Elizabeth Lochley

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Elizabeth Lochley
Babylon 5 character

Affiliated with	Babylon 5, Earth Alliance
Race	Human
Home planet	Earth
First appearance	No Compromises
Last appearance	The Rules of the Game
Portrayed by	Tracy Scoggins

Elizabeth Lochley, played by Tracy Scoggins, is a fictional character from the television science fiction dramas Babylon 5 and Crusade. She is a regular in the fifth and last season of Babylon 5, replacing the previous station commander, Susan Ivanova.

Lochley will also feature prominently in the first volume of Babylon 5: The Lost Tales entitled "Voices in the Dark", set to be released on DVD in late 2007.

[edit] Character description

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

At the end of Babylon 5's fourth season, Captain Sheridan is relieved of his command. In early 2262, shortly after the Earth Alliance Civil War, he assigns Lochley as his replacement. Although she chose not to join Sheridan's rebellion against the corrupt government headed by Morgan Clark, he still trusted her judgement and ability.

The show later reveals that Sheridan and Lochley had been married briefly after graduating from EarthForce Academy. While the marriage didn't work out, they still have a mutual respect and appreciation. She proved to be a strong and capable leader, finding solutions to many crises and coping with the ones that had no solutions.

[edit] Early life

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Captain Lochley had a far from idyllic background. Her father had secretly been a talented and passionate painter, however he felt under strong compulsion to join Earthforce. His dislike of military service coupled with his bitter disappointment at not being able to pursue his line of artistry led to Lochley senior becoming an alcoholic. His alcoholism meant that he was unable to manage much of the domestic side of life, leaving his daughter Elizabeth with that responsibility. The young Lochley eventually saught an escape from this burden and her fathers alcoholism by renting accommodation with her friend Zoe. They both quickly slipped into a life of drink and drugs which tragically ended with Zoe choking to death on her own vomit covered in cockroaches in their apartment, only to be discovered later by Lochley. This discovery profoundly shocked her and she vowed to change her life, she joined Earthforce and never imbibed alcohol from that day on. In 2262 when she discovered that due to recent traumas Mr Garibaldi had suffered a relapse back into alcoholism, she told him of her own previous battles, of how alcohol had given herself, her father and Garibaldi an outlet for their difficulties and that he was not alone. She contacted his former lover Lise Edgars - Hampton surreptitiously to come to Babylon 5 in the hopes that he would come to see that confiding in and receiving help from someone he cared about was a much more preferable and practical solution to his woes than an alcohol induced escapism.