Our Throwback Thursday post takes us back to the space station of humans and aliens all alone in the night. There’s quite a bit of world building in both “The Parliament of Dreams” and “Mind War,” and the episodes are connected though the presence of a new character in Commander Jeffrey Sinclair‘s (Michael O’Hare) old flame independent planetary surveyor Catherine Sakai (Julia Nickson). A third of “The Parliament of Dreams” deals with the commander renewing acquaintances while other subplots involve a sharing of religions by various alien factions, and an assassination attempt on G’Kar (Andreas Katsulas) by an old rival.
Catherine returns in “Mind War” choosing to investigate a dangerous part of space against the recommendations of G’Kar. After ignoring his warning, Catherine learns a valuable lesson about the ambassador and his attempt to teach her that none of the humans or aliens on Babylon 5 are exactly who they appear to be. This is the beginning of a long series shift involving the transformation of many characters over the course of the series. Initially shown as a revenge-obsessed warrior, G’Kar’s path will lead him somewhere unexpected by the end of the series. The same can be said of the clownish Londo Mollari (Peter Jurasik) whose choices will lead not only himself but the entire galaxy down a dark path.
The other storyline of “Time War” involves the arrival of rogue telepath Jason Ironheart (William Allen Young) on the station who is fleeing from the Psi Corps whose experiments on him have evolved him into something more than human. Along with fleshing out Talia (Andrea Thompson) a bit, and introducing the character of Bester (Walter Koenig), the storyline explores just what the PsiCore is and why Psi Cops like Bester are dangerous to have around. Although not explored fully over the course of the series, his gift to Talia does foreshadow changes for her character as well.