan
What are you, a bigot or something?
No. But obviously you've never met an Arnassian before. After they finish, they eat their mate.
Do you not have files on the Vorlons?
Absolutely. Very large files. There's nothing in them, of course. How much do you have?
More than you, it would seem. Naturally, it's all classified.
Naturally.
[producing a data card] Here is a copy of everything I have. It may be of use. If anyone asks...say it fell from the sky. I imagine I will be quite astonished by this breach of security.
You're a security chief. Shouldn't you be out...securing something?
I am. I'm securing you.
I suppose there'll be a war now, hm? All that running around and shooting one another. You'd think that sooner or later, it would go out of fashion.
There was a time when this whole quadrant belonged to us! What are we now? Twelve worlds and a thousand monuments to past glories, living off memories and stories...selling trinkets! My god, man, we've become a tourist attraction! "See the great Centauri Republic, open nine to five...Earth time!"
[Sinclair is recalling his experience at the Battle of the Line.]
I was squad team leader when the call came in. We all knew it was a suicide mission. The Minbari had broken through and were closing in. Every ship we had left was ordered to circle Earth. We had to stop them, no matter what it cost. They came at us out of nowhere. We never had a chance. The sky was full of stars, and every star an exploding ship--one of ours. My team was blown out of the sky in less than a minute.
CSCarolyn Sykes
I'm sorry.
I managed to take out a fighter before they hit my stabilizers. I was losing power, I'd lost my team. And I figured if I was going to die, I'd take some of them with me. So I targeted one of their heavy cruisers. Hit my afterburners. I was going to ram them head-on. The last thing I remember is hurtling toward that cruiser. Filling my screen, big...my God, so big! Then...something...passed in front of my eyes. I guess I blacked out from the acceleration. When I came to twenty-four hours later, the cruiser was gone. I checked in. They told me the war was over. The Minbari had surrendered.
CSCarolyn Sykes
Because of the Line!
No, that's what I'm trying to tell you. We were beaten. We didn't stop them, they stopped themselves! And I wish to hell I knew why.
MMinbari
[to Sinclair] There is a hole in your mind.
[after Sinclair narrowly escapes death]
You're all right? Do you need anything?
Coffee. Two sugars. Cream. And aspirin. Lots and lots of aspirin!
LTLaurel Takashima
So, Doctor, just what did you see when you looked inside that (Vorlon's) suit?
BKDr. Benjamin Kyle
There are moments in your life when everything crystallizes...and the whole world reshapes itself, right down to its component molecules. And everything changes. I have looked upon the face of a Vorlon, Laurel, and nothing is the same anymore!
Think they'll ever find that transmitter you slipped G'Kar?
No. because there isn't one.
There isn't? Wait--
I lied. I figured if there were a transmitter, sooner or later they'd find it and remove it. But if I just told them there was, they'd keep looking. Indefinitely.
Commander, do you have any idea of the tests they'll put him through, the things they'll do to him trying to find a transmitter that's not there?
Yes.
There is something I've been wondering. Why Babylon 5? If the prior four stations were lost or destroyed, why build another?
Plain old human stubbornness, I guess. When something we value is destroyed, we rebuild it. If it's destroyed again, we rebuild it again. And again, and again, and...again, until it stays. That, as our poet Tennyson once said, is the goal: "To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."
A poet?
Someone who writes poems. [She gives him a confused look.] A poem. A story in meter or rhyme.
[smiling] Ah! "There once was a man from Nantucket."
[chuckles] You've been talking to Garibaldi again, haven't you?
Yes. How did you know?
[smiling] Oh, just a wild guess.
[last lines of the episode]
LTLaurel Takashima
This is Lieutenant Commander Laurel Takashima. Our docking bays stand ready to receive you. Babylon 5 is open for business!
Babylon 5: Thirdspace
[Delenn and Sheridan are in his office, discussing the massive and mysterious artifact]
May I assume that this has nothing to do with you wanting to be the first to unlock whatever secrets this thing brings with it?
Me? When have you ever known me to have a personal agenda?
John, whenever something comes into our proximity that has to do with the unknown, your eyes light up like two tiny suns. And do you know what words these two tiny lights spell out?
What?
Mine! Mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine!
Oh, now that is a lie!
Minbari do not lie.
Well then it is slander.
To be slander, it must be false. That's two down.
Well, then it's...it's damned inconvenient.
The truth always is.
[she kisses him and leaves; he turns on a monitor and looks at the artifact]
Besides...it is mine.
These quotes come from Wikiquote's Babylon 5 pages and are available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.