Intersections in Real Time

“Intersections in Real Time”
Babylon 5 episode

Episode no.	Season 4 Episode 18
Guest stars	Raye Birk (William) Wayne Alexander (Drazi) Bruce Gray (Interrogator)
Written by	J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by	John LaFia
Production no.	418
Original airdate	16 June 1997
Episode chronology
← Previous	Next →
"The Face of the Enemy"	"Between the Darkness and the Light"
List of Babylon 5 episodes

"Intersections in Real Time" is an episode from the fourth season of the science-fiction television series Babylon 5.

[edit] Plot synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Sheridan is interrogated by an Earth Alliance agent.

Sheridan is still a captive, being methodically and ruthlessly interrogated by Clark's people.

Wayne Alexander, who plays the Drazi, also played Lorien in the first few episodes of season four.

Although it has been claimed that this episode was inspired by the series The Prisoner, and many other sources, J. Michael Straczynski has explicitly denied drawing inspiration from any other source, other than the simple truth of how interrogations have taken place in totalitarian states.

This episode is very similar to the dungeons in the Ministry of Love from the novel 1984. In 1984 prisoners are kept in cells without windows and are subjected to torture used to break down their psyche and brainwash them into love for the party and confessing to crimes against the state. Sheridan is tortured to sign a confession of crimes against EarthGov and to embrace President Clark's regime. Room 17 is similar to 1984's Room 101 where prisoners are taken to meet their worst fears. In room 17 Sheridan is hooked to a machine that makes him believe he is back on Babylon 5. Additionally the interrogator who questions Sheridan reveals that after he signs the confession Sheridan will be set free, and after he is forgotten he will be killed silently. The same thing happens to everyone who is released from the Ministry of Love in 1984. This is to prevent them becoming martyrs.